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The week in preview: Expectations remain high for energy and oil

Posted Aug 3rd 2008 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Economic data

With a turn of the calendar page, we drift into the middle portion of the current quarter, but the earnings season rolls on. Among the many companies scheduled to report quarterly results this coming week are Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), and Whole Foods Market International (NASDAQ: WFMI). Let's take a look at which companies Wall Street analysts are expecting to be among the top earnings gainers and decliners this week.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect the following to report strong earnings growth when compared to the same period of the previous year.

Continue reading The week in preview: Expectations remain high for energy and oil

Finmeccanica buys DRS as foreign firms seek U.S. defense contracts

Posted May 13th 2008 1:03PM by Zack Miller (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Deals, Boeing Co (BA), Lockheed Martin (LMT)

According to an article on Bloomberg, "European defense contractors have sought work and acquisitions in the U.S., where military spending has grown faster than in their home markets. BAE Systems Plc, Europe's largest weapons maker, bought Jacksonville, Florida-based Armor Holdings Inc., the biggest maker of armor for Humvee transports, last year for more than $4.1 billion."

Now an Italian firm is bidding $5.2 billion for DRS Technologies (NYSE: DRS). According to the same article in Bloomberg, the acquiring firm, Finmeccanica, makes carbon-fiber frames for Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA)'s 300-seat 787 Dreamliner, and its AgustaWestland helicopter division has a supply contract with Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) for the U.S. presidential fleet. DRS makes flight recorders, sensors and thermal-imaging devices that are used on U.S. military helicopters and ships.

Finmeccanica is partly owned by the Italian government. An acquisition like this rounds out the Italian defense supplier's product-line and positions it well to penetrate U.S. military spending. Much of the premium paid by the Italians has been realized already as the venerable Wall Street Journal reported of the possible deal last week.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

Early analyst calls: ABT, DRS, RAIL, SOV

Posted May 9th 2008 7:43AM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Abbott Laboratories (ABT)

It's a fairly quiet day in analyst land as far as the most active stocks are concerned, despite there being many movers today. Here is a brief snapshot of some of the key calls today:

Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) started as Buy at UBS.

DRS Tech (NYSE: DRS) cut to Neutral at UBS; cut to market perform at FBR.

FreightCar America (NASDAQ: RAIL) Raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies; new price target $42.00 from $35.00.

Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV) Raised To Market Perform at KBW.

You can also see the full top ten individual calls right here.

Jon Ogg produces and edits the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247WallSt.com.

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Europe is starting to eye U.S. gems

Posted May 8th 2008 9:00AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Deals, Market matters, Allergan (AGN), Citigroup Inc. (C), Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Unilever ADR (UL), Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the exchange rate plus massive undervaluations make the great brands prime targets.

There's always been a groupthink in Europe about currencies. The companies that want to buy American companies have, at times, seemed to care more about the currency, or at least not buying a company in a country whose currency is in decline, than they care about the actual target.

That's what it looks like now that a large German company and now a large Italian company have decided to start splurging. It is no coincidence that Deutsche Tel (NYSE: DT) (Cramer's Take) and Finmeccanica are exploring Sprint (NYSE: S) (Cramer's Take) and DRS (NYSE: DRS) (Cramer's Take). These companies are selling for something like 40% off for those bearing euros, and neither potential acquirer has debt problems or subprime issues, so the deals don't have big borrowing problems.

That's what I am thinking about when I see the better-than-expected figures today from Unilever (NYSE: UL) (Cramer's Take) and the other day from Nestle. These companies are part of that same groupthink. They are looking, no doubt, at a Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) (Cramer's Take) and thinking, "Wait, that's about a $10 billion company that's a global leader."

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Europe is starting to eye U.S. gems

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Last updated: November 11, 2009: 04:22 AM

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