Earnings highlights: Alcoa, Monsanto, and others

Trey Thoelcke — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:10:00 EST

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Alcoa Inc (AA), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), KB HOME (KBH)

Here are a few highlights of this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) will kick off the new earnings season next week, but expectations are low.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) met low earnings estimates but shares dropped to a new low.
Cal-Maine Foods' (NYSE: CALM) revenue and profit soared on strength in the market for fresh eggs.
Merge Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MRGE) announced another dismal quarter, along with an SEC probe.
Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) beat earnings expectations and revised its guidance.
Retalix Ltd. (NASDAQ: RTLX) warned that it would miss earnings estimates again this quarter.

Also, Jim Cramer thinks that downgrades of tech stocks don't make sense in light of their strong fourth quarter, but analysts seem to be pessimistic in general about earnings forecasts. Ted Allrich thinks this is the wrong time to ignore financial stocks, despite recent losses.

Upcoming results to watch for include Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) and KB Home (NYSE: KBH).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Earnings highlights: Alcoa, Monsanto, and others originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SEC launches formal investigation into Merge Technologies

Tracy Coenen — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:40:00 EST

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Law

On Friday, Merge Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MRGE), doing business as Merge Healthcare, announced horrible financial results and a formal SEC investigation into the company's financial statement troubles.

The stock has been on a freefall since December 2005, when it hit a high of around $30 per share. It has now fallen to under $1.50 per share, with the price wavering between $1.04 and $1.46 in the last few weeks.

In 2005 and into early 2006, the company was flying high following a takeover of Cedara Software, purchased for $325 million in an all-stock transaction. But Merge has been struggling to file restated financial statements for 2004, 2005, and 2006. Improper revenue recognition related to software and maintenance contracts, as well as improper booking of goodwill and net deferred tax liabilities related to the Cedara purchase have caused Merge to file the restatements.

Now the company is fighting for its life. Revenue for Merge's second quarter was $14 million, down 55% compared to the second quarter of the prior year. The net loss for the quarter was almost $11 million, or 32 cents per share. This is an improvement over last year, which saw a $211 million loss, or $6.27 per share.

It's still bad news though, as revenue for the six months ended June 30 is down 37% over the prior year. The third quarter will be dismal as well. The company has no lines of credit and is depending on cash flow to fund operations. Cash has been dwindling over the past year and is now down to $22 million as of September 30. And all (or substantially all) of the goodwill on the books will be written off, about a $124 million hit that will really hurt .

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

SEC launches formal investigation into Merge Technologies originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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