Stocks suffered a scary drop on Friday. It was fitting, in a sense, since it was the day before Halloween. In fact, as this Closing Bell piece noted, there were more tricks than treats to be had on Wall Street.

There are always equities bucking the trend, however. The Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE: EL) was one of them. Bullish buyers loved the beauty company's fiscal Q1 earnings release. As has been the case with many reports, the top line wasn't the fun part of the document: Estee Lauder saw a decrease of 2.7% for adjusted revenues. Here's the item of interest: net income after charges was 85 cents per share, more than three times what was made in the comparable frame.

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

• Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) said its profit fell due to higher expenses and warned the trend may continue.
• Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) topped Q2 earnings expectations, which sent shares higher.
• ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) lower Q2 earnings topped expectations, but revenue was also down.
• DreamWorks Animation Inc. (NYSE: DWA) posted flat Q2 earnings as it waits for the next big DVD release.
• First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) posted a better-than-expected profit but guidance sent shares lower.
• Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) Q3 revenue missed estimates and it lowered its outlook.

Revlon, Inc. (NYSE: REV) is, simply put, not one of my favorite investment ideas. However, the market seems to think that the company's second-quarter report is nothing less than beautiful. As I write this, shares are rallying almost 8% (although volume isn't that great, to be honest).

I don't know, I just don't see it. Sales declined over 12%. What's that, you want to strip out currency effects? Okay: sales went down over 7% on that basis. Net income on a reported basis was nothing, 0 cents per share. There were, however, 36 cents of charges on the books. According to Earnings.com, Revlon was expected to lose around 8 cents per share. Another source says that 25 cents before special items was the number to hit. No matter how you slice it, I think we can say that management delivered a significant beat today.

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

• Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) Q1 profit fell despite strong sales of Plavix and Abilify.
• Check Point Software Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was downgraded based on its guidance.
• Domino's Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) strong Q1 results were boosted by early debt retirement.
• DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA) strong Q1 results were driven by Madagascar 2.
• Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ENDP) Q1 results led to an analyst's downgrade.
• E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) widened its Q1 loss, sending shares sharply lower.

Revlon (NYSE: REV), a beauty company that counts Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) and The Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE: EL) as colleagues, reported Q1 earnings earlier in the week. I have to admit, I have been bearish on this company for a long time. I still am. I just don't think this stock is a sound place for your portfolio dollars, even though the company did post a much more beauteous profit picture.

Sales decreased a little, but if you exclude currency effects, they rose a weak 3.8%. More impressively, Revlon said that it earned $0.25 per share. That's compared to a net loss of $0.05 per share in the year-ago period. Okay, I concede, that was a pretty good performance. It was partly driven by lower interest expenses and a benefit derived from the repurchase of some senior notes. Free cash flow also saw a gain.

Avon's (NYSE: AVP) stock is up well over 9% as I write this. The market liked the Q4 report. Which is interesting, since the beauty company, whose competitors include Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Revlon (NYSE: REV), actually missed estimates.

That's always confusing, isn't it? Net sales dropped 9% to $2.8 billion, and earnings per share rose 80% to $0.54. The call, according to The Week in Preview piece, was for a top line of $2.9 billion and a bottom line of $0.59 per share.

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

• Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) beat Q3 profit expectations and announced share buybacks.
• Ambac Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: ABK) Q3 net loss widened for various reasons, sending its shares lower.
• Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) earnings prospects could benefit from difficulties at Circuit City (NYSE: CC).
• Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) reported a smaller-than-expected Q3 loss and same-store sales up a bit.
• Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) earnings were essentially flat and revenue rose marginally.
• Fluor Corp. (NYSE: FLR) better-than-expected Q3 earnings sent its shares soaring.
• General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) delayed its Q3 report and briefly halted trading of its stock.
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) Q3 earnings easilly topped analysts' expectations.
• Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL) Q3 results soared due to Iron Man and Incredible Hulk.
• MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) greater-than-expected Q3 loss was due in part to residential mortgage exposure.
• News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) fell short of Q1 estimates and warned of the coming slowdown.
• Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) beat analysts' Q4 expectations but lowered its guidance.
• Revlon Inc. (NYSE: REV) reported unimpressive Q3 results, though the cash-flow statement was decent.
• Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) reported strong Q3 results but lowered its full-year outlook (see transcript).
• Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) Q3 profits slipped but it beat Wall Street expectations by a penny.
• Whole Foods Market Inc. (NYSE: WFMI) lowered full-year forecast garnered interest from private equity.

Also, our Obama Picks include companies whose earnings could benefit from the outcome of the presidential election.

For more earnings highlights from this week, see Ford, Toyota, Goldman Sachs, Disney, Sprint, ADM and others.

Upcoming quarterly reports include AIG (NYSE: AIG), Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), Tyson (NYSE: TSN), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), Macy's (NYSE: M), Dr Pepper (NYSE: DPS), Kohl's (NYSE: KSS), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), JCPenney (NYSE: JCP).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Ah, my old buddy Revlon, Inc (NYSE: REV)! Actually, that exclamatory statement is full of sarcasm. Revlon, a beauty-products business whose colleagues include Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP) and The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL), is not a buddy of mine. It is a stock that I really have no intention of buying. The company isn't exactly the most attractive one out there at the moment in terms of fundamentals, but it did have a decent cash-flow statement in the third quarter. Let's check out some numbers.

To begin with, revenues didn't see much growth, as they rose about 1%. Reported net income was $0.57 per diluted share versus a net loss of $0.20 per diluted share in the year-ago period. Unfortunately, that doesn't tell the whole tale. You have to strip out a one-time gain from discontinued operations to get the full story. And you're not going to like it once you do. So, the loss from continuing operations becomes $0.30 per diluted share, which was $0.06 wider than the loss in Q3 2007. Yet, the cash-flow statement does offer a bright spot. Positive operational cash flow of almost $44 million was booked over the last nine months. Last year, Revlon used almost $50 million to fund operations over the nine-month period. Some changes in working capital helped out.

Well, even with the better cash-flow scenario, no, I'm not buying the stock. Revlon is still, in my opinion, a long way off from becoming a great investment idea. I'll need to see more robust growth in the top line and a better profit picture. Sure, for the nine-month period, Revlon did generate a profit of $0.04 per diluted share, but I'm still not convinced. As of this writing, the stock was down 23%. I know it's a bad day in the markets and all, but I wouldn't want to align myself with a company that sees that kind of reaction to earnings. Such a pullback doesn't scream value to me when it comes to Revlon.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL), whose colleagues include Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) and Revlon (NYSE: REV), ended the week on a great note. The stock rallied to a new 52-week high of $52.04 on Friday during the intraday session, and closed only several cents below that price at the end of the day. The catalyst for this stellar stock performance can be traced to the beauty company's earnings report, which was released earlier in the week.

According to SmartMoney, Estee Lauder saw top-line growth of 14% during the company's fiscal fourth quarter, with revenues coming in at roughly $2 billion. The bottom line increased 36% to $0.61 per share. Wall Street was only counting on $0.56 per share. So that's a nice $0.05 per share beat. The revenue number also went beyond expectations.

I like the results, and I like that Estee Lauder has been a particularly strong stock. According to the AOL Finance snapshot taken at the time of this writing, the stock has been up for every time frame (1-month, 1-year, etc.). Putting this fact together with the fundamental results of the quarter yields a situation that should be looked at. I don't like that gross margins declined, but I do find the stock appealing considering how bad the market has been.

Household and personal care products manufacturer Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ: HELE) posted record 1Q sales and earnings up 29%. Great news, until one reads these earnings exclude "significant items" such as $7.6 million in write-down of intangible assets, and $2.5 million bad debt charge for a customer bankruptcy. Take $10+ million off the top and the results, thought still favorable, are considerably less impressive. The company did set 1Q sales, up 3.4% overall, driven primarily by a 15% increase in sales in the Household Products segment which includes OXO and Dr. Scholl's brands. Sales in the Personal Care segment, which includes Vidal Sassoon, Brut and Revlon, were flat. Operating income and gross margins are headed up. Administrative expenses and inventory levels are headed down, all good news.

If all the "significant items" are out in the open and have been taken out of earnings, Helen of Troy is worth some due diligence. The stock currently trades under $19, up from its 52-week low of $14.56.

Avon (NYSE: AVP) delivered not a bag of cosmetics to Wall Street, but a batch of growing earnings. Total revenues for the first quarter were up beautifully, rising 14% to $2.5 billion. Earnings per diluted share likewise did the double-digit-increase dance, rocketing 26% to $0.43.

Now, I would have liked the report a lot more if the company had indicated in its cash flow statement that everything was positive -- unfortunately, that was not to be, as operational cash flow was, in fact, negative. Avon needed to use $41 million for its operating activities during the quarter. Well, one thing I can say is that it's a lot less than the cash needed to fund last year's operations -- Avon burned through over $160 million in the comparable period. A check of the latest 10K shows that, while operational cash flow has been decreasing over the last few years, it has remained positive, so since this is the first quarter of the new fiscal year, we can wait to see how cash flow shapes up as the quarters go by.

Avon competes with companies like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Revlon (NYSE: REV) and Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL). As I've stated in the past, Procter & Gamble is more my kind of consumer-products business, but I'll give Avon its due since it does have a good product portfolio backing its brand and a devoted base of users. The stock is not too far off from its 52-week high as of this writing, and so long as it can keep sales growing and fight inflationary pressures, it should be a decent long-term bet.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Revlon (NYSE: REV) issued a press release concerning its plans for a reverse split as well as some preliminary quarterly results. The reverse split will be based on a 1-for-10 ratio. Well, the company may increase the share price via this method, but it won't make much of a difference in terms of Revlon's potential as an investment.

The stock closed on Friday at $0.99 per share. Let me repeat this -- the stock closed on Friday at $0.99. We are thus talking about a highly speculative equity. Interestingly, if you take a look at the preliminary results, you might believe that Revlon is on the right path. Revlon's management expects a slight dip in terms of net revenues -- the top line will see about $320 million in the quarter versus nearly $329 million in the year-ago period. There will be a net loss of about $5 million this time around versus a net loss of over $35 million last year. Doesn't sound so bad, I suppose, especially when you consider that operating income should come in at $30 million -- that's ten times better than 2007's first quarter. So, would I buy Revlon?

No. I actually owned Revlon stock a few years ago, and I think I essentially broke even when I decided to get the heck out. Revlon has a long way to go before proving to me that it's got a handle on all its problems and that it can get its brand equity back on track. And this reverse stock split means nothing to me, as it doesn't alter the underlying fundamentals. Revlon faces tough competition from other brands, such as Avon (NYSE: AVP), Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL), and products from Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), so the company has its work cut out for it.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

Here are highlights of some other earnings reports from Thursday:

• Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) reported a 21% increase in its fourth-quarter profit year over year. The $265 million, or 35 cents per share, matched analysts' expectations. Revenue totaled $4.68 billion, down 5% from the previous year.
• Kohls Corp. (NYSE: KSS) fourth-quarter profit fell about 15% year over year to $411.7 million, or $1.31 per share, just beating analysts' estimates. Sales rose less than 1% $5.49 billion, but same-store sales fell.
• Revlon Inc. (NYSE: REV) said Thursday it swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $40.8 million, or 8 cents per share, matching expectations. Revenue rose 1% to $382.6 million.
• Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit of $679 million, or 31 cents per share. Revenue rose to $16 billion from $14.5 billion a year ago.
• Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) swung to a profit in its fiscal first quarter: $16.8 million, or 5 cents per share, matching expectations. Revenue rose to $230.9 million from $218.4 million a year ago.
• Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) reported that its loss widened to $2.5 billion, or $3.97 a share, in the fourth quarter as mortgage defaults increased. On Wednesday, Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) reported a $3.6 billion loss for the fourth quarter, or $3.80 a share.
• American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) swung to a loss of $5.29 billion, or $2.08 per share, in the fourth quarter, on home loan related investment losses.
• Del Monte Foods Co. (NYSE: DLM) fiscal third-quarter 2008 net income rose 15% year over year to to $53.3 million, or 26 cents per share. Revenue rose 10% to $1 billion. Both EPS and revenue beat expectations.
• XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: XMSR) said narrowed its fourth-quarter loss to $239 million, or 78 cents per share, thanks to a 20% jump in revenue year over year to $307.7 million.

As the leveraged buyout market (LBO) tightens amid the backdrop of more expensive debt, deal makers are looking to ride new investment vehicles to make their minions money.

We've seen a surge in popularity in what's called a "Special Purpose Acquisition Company," or SPAC. Bloomberg had a good article this morning on advent of the SPAC and what's happening in the industry as a whole. These companies, also called blank-check companies, are IPO'd after raising their funds. Once public, the founding management team needs to make an acquisition in a given time-frame. Shareholders decide on an individual basis whether they like the deal or not. If they like it, great. If not, they tender their shares and receive their money back.

Essentially, it's a hedged bet on management that their industry expertise will lead to a smart acquisition.

Bloomberg says that since the start of 2003, 144 blank-check companies have sold shares, raising $18.1 billion, with 13 of the deals coming before 2005, according to SPAC Analytics.

Lately, a variety of veteran dealmakers – such as Nelson Peltz – have pursued blank check IPOs. Basically, these are shell corporations that raise money to purchase companies.

Well, today there has been another filing: MAFS Acquisition. And, the operator is Ronald Perelman, who wants to raise a cool $500 million.

Perelman got his start on Wall Street in the late 1970s. Since then, he has bought companies such as AlliedBarton Security Services, Harland Clarke, Scantron, Panavision and, of course, Revlon.

As for MAFS, Perelman plans to take an active role, such as with identifying, negotiating and structuring deals. What's more, he will be focusing on targets that have proven track records, strong free cash flows, and top management teams.

The lead underwriter on the IPO is Citi (NYSE: C).

You can find the prospectus at the SEC website. Also, if you want to find other recent IPO information, visit DealProfiles.com.

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