Continue reading Call Volume Soars Ahead of Earnings from H&R Block

Call Volume Soars Ahead of Earnings from H&R Block originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Office furniture maker Steelcase (SCS) spiked higher right out of the gate Thursday morning, as traders cheered the company's solid second-quarter earnings. Steelcase swung to a quarterly profit of $2.8 million, or 2 cents per share; excluding items, earnings arrived at $13 million, or 8 cents per share. Sales for the quarter rose 4% to $599.8 million.

The results topped Wall Street's expectations, as analysts had anticipated a profit of just 5 cents per share on revenue of $576.2 million. This marks the third consecutive quarter where Steelcase has exceeded analysts' consensus profit estimates.

Continue reading Steelcase Challenges Resistance After Solid Q2 Report

Steelcase Challenges Resistance After Solid Q2 Report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The shares of Lululemon Athletica (LULU) gapped higher right out of the gate this morning, as Wall Street cheered the athletic apparel company's latest earnings report. Lululemon raked in a second-quarter profit of $21.8 million, or 30 cents per share -- more than doubling its year-ago results of $9.2 million, or 13 cents per share. Revenue for the period climbed 56% to $152.2 million.

The results handily surpassed consensus expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been anticipating a slimmer second-quarter profit of 24 cents per share on $146 million in revenue.

Continue reading Lululemon Athletica Soars After Strong Q2 Report

Lululemon Athletica Soars After Strong Q2 Report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yingli Green Energy (YGE) took the earnings stage this morning, with the alternative energy issue swinging to a second-quarter profit of $32.1 million, or 21 cents per American depositary share (ADS). Excluding items, earnings arrived at 25 cents per share, exceeding analysts' expectations for a profit of 19 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter climbed 81% to $398.1 million, topping Wall Street's forecast of $371 million.

Gross margin also improved, expanding to 33.5% from 19.8% on a year-over-year basis. For the full year, YGE hiked its gross margin target to a range between 28% and 30%.

Continue reading Yingli Green Energy Slumps Despite Strong Q2 Report

Yingli Green Energy Slumps Despite Strong Q2 Report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) slumped to a new 52-week nadir of $8.65 right out of the gate Thursday morning, thanks to a little help from analysts at BMO Capital Markets. The brokerage firm trimmed its price target on NVDA from $10 to $9 and lowered its opinion of the semiconductor sector to underperform from market perform, citing the industry's bloated inventories for the negative note.

So, to put it bluntly, the stock isn't faring so well ahead of its earnings report. NDVA is expected to unveil a second-quarter profit of about 11 cents per share, up from its year-ago earnings of 7 cents per share. The company has a remarkably solid history in the earnings spotlight, having exceeded analysts' consensus profit estimates in each of the past four quarters.

Continue reading NVIDIA Sinks to a New Low Ahead of Earnings

NVIDIA Sinks to a New Low Ahead of Earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ambac Financial Group (ABK) took the earnings stage Monday night -- and the stock took a quick dive right out of the gate Tuesday morning, if that gives you any indication about the quarterly results. The bond insurer swung to a loss of $57.6 million in the second quarter, and warned that a bankruptcy filing is likely if it can't come up with a plan to restructure its liabilities within the next year.

The company's official release stated the matter quite plainly: "Ambac has insufficient capital to finance its debt service and operating expense requirements beyond the second quarter of 2011 and may need to seek bankruptcy protection."

Continue reading Puts Popular as Ambac Financial Takes a Post-Earnings Dive

Puts Popular as Ambac Financial Takes a Post-Earnings Dive originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MasterCard Inc. (MA) topped analysts' second-quarter earnings expectations Tuesday morning, but the stock had trouble finding positive ground in early trading. For the recently concluded quarter, the credit card titan banked a profit of $458 million, or $3.49 per share, up from its year-ago earnings of $349 million, or $2.67 per share. Revenue for the period climbed 6.7% to $1.37 billion, or 7.9% on a constant currency basis.

The bottom-line results comfortably exceeded analysts' expectations, which called for a profit of $3.33 per share, but Wall Street was anticipating a slightly more robust quarterly revenue of $1.38 billion.

Continue reading MasterCard Struggles Despite Q2 Earnings Beat

MasterCard Struggles Despite Q2 Earnings Beat originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It seems that 92% year-over-year earnings growth wasn't quite enough to impress Wall Street. Shares of DVD rental kiosk operator Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) are taking a beating as traders pan the company's softer-than-forecast second-quarter results and lackluster revenue forecast.

For the recently concluded quarter, Coinstar banked a profit of $13.4 million, or 41 cents per share, up from last year's results of $7 million, or 23 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter climbed 35% to $342.4 million. As recently as May, Coinstar predicted its quarterly revenue would arrive between $363 million and $383 million.

Continue reading Coinstar Hammered After Disappointing Earnings

Coinstar Hammered After Disappointing Earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings (AXL) is prepping for its turn in the earnings spotlight. The auto parts issue is slated to confess its second-quarter results ahead of Friday's opening bell, and at least one speculator is looking for a major post-event move from the shares. Bright and early Thursday morning, an ambivalent options trader opened an at-the-money straddle on AXL.

Specifically, the trader simultaneously purchased several matching blocks of August 9 puts and calls. With AXL trading just pennies above $9, both of these options are at the money. By scooping up equal numbers of puts and calls at the same strike, the trader is hoping to capitalize on a drastic move higher or lower from the security.

Continue reading American Axle Targeted by a Pre-earnings Straddle

American Axle Targeted by a Pre-earnings Straddle originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) is significantly higher after the restaurant chain topped analysts' second-quarter earnings expectations.

After Tuesday's closing bell, Buffalo Wild Wings reported a quarterly profit of $9.2 million, or 50 cents per share, up from its year-ago earnings of $7.0 million, or 39 cents per share. Revenue for the period climbed 12.4% to $145.7 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were anticipating earnings of just 42 cents per share on $141.5 million in revenue.

Continue reading Buffalo Wild Wings Bolts Higher on Earnings Beat

Buffalo Wild Wings Bolts Higher on Earnings Beat originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW) attracted a heavy dose of put volume on Friday, with approximately 16,000 contracts crossing the tape. This flurry of activity represented about 19 times the stock's expected daily put volume.

Data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE) confirms this bearish bias, with CHRW racking up a single-day put/call volume ratio of 11.62 on the exchange. In other words, traders on the ISE bought to open nearly a dozen puts for every call on Friday.

Continue reading Puts Popular Ahead of Earnings from C.H. Robinson Worldwide

Puts Popular Ahead of Earnings from C.H. Robinson Worldwide originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Puts Popular Ahead of State Street's Earnings Report

Puts Popular Ahead of State Street's Earnings Report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Earnings season is winding down, but there are still a few companies that have yet to take their turn in Wall Street's spotlight. Ahead of Monday's opening bell, for-profit education issue Apollo Group, Inc. (APOL) is scheduled to unveil its fiscal second-quarter results.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting Apollo to report a profit of 81 cents per share, up from 77 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Sales for the period are projected to arrive at $1.07 billion.

Continue reading Wall Street Awaits Q2 Earnings from Apollo Group

Wall Street Awaits Q2 Earnings from Apollo Group originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) pre-announced a second quarter shortfall and also indicated that the rest of 2007 will be difficult and non-profitable. The stock will more than likely be dead money for the next six to nine months as this company has yet to find its footing.

I wrote back on June 26th that Motorola would probably miss this quarter and perhaps the year. It has come true. Motorola is a company that is in trouble as it cannot make an operating profit on almost $9 billion of quarterly revenues. Motorola is attacking the European markets with mid-level product that is constantly under pricing pressures. The Motorola approach in Asia and China has been to penetrate the low-end of the cellular market which is also contending with evaporating margins.

Motorola had success with the Razr line-up of phones but has yet to come up with a killer-replacement phone and the Razr cycle has worn out its welcome.CEO Ed Zander, rightfully, is under huge pressure to perform as this once bellwether company is facing not only a tough 2007 but a challenging 2008. With Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone capturing market share and headlines, Motorola is hard pressed to maintain its competitive positioning in the United States.

Motorola's stock closed at $17 yesterday and I see little to any near term prospects of it lifting higher. Motorola stock may start to be interesting at the $14 level, but not until then.

Georges Yared is the Chief Investment Strategist of Yared Investment Research.

Motorola is now dead money after blowing the second quarter and year originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amazon.com investors are not pleased. Not at all. The internet retailer had major strategy changes this quarter with the embittered breakup with longtime partner Toysrus.com, and that combined with other factors to send net income down 58% from the year-ago quarter. Quarterly net income was $22 million, five cents per diluted share, versus $50 million, or 12 cents per share, in 2005. Sales, however, were good and within Amazon's forecasted range at $2.14 billion, up 22%.

Investors didn't seem to care much that sales showed such a strong growth rate, or that Amazon.com had, indeed, warned of ill effects of the end of the Toysrus.com partnership. After falling 72 cents in intraday trading ahead of the earnings release, shares were down another $3.47, or 12.2% on the day, in after-hours trading a few minutes after the announcement.

Amazon.com's 52-week low is $30, only a few pennies less than where the stock stands in after-hours.

Amazon.com 2nd quarter earnings release: not happy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Second quarter earnings exceeded expectations, with $2.455 billion in total revenue for the quarter (up 77% year-over-year) and $2.33 earnings per diluted share. After the bell, investors seemed happy; the stock was recovering from its intraday drop of $11.88, although as the minutes ticked by, the recovery was less and less.

It will be interesting to watch as investors digest the report, and listen to the earnings conference call. I've just started listening, and it's a numbers-rattle-off right now.

4:41 p.m. -- Sergey Brin begins the call, talking about the details of the earnings report. He says that the company noted earlier that capex would be higher, as a percentage, than it was last year, and it continues to be, up to 12% of revenue from 10% last year -- that's a lot of dollars given the huge growth in revenue. Headcount was up over 1,000 people, mostly in Ireland and India.

4:44 p.m. -- Larry Page takes over to talk about the warmer, fuzzier parts of the business. He focuses on Google Checkout, which is hoped to help advertisers generate more sales. He says that Google's option will help advertisers capture those customers who abandon their shopping carts, and generate higher clickthroughs. He says they are "generating healthy adoption rates" including Bluefly, Starbucks, and more.

4:48 p.m. -- Page thinks this is one of the most exciting products the company has generated to date, and "hopes" it will bring revenues. Naturally investors want this: 99% of Google's revenues, healthy as they are, are still coming from search advertising.

Continue reading Liveblogging Google second quarter earnings

Liveblogging Google second quarter earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 20 Jul 2006 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google's earnings exceeded expectations for the second quarter, with $721.1 million on revenue of $2.455 billion. At first, the investors were exultant, and the stock recovered from its $11.88 fall on the day.

However, Sheldon Liber and I have been eagerly watching the stock progress in after-hours trading. The stock had almost reversed all its losses for the day a few minutes after the announcement, then dropped again by about 4:45 p.m. But by the time we published this post at 4:50, the losses had once again been mostly erased and the stock hovered around $394. We'll see how the call affects investors' feelings...

Google second quarter earnings: sigh of relief? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 20 Jul 2006 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With great results on the earnings release, a few minutes ago, I was excited to hear the whole glowing report by Meg Whitman & team. I tuned in early.

Evidently, it's not a good idea to tune in early. I kept refreshing my page only to miss the first 14 minutes. So I'll be following up and re-capping when the webcast is archived later tonight. In the meantime...

5:14 p.m. -- CEO Meg Whitman is excitedly talking about PayPal when I tune in, and quickly goes on to Skype, talking about the free SkypeOut North America promotion, saying that U.S. and Canada downloads tripled and "revenue has accelerated past pre-campaign levels" despite the free nature of the campaign.

5:18 p.m. -- "Never stand still, adjust with lightning speed to whatever comes our way," is the strategy, says Meg. She also points out the many doubters along the way -- "why does eBay need a bank?" and "what is eBay doing with Skype?" -- but says that doubters have now been quashed. She's a really excellent speaker, eBay's speechwriter should get a bonus.

5:22 p.m. -- Now time for CFO Bob Swan. I think all CFO's should be named "Bob." He begins to rattle off the financial results. User growth continues to be strong, with 10 million new users in the quarter. Auction listings showed a year-over-year growth of 35%, and 106 million new listings in the stores, total. That's 3.1 million new users in the U.S., and U.S. listings grew 15% (guess most of that growth is coming outside the U.S.).

Continue reading Liveblogging eBay second quarter earnings call

Liveblogging eBay second quarter earnings call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Jul 2006 17:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ahead of the investor conference call starting in a few minutes, eBay announced second-quarter revenue of $1.411 billion and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.24. Wall Street will be entirely unsurprised, as this is exactly what analysts predicted.

Will it be enough to turn around today's (and, in fact, this year's) stock malaise? It seems as if investors are relieved; in after hours trading, the stock has recovered the day's losses and more, currently at $27.24 in after hours, up from a close of $25.93. Could this be the end of eBay's slide? Tune into the live coverage of the earnings conference call in a few minutes to learn more.

eBay second quarter earnings: meets expectations on the nose originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Investors are a hopeful kind of bird. Yahoo! stock, along with many in the tech sector, has been in the doldrums as of late. Earnings are coming out in about an hour, though, and this makes the investor bird preen its feathers and buy in advance of the announcement. Despite intraday lows that were down signficantly from yesterday's close, Yahoo! ended the day at $32.17, up 33 cents or 1.04%.

But Piper Jaffray, among other analysts, are predicting good things, including the consensus 11 cents per share profit (down from 13 cents in the year-ago quarter) and positive news in the search ad revenue department. Check back at 5 p.m. Eastern, when we'll be liveblogging the earnings report.

Yahoo after the bell 07-18-06: up 1% on hopes about earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Jul 2006 16:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.