Continue reading Democrats win, and owners of defense stocks begin to tremble

Democrats win, and owners of defense stocks begin to tremble originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Time may be on Boeing's side after Pentagon delays tanker contest

Time may be on Boeing's side after Pentagon delays tanker contest originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

BusinessWeek reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to make an announcement today about whether the Air Force will reopen the bidding for the $35 billion tanker program. Boeing Inc. (NYSE: BA) thought it had a lock on it but earlier in the year, the Air Force awarded the contract to EADS, parent of Airbus, and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC). Boeing protested and last month, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that the award process was flawed.

That should come as no surprise. After all, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was pushing for the European company to win the competition -- possibly since his then national finance chairman lobbied for that company. One of the sources I spoke with said that people suspect McCain arranged for a change in Tanker specifications to tilt the playing field in favor of EADS. This source also said that the Air Force neglected to notify Boeing of the change. Evidently, the GAO agreed that something was fishy here. It would be at least the fifth time that McCain had been influenced by lobbyists.

Now attention turns to Gates and Congress which hosts a battle between Senators from Washington, where Boeing has operations, and Alabama, where Northrop employs workers. BusinessWeek quotes Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who introduced a Senate resolution on July 8, calling on the Pentagon to rebid the flawed tanker contract, as saying: "The GAO's decision was clear, and today we are reiterating that message so that the Pentagon knows there is no wiggle room. It's time to go back and hold a truly transparent competition that does our war fighters and taxpayers justice."

Continue reading Will Boeing win the $35 billion tanker competition?

Will Boeing win the $35 billion tanker competition? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Boeing's (NYSE: BA) shares were virtually unchanged on the news in Wednesday mid-day trading, gaining eight cents to $74.43. Northrop Grumman rose $1.03 to $72.09 and EADS fell 46 euro cents to 13.57 euros on the Paris Exchange.

Continue reading Boeing says tanker program at risk if it loses appeal of USAF decision

Boeing says tanker program at risk if it loses appeal of USAF decision originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Boeing, Textron secure $10.4 billion V-22 Osprey U.S. DOD contract originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Northrop Grumman (NASDAQ: NOC) is recently up 72 cents to $80.16.

The Pentagon is expected to announce a deal valued up to $40 billion to replace 179 planes in its fleet of aerial refueling tankers on February 28 or 29. Cowen says, "Boeing's (NYSE: BA) 767 tanker is apt to be politically favored over the NOC/EADS A330." NOC March option implied volatility of 21 is below its 26-week average of 23 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price risk.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Option update: Northrop Grumman volatility low into Pentagon decision on aerial tankers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Bush announces new $3.1 trillion budget plan

Bush announces new $3.1 trillion budget plan originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It' s not everyday that investors are presented with a growth opportunity, supplemented by more-than-modest downside protection, but that's the case with General Dynamics.

General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) is a diversified manufacturer of corporate jets and heavy vehicles, and is the second largest military shipbuilder -- specializing in nuclear-class submarines.

Along with consistent earnings and dividend growth, analysts like GD's platform diversity, with civilian work (Gulfstream corporate jets) complementing defense contract work (Trident submarines, armored vehicles). Analysts expect GD's revenue to increase about 10-13% in 2007, and 9-11% in 2008.

Moreover, GD's shares offer a measure of safety in that the submarine portion of the U.S. defense system is the force projection most likely to continue to be funded by Congress. Along with stealth fighters/bombers, submarines are the least-detectable form of military operations.

Long term, analysts generally see growth in GD's sales of business jets, land vehicles and munitions. Cost containment has been adequate. The Reuters F2007/F2008 EPS consensus estimates for GD are $5.07/$5.71.

The qualifiers? A reduction in U.S. Department of Defense appropriations would hurt GD's results, as would a failure to deliver existing work on time.

The First Call mean rating for GD is: Buy. [19 firms.] Mean 2008 target: $99.00. [high: $106, low: $94.]

Stock Analysis: General Dynamics is a moderate-risk stock not suitable for low-risk investors. Investors with an investment horizon longer than two years should be rewarded from GD's shares. Sell / Stop Loss if you were to purchase shares in this company: $62.

With General Dynamics, the goal is run silent, run deep originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Remember when Boeing was a laughingstock? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan risk their lives everyday for the United States. The least the Department of Defense can give them is access to News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace and Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube and similar Web sites.

According to a Department memo obtained by the Associated Press, the military argued:"This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge."

The ban, which takes effect Monday, applies to all troops serving overseas.

It's ridiculous.

First of all, the military networks are gigantic enough to be able to handle the bandwidth being used by members of the Armed forces chatting with their friends on MySpace or watching YouTube video clips. I bet that a team of smart people could figure out a way to prevent classified information from showing up on these sites.

Maybe people in the War Zone could give out their screen names to their commanding officers. If the Pentagon can figure out how to shoot down incoming nuclear missiles, it certainly can figure out how to solve this problem.

Moreover, denying soldiers a cheap, easy and fairly safe form of entertainment seems petty. Then again, the men and women serving overseas put up with quite a bit.

Many probably are too busy to spend much time surfing the Internet.

Denying troops MySpace, YouTube is stupid originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 14 May 2007 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW) had a mixed bag of news recently. According to research firms Gartner and IDC, its server sales were up sharply in the third quarter cementing it place as the No. 4 provider [subscription required] behind International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ).

However, in Sun's bid to be part of the Pentagon's new initiative to build out its supercomputer capacity, the company rolled snake eyes. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded $500 million worth of contracts to IBM and Cray, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRAY). The plan is to build a supercomuter that is several times faster than the most advanced products available today.

Cray is a much smaller company than Sun. Its market capitalization is only $250 million. Cray's revenues last year were only $200 million.

For Sun, that has to hurt.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

The Pentagon shoots down Sun originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner closed at $16.42, down .01 at end of regular trading, but up .08 in after hours trading. The stock ended the week exactly where it began: $16.50.

This flat result came despite the fact that Time Warner announced several important strategies for the immediate future of AOL Video as a premier video search and view destination. Viewers will be able to access a virtually limitless array of amateur videos and video clips, as well as hundreds of hours of TV programming on demand. Additionally, AOL will offer downloadable movies on demand from 20th Century Fox, Sony, NBC Universal, and Time Warner's own Warner Brothers. Time Warner beat both Apple Computer Inc. and Amazon.com to the punch for video accessibility. Yet investors continue to flame Time Warne's efforts while Apple's lithium-ion battery powered notebooks are the fire hazard.

Time Warner unit CNN announced that on the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it will make available free of charge replays of its coverage of events on September 11, 2001. CNN Pipeline will provide live coverage of memorial services at Ground Zero in NYC and DC. Viewers can also access the replay feed of 9/11/2001 from 8:30 A.M. until midnight. For those still unable to watch events of 9/11/2001, CNN will also have a number of interactive but less graphic elements on its site.

Time Warner Weekly Wrap Up originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 26 Aug 2006 21:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.