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business services posts

H&R Block benefits from tax complexity, fees up on fewer returns

Posted Jun 30th 2009 8:40AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, H and R Block (HRB)

H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) turned in strong numbers for its last fiscal year, which ended April 30, 2009. Income from continuing operations climbed 15% to $513.1 million ($1.53 per share), compared to $445.9 million ($1.36 a share) the previous year. But, the income growth came on basically flat revenues of $4.1 billion.

The Tax Services division saw revenues grow 1.5% to $3 billion, with pretax income up 13.7% to $893.8 million. H&R Block prepared 5.8% fewer returns, though the average fee per returned was up 7.2%. The up-tick in fees resulted from increased tax return complexity and an increase in clients with higher adjusted gross incomes.

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Hewitt Associates has a winning human resources formula

Posted Jan 21st 2008 5:43PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

The market's choppy/consolidating pattern continues, suggesting the need for an additional defensive play or two (or perhaps more). And in this category Hewitt Associates is worth a review.

Hewitt Associates, Inc. (NYSE: HEW) provides a variety of human resource-related services including payroll, organizational change management, talent consulting, reward consulting, and benefits outsourcing (medical, 301K, pensions).

Analysts expect 2008 revenue growth of 4-7% with strong gains in consulting. Benefits administration revenue should advance 3-5%. Margins are adequate. The Reuters FY 2007/FY 2008 EPS consensus estimates for HEW are $1.75 to $2.12.

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IHS: Lower profile, higher earnings

Posted Jan 17th 2008 6:47PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Stocks to Buy

Investors/readers know that higher-profile companies obtain most of the business and financial world's headlines. Still, that's not to say that lower-profile means lower profits, and there's no better proof of this than IHS.

IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS) publishes technical documents for clients in the energy, defense, aerospace, construction, electronics, and automotive sectors, and distributes documents in several formats (Internet, intranet, extranet, CD-ROM).

Analysts really like IHS's energy unit (53% of revenue) which provides data on exploration, development, production, and transportation activities. As one might sense in an oil-hungry world, energy data has taken on added importance with oil's rise in value. The Reuters FY 2008/FY 2009 EPS consensus estimates for IHS are $1.94 to $2.37.

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Verizon diversifies, and continues to impress

Posted Nov 1st 2007 1:34PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: AT and T (T), Verizon Communications (VZ), Stocks to Buy

This is not your typical, former AT&T (NYSE: T) unit. Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is a modern, diverse telecom provider for the early digital age.

Verizon has three impressive divisions: landline, wireless, and business services. And the numbers speak for themselves: landline has an astounding 42.3 million subscribers in 28 states, Verizon Wireless is the second largest wireless provider, and business services is making inroads on medium/large enterprise customers and government agencies.

Further, in 2006 the company's fiber optic broadband/video service, FiOS, emerged as a major competitor to comparable cable broadband/video services: look for VZ to continue to grab market share in key markets, as the service is rolled-out in the years ahead. The Reuters F2007/F2008 EPS consensus estimates for VZ are $2.37/$2.71.

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