Continue reading Futures Up as Investors Await Home Sales, Personal Income Data

Futures Up as Investors Await Home Sales, Personal Income Data originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Even in a holiday shortened week so close to the end of the calendar year, there are still some earnings reports dribbling in. Question is, will any of the companies reporting quarterly results this week offer up a gift for investors?

Apropos of the season, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters have high expectations for American Greetings Corp.'s (AM) fiscal third quarter 2010 earnings. The nation's second largest provider of greeting cards announced record second quarter results and declared a quarterly dividend during the three months that ended in November. American Greetings is expected to report that earnings rose 43.9% from a year ago to $0.66 per share. Revenue for the quarter is expected to total $445.4 million, or 1.9% lower than a year ago. So far, the full-year forecast is for its profit to more than double to $2.00 per share while revenue falls 5.6% from a year ago to $1.6 billion. This Cleveland-based company creamed earnings estimates in the past two quarters.

Continue reading The Week in Preview: Pre-holiday Earnings from Walgreen, American Greetings ...

The Week in Preview: Pre-holiday Earnings from Walgreen, American Greetings ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded shares of Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE: APD) to Buy from Hold and raised its target to $79 from $63 on valuation as they believe the stock is oversold at current levels and that the company is well positioned to outperform in a slowing demand environment.
  
• Goldman upgraded the U.S. Insurance Brokers sector to Attractive from Cautious and upgraded AON Corporation (NYSE: AOC) and Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MMC) to Buy from Neutral.
  
• Covanta Holding Corporation (NYSE: CVA) was upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer. The firm recommends buying shares because they believe that its business model is defensive and its long-term contracts provide stability.
• First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Friedman Billings.
  
• Baird upgraded IMS Health, Inc. (NYSE: RX) to Outperform from Neutral.
  
• The Progressive Corporation (NYSE: PGR) was lifted to Neutral from Sell at UBS.

Continue reading Analyst calls: GOOG, AOC, MMC, CVA, FSLR, PHG . . .

Analyst calls: GOOG, AOC, MMC, CVA, FSLR, PHG . . . originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Progress Software (NASDAQ: PRGS) provides programs designed to simplify and accelerate the development, deployment, integration and management of business software applications. The firm's various product lines help developers detect and act on patterns in high velocity data streams; achieve standards-based mainframe integration; connect applications running on various platforms; and integrate data for distributed applications. Customers include Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) and the U.S. Army.

Continue reading Progress Software (PRGS): Helping enterprise develop more effective software applications

Progress Software (PRGS): Helping enterprise develop more effective software applications originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When businesses grow beyond a certain size, they can find that disparate hardware and software systems slow the implementation of new procedures and impede growth. There is an outfit in Bedford, Massachusetts that helps firms develop business applications that overcome those problems.

Progress Software (NASDAQ: PRGS) provides programs designed to simplify and accelerate the development, deployment, integration and management of business software applications. The firm's various product lines help developers detect and act on patterns in high velocity data streams; achieve standards-based mainframe integration; connect applications running on various platforms; and integrate data for distributed applications. Customers include DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX), The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM). Competitors include Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL).

The company pleased investors last week, when it announced Q2 EPS of 45 cents and revenues of $120 million. Analysts had been expecting 41 cents and $116.3 million. Management also guided Q3 EPS to 42-44 cents (43 cent consensus), Q3 revenues to $118-$120 million ($117.90M consensus), FY07 EPS to $1.72-$1.75 ($1.72 consensus) and FY07 revenues to $475-$485 million ($477.32M consensus). The news kept PRGS shares cycling through a positive 14-week trading channel. The price is currently consolidating near the base of that channel, where oversold CCI, Stochastic and MACD technical parameters suggest the potential for a rise back toward the top.

Brokers recommend the issue with two "strong buys," three "buys" and one "hold." Analysts see an18% average annual growth rate through the next five years. The PRGS Price to Sales ratio (2.75), Price to Book ratio (2.74) and Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (24.59) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages.

Institutions hold about 95% of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 600 SmallCap Index. Over the past 52-weeks, it has traded between $21.33 and $34.45. A stop-loss of $28 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.

Progress Software: Helping growing businesses manage growing pains originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.