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Earnings highlights: AutoZone, Carnival, CarMax, ConAgra, General Mills, RIM ...

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: AutoZone, Carnival, CarMax, ConAgra, General Mills, RIM ...

Red Hat up big on Q2 numbers -- should you take profits?

Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), a software business whose colleagues include Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), reported Q2 numbers yesterday after the bell. Today, shares are up quite spectacularly. What's driving all the buying interest?

Well, the results were worthy of praise. Net sales increased 12%. Subscriptions were higher by 15%. Adjusted income, including the elimination of a tax benefit from the total, was 16 cents per share. According to Earnings.com, the market was looking for 15 cents per share. So, we've got the typical beat-by-a-proverbial-penny situation on our hands. I'd rather it be more than a penny, but I'll take it.

Continue reading Red Hat up big on Q2 numbers -- should you take profits?

Earnings highlights: Nike, Oracle, Kroger, Walgreen, Monsanto, KB Home ...

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Nike, Oracle, Kroger, Walgreen, Monsanto, KB Home ...

Red Hat sees green in the latest quarter

It's far from easy selling enterprise software today. But some companies are finding ways to grow. Just look at Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), which is a leader in open source solutions.

The company's applications, which help to reduce costs and increase productivity, have shown lots of resilience during the recession. For example, according to Red Hat's latest earnings report, the top 25 deals that were up for renewal got renewed. Actually, theses customers increased the commitments by 120%.

Continue reading Red Hat sees green in the latest quarter

The week in preview: Pre-holiday reports

There's not a whole lot on the economic calendar this coming week, as Thursday is Christmas day. But things are not entirely silent either.

As this is Christmas card season, it's somehow appropriate that American Greetings Corp. (NYSE: AM) is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the nation's number two producer of greeting cards to report earnings of $0.52 per share, essentially the same as a year ago. Estimated revenue for the quarter is $474.5 million, down 2.3% from a year ago. American Greetings missed analysts' estimates in three of the past four quarters -- by 55.4% in the first quarter. After falling to a multiyear low of $7.85 per share in late November, the price closed Friday at $9.92. But the share price is 53.8% lower than a year ago.

Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG), where one may find American Greetings cards, is expected to also report earnings the same as a year ago, or $0.46 per share, on revenue of $15.1 billion (+7.5%). Walgreen reported a modest increase in sales in October and again in November. The company only missed profit estimates in one of the past four quarters, and that by only a penny. The consensus recommendation remains to buy WAG, which has a long-term EPS growth rate forecast of 12.5%, better than the S&P 500 but less than that of rival CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS). Walgreen's share price has been creeping upward since reaching a multiyear low of $21.28 in October and closed Friday at $26.08. (For more on Walgreen, see Steven Mallas's earnings preview.)

Continue reading The week in preview: Pre-holiday reports

Earnings highlights: Sears, GE, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Staples and others

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Sears, GE, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Staples and others

Earnings highlights: RIM, Oracle, KB Home, Nike, Kroger, Walgreen and others

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: RIM, Oracle, KB Home, Nike, Kroger, Walgreen and others

Techs -- you haven't seen the bottom yet

Minyanville Professor Adam Katz dares to share the kind of keen insight and actionable information you won't find in any prospectus. For more original thought, visit www.minyanville.com.

I've said it before: the second quarter is going to be the inverse of the first. Expectations going in were simply too high.

What I find interesting is that Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) have all taken down guidance due to the sluggishness they're starting to see in their businesses.

What the Street seems to be ignoring is that the dollar has been crushed for over a year now, which means that the currency tailwind is only getting weaker as the year drags on. If one uses $1.55 euro per dollar as a benchmark, the second-quarter effect was a 14% year-over-year currency tailwind.

In the third quarter, that drops to 10%; in the fourth, it will drop to 5%. Add in macroeconomic headwinds -- along with the fact that credit markets have been pushed back into a state of mild panic -- and it's a surefire recipe for a very tumultuous back half of the year.

I'm looking hard for reasons to be optimistic, but they seem to be thin on the ground. In the information technology (IT) sector, at least, we'll likely see a meaningful budget flush at the end of the year - if only because they'll be cut in a big way starting in 2009. This means that IT managers, if they even think they might need anything over the next year or so, need to use or lose whatever's left in their 2008 budgets come the fourth quarter.

This will create an environment where people will be calling the bottom for IT in the fourth quarter - but it's more likely to be the last hurrah before the bottom drops out.

Position in RHT

More Wednesday earnings: Nike, CKE, Red Hat, General Mills, Bed Bath & Beyond

Here's a quick recap of some additional earnings reports on Wednesday.

Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) said strong growth overseas helped boost its fourth-quarter profit by 12% to $490.5 million, or 98 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected the company to earn 96 cents per share for the quarter. Shares fell more than 5% in after-hours trading to $62.15.

CKE Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: CKR) said its first-quarter profit climbed 8% to $16.6 million, or 31 cents per share, helped by a small increase in same-store sales at Carl's Jr. restaurants. Revenue fell 3% to $466.2 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 27 cents per share on revenue of $465.5 million. Shares fell 5 cents to $12.25 in after-hours trading.

Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) said its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 6.6% to $17.3 million, or 8 cents per share. Adjusted earnings were 18 cents per share. Revenue rose 32% to $156.6 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial on average predicted a profit of 18 cents per share on revenue of $153 million. Shares fell 19 cents in after-hours trading to $22.11.

General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS) said its fourth-quarter profit dropped 17% to $185.2 million, or 53 cents per share. Adjusted earnings were 73 cents per share, which met Wall Street expectations. Sales increased 13% to $3.47 billion beating expectations. The company reaffirmed its guidance for the full year. Shares fell almost 2% to $61.19.

Continue reading More Wednesday earnings: Nike, CKE, Red Hat, General Mills, Bed Bath & Beyond

Interview: Open source grabs more and more funding

Open source software continues its torrid pace. In fact, according to a report from the 451 Group, the sector saw its biggest quarter for venture funding -- hitting $203.75 million, which is up from $100.4 million in the same period a year ago.

Why the interest? Well, I had a chance to interview Matthew Aslett, who is an analyst of enterprise software at the 451 Group:

Your take on the focus on open source?

VCs are interested in open source vendors because the open source development and distribution models reduce start-up costs and lower the barriers to entry. Some VCs have also cited increased code quality as a reason for investing in open source as the model enables a broader range of product testing and rapid innovation. There are a number of VCs that are sold on the open source model, and some have even stated that they would only consider investing in a software vendor if it was using and producing open source. Open source vendor revenues are lower than more established traditional rivals today, but most vendors are still in their infancy. Recent mergers and acquisitions involving open source vendors such as Zimbra, JBoss and MySQL have proved that the returns are there and are likely to encourage more VCs to look favorably on open source.

Continue reading Interview: Open source grabs more and more funding

Earnings highlights: UBS, Best Buy, RIM, Monsanto, Family Dollar and others

As one quarter rolls over into the next, here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Also, prospects look grim for some newspapers. The financial crisis in the U.S. prompted the IMF to cut its global growth forecast.

Upcoming results to watch for include Alcoa (NYSE: AA), Circuit City Stores (NYSE: CC), Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY), and General Electric (NYSE: GE).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Red Hat sees some green

There's much concern in the information technology (IT) world. Might companies cut back on spending in light of the slowing economy?

Well, as for Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the environment seems to be OK. For example, in Q4, the company posted a 27% increase in revenues to $141.5 million. What's more, bookings are bulging (above $200 million).

While RedHat has a strong business with its Linux offerings, the company is also seeing lots of traction with its middleware platform, known as JBoss. Interestingly enough, with Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) buyout of BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS), there's been a surge in downloads of JBoss. Basically, customers want an alternative.

Going forward, Red Hat forecasts revenues of $665 million to $680 for the upcoming year. Earnings are expected to range from $0.78 to $0.82 per share.

And Red Hat recently purchased Amentra, which is a systems services company. Basically, the deal will allow Red Hat to continue to turbocharge its sales of JBoss.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Google tops Forbes list of fastest growing tech stocks

Last week Forbes released its annual list of the fastest growing tech stocks, and it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) topped the list, with nearly $15 billion in sales, representing five-year sales growth of 155%, and 30% EPS growth. To make the list, companies had to have significant sales growth over the past year and five years, as well as a good earnings forecast for the next three to five years. Companies with significant legal problems or corporate governance issues were excluded.

Rounding out the top five were Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Ceradyne Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDN), Euronet Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: EEFT), and FalconStor Software Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC). Some other familiar names that made the list this year include Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT), L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL), Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), and Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ: CTSH). Cognizant has been on Forbes list since its inauguration six years ago. For the full list, see the Forbes article.

Also of interest was the Forbes Fast 15, companies that didn't make the list mentioned above, but which Forbes thought were worth keeping an eye on for their potential. Engineering software maker Ansys Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS), semiconductor maker Atheros Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHR), Brubaker BioSciences Corp. (NASDAQ: BRKR), and scoreboard maker Daktronics Inc. (NASDAQ: DAKT) top that list. For the full list, see the Forbes article.

So if, like Aaron Katsman, Georges Yared, and Jim Cramer, you are bullish on tech stocks, then there's plenty on the Forbes lists worth taking a look at.

Red Hat (RHT) in bullish 'flag' pattern

Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) provides customers with the Linux open source computer operating system. It also provides a variety of compatible technical programs, software development tools, support services and training programs. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), with its Windows operating system, is Red Hat's chief competitor. The firm operates strategic alliances with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD).

Red Hat pleased investors earlier in the month, when it reported fiscal Q3 EPS of 19 cents and revenues of $135.4 million. Analysts had been expecting 18 cents and $132.4 million. A sharp jump in subscriptions more than offset increased operating expenses. Management also provided strong guidance for Q4/FY08 and announced that former Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL) COO James Whitehurst would take over as CEO on January 1. RHT shares popped on the news and then moved into a bullish "flag" consolidation pattern. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Brokers recommend the shares with one "strong buy", six "buys," fourteen "holds" and one "sell." Analysts see a 23% average annual growth rate, through the next five years. The RHT Price to Book ratio (4.27), Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (26.28), Sales Growth rate (27.98%) and EPS Growth rate (171.43%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions own about 95% of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the AMEX Internet Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $18.04 and $25.25. A stop-loss of $18.15 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com. He does not hold positions in any of the stocks mentioned above.

Earnings highlights: Financials, techs, retailers, and more

As the holidays loom, not to mention the end of the quarter, here are some highlights of this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Financials, techs, retailers, and more

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Last updated: November 24, 2009: 12:50 PM

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