In last week's preview we took a peek at expectations for Campbell Soup earnings, but now the company is scheduled to report fiscal fourth quarter results this coming Thursday. With Krispy Kreme also among the handful of companies scheduled to report this week, we may yet see whether consumers are turning to comfort foods in these uncertain times.

Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB), the world's biggest soup maker, is still expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial to post net income of 25 cents per share (up 44.0% from a year ago) on revenue of $1.7 billion (up 7.4%). The Camden, N.J.-based company has just missed earnings estimates in the past few quarters. Its long-term EPS growth forecast is 7.9%, which is less than the industry average, but about the same as rivals Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) and HJ Heinz (NYSE: HNZ). The analysts' consensus recommendation is currently to buy Campbell.

Hip, Canadian apparel retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) is also anticipated to be a big earnings gainer when it reports this week. Net income is expected to come in at 13 cents per share (up 46.2% from a year ago) on revenue of $88.2 million (up 50.3%). Lululemon met expectations when it reported 12 cents per share in the previous quarter. Its long-term EPS growth forecast is a healthy 40.2%, which is better than the industry average and that of rival Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA). The analysts' consensus recommendation is currently to buy Lululemon.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) Q3 profits soared, beating analysts' expectations.
• Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) strong Q1 results met analysts' expectations.
• Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) reported solid Q3 results that beat Wall Street estimates.
• Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) beat expectations for the first quarter, sending shares up.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) posted better-than-expected Q1 results on the weak dollar.
• Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) beat earnings expectations and raised its guidance.
• Corn Products International (NYSE: CPO) posted record sales for the ninth consecutive quarter.
• Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) Q1 profits met expectations but revenues beat them.
• ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) missed Q1 expectations due to narrower margins.
• Garmin Ltd. (NYSE: GRMN) reported lower-than-expected earnings due to slowed demand.
• General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) posted a smaller-than-expected loss for the first quarter.
• Herbalife Ltd. (NASDAQ: HLF) posted Q1 results and announced the resignation of the president and COO.
• Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) beat Q1 expectations and announced a 10% dividend increase.
• Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) Q1 profits declined but beat analysts' expectations.
• Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) reported better-than-expected Q1 results and raised its 2008 outlook.

Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA) shares are falling after the company reported a first-quarter profit of $2.9 million, or 6 cents per share, beating analyst forecasts of 3 cents per share. However, the company also lowered its 2008 profit forecast to between $103.5 million to $104.5 million, from a previous estimate of $108.5 million to $110.5 million, which is giving investors reasons to worry. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on UA.

After hitting a one-year high of $73.40 in August, the stock hit a one-year low of $25.32 in January. This morning, UA opened at $34.54. So far today the stock has hit a low of $33.80 and a high of $36.87. As of 11:55, UA is trading at $34.89, down $3.69 (-9.6%). The chart for UA looks neutral and deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock its highest 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a June bear-call credit spread above the $45 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.2% return in seven weeks as long as UA is below $45 at June expiration. Under Armour would have to rise by more than 29% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

The story of Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) and Under Armour (NYSE: UA) is just one more David and Goliath scenario. Just like in the biblical story, David's battle (UA) was more one of survival against the odds, while Goliath (NKE) truly did want to vanquish the diminutive challenger. Under Armour is capitalized at $1.28 billion while the long-established and legendary Nike has a capitalization more than 20 times the size at $26.38 billion.

NIKE, the world's #1 shoemaker, does more dominating than assisting, to capture more than 20% of the U.S. athletic shoe market. It designs and sells shoes for a variety of sports, including baseball, cheer-leading, golf, volleyball, hiking, tennis, and football. Under Armour is proving its mettle as an apparel warrior. Since its foray into the sporting goods market, the maker of performance athletic undies and apparel has risen to the top of the industry pack, boasting a big portion of the compression garment market.

In addition to playing a dominant role in the shoe market, Nike has retail and wholesale outlets that sell a broad range of branded sports gear, including clothes, watches, balls, hats, and an expanding array of accessories. Under Armour is expanding as well, trying to get a foot-hold (could not resist) in the shoe market starting with a series of cross-trainers. They hope to capture perhaps 10% of the market as they promote their up-and-coming brand.

"Under Armour (NYSE: UA) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) both have the potential for a short squeeze in coming months," says Paul Tracy in StreetAuthority Market Advisor.

"VMware is a market leader in software virtualization. Companies typically do not use the full computing power of their servers, and when not in use, that server sits idle.

"Virtualization technology allows IT managers to use that underutilized capacity -- running software across the organization's entire base of servers. Thus, virtualization is a key cost-cutting technology.

"VMware has a short interest ratio of 11.7 and a freely traded float of just 50 million shares. If all those shorts try to cover, the stock looks likely to be in short supply. Meanwhile, trading at 36 times 2009 earnings estimates with a long-term growth rate of 45%, VMW doesn't look overpriced.

"Under Armour (NYSE: UA) makes clothing (along with sports equipment) targeting the athletic and outdoor-oriented market. Specifically, the company makes clothes designed to wick moisture away from the skin and keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature, regardless of weather conditions.

"Meanwhile, the stock has seen strong earnings growth despite the slowdown in consumer spending -- earnings surged 42% in the fourth quarter. And management recently announced its looking for revenues to reach $765-775 million in 2008, representing around a 27% increase over 2007 levels.

"With a forward P/E of 23 and a long-term growth rate of 25%, UA looks inexpensive. With a float of less than 32 million shares and a short interest ratio approaching 12, Under Armour looks like a prime short-squeeze candidate."

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: K-12 Inc., ChinaEdu and Cardtronics were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Baird is positive on K-12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN)'s leadership position and growing market opportunity for expansion. The firm started shares with an Outperform rating and $26 target. Shares were also initiated at Morgan Stanley with an Equal Weight rating and at Credit Suisse with an Outperform rating.
• Bear initiated ChinaEdu (NASDAQ: CEDU) with an Outperform rating and $11.20 target and said demand for post-secondary education in is outstripping the capacity of land based universities and that CEDU will benefit from the governments strategy to raise education levels. Piper, which started shares with a Buy rating and $10 target, believes the online higher education market is still in the relatively early stages as online student enrollments represent less than one-fourth of total university enrollments.
• William Blair believes Cardtronics (NASDAQ: CATM) has a highly attractive opportunity to increase the number of ATM sites it operates. The firm assumed coverage with an Outperform rating.

Other initiataions:

• MedAssets (NASDAQ: MDAS) was initiated with an Overweight rating and $24 target at Lehman, at Deutsche Bank with a Buy rating and $25 target and at Wachovia with a Market Perform rating.
• Jefferies initiated VanceInfo (NYSE: VIT) with a Buy rating and $11 target.
• Susquehanna initiated Under Armour (NYSE: UA) with a Neutral rating.

Under Armour (NYSE: UA) is recently trading at $29.90 in pre-open trading, below its close of $37.06.

UA anticipates full year 2007 net revenues to increase approximately 40% to an estimated $605 million.

Stephens Inc says: "Despite UA's pre-announced out-performance in 4Q07, the now anticipated weight of the 1H08 marketing spend to launch the new UA footwear line is obviously putting additional discount on the stock."

UA February option implied volatility of 100 is above its 26-week average of 55 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA) has been falling for the past week after disclosures of insider trading. Chairman and CEO Kevin Plan sold 1.5 million shares last week for almost $90 million. Two of Under Armour's senior vice presidents, Kip Fulks and Scott Plank, also sold 15,000 shares and 850,000 shares respectively last week. Total insider sales over the past month have reached $130.6 M. The insider sell-off causes concern for shareholders despite UA's positive earnings report last month. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on UA.

After hitting a one-year high of $73.40 in August, the stock has declined over the past three months. This morning, UA opened at $48.20. So far today the stock has hit a low of $45.00 and a high of $48.20. As of 11:15, UA is trading at $46.78, down $1.82 (-3.7%). The chart for UA looks are bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a January bear-call credit spread above the $65 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. This particular trade will make a 4.2% return in less than 3 months as long as UA is below $65 at January expiration. Under Armour would have to rise by more than 49% before we would start to lose money.

UA has never been above $65 for more than a few days at a time and has shown resistance around $60 recently. This trade could be risky if the holiday season turns out to be a big one for retail, but that looks to be an overly optimistic view at this point. Plus, this position could be protected by strong resistance UA has formed around $64, where the stock topped in late October.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in UA.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: FreeSeas, Nektar, Altus Pharmaceuticals and AbitibiBowater were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Cantor initiated shares of FreeSeas (NASDAQ: FREE) with a Buy rating and $10 target, as they expect the company to benefit from the continued strength in the dry bulk market.
  
• JP Morgan resumed coverage of Nektar (NASDAQ: NKTR) with an Overweight rating, as they view weakness from the discontinuation of Exubera as a buying opportunity given the company's base royalty business and pipeline opportunities.
  
• Altus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALTU) was initiated with a Buy rating and $19 target at Jefferies. The firm expects news flow from the company's two lead products over the next 6-12 months that should act as catalysts.
  
• AbitibiBowater (NYSE: ABH) was initiated with a Sell rating and $18 target at Banc of America, as they are cautious on newsprint trends; the firm recommends reducing existing positions.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Caris initiated Collective Brands (NYSE: PSS) with an Average rating and $18 target and Under Armour (NYSE: UA) with an Above Average rating.
  
• Stifel started shares of Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) with a Hold rating.
  
• PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) was initiated with a Sell rating at Goldman.

Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH), a single-family homebuilder based in Atlanta, will record a pretax charge of $230 million in the fourth quarter and suspend its quarterly dividend to reduce costs. BZH December option implied volatility of 98 is above its 26-week average of 86 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risks.

Under Armour (NYSE: UA) Chairman and Chief Executive Kevin Plank on Nov. 5 reported selling $76 million in company shares. Plank continues to own 12.5 million of class b shares. Dow Jones reported of two other executives selling shares, Senior Vice President Scott Plank selling $45 million and Senior VP Kip Fulks selling $8.8 million. UA has a market cap of $2.4 billion. UA November option implied volatility is at 65, December is at 54, above its 26-week average of 48 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Lots more quarterly reports rolled out this past week, and here are some highlights of earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) reported more losses and more job cuts.
• Alvarion Ltd.'s (NASDAQ: ALVR) record quarter fuels speculation of a Cisco (NYSE: CSCO) buyout.
• Avon Products Inc.'s (NYSE: AVP) profit rose 61%, buoyed by strength in emerging markets.
• Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) fell short of expectations due to tighter margins.
• CIGNA Corp. (NYSE: CI) had a solid quarter but warned about 2008 earnings.
• Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) blamed profit loss on materals costs, and announced acquistion of Burt's Bees.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) beat estimates by a penny and had strong sales overseas.
• Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) beat earnings estimates and revised its full-year forecast.
• Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) announced it would restate revenues, ahead of its November quarterly report.
• Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) missed expectations, also due to tighter margins.
• Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ: GIVN) cited FDA approval delays for disappointing results.
• Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) posted record revenues and appointed a new CFO.
• Humana Inc.'s (NYSE: HUM) positive surprise lifted the share price to a new all-time high.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: GPC Biotech, Akamai, Qwest, Shutterfly and LDK Solar were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• GPC Biotech (NASDAQ: GPCB) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman, to Sell from Hold at Deutsche Bank and to Underweight from Overweight at Lehman after the company's phase III trial of satraplatin to treat prostate cancer did not meet its primary endpoint.
  
• Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM) to Hold from Buy on valuation following the recent rally as they believe concerns around slowing growth, margins and capital efficiency will limit upside.
  
• Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q) was downgraded to Sector Performer from Outperformer at CIBC and to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan following the company's disappointing Q3 results.
  
• Jefferies downgraded shares of Shutterfly (NASDAQ: SFLY) following the better-than-expected Q3 results due to valuation.
  
• Piper downgraded shares of LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) to Market Perform from Outperform, as they expect higher blended poly cost for the company due to tightening scrap poly supply and increased competition.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Maxwell Technologies (NASDAQ: MXWL) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at JMP Securities.
  
• UBS downgraded Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL) to Sell from Neutral.
  
• Merrill downgraded CommScope (NYSE: CTV) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Under Armour (NYSE: UA) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.
  
• RBC Capital downgraded Beckman Coulter (NYSE: BEC) to Sector Perform from Outperform.

Under Armour (NYSE: UA) is seeing shares trade down after earnings this morning. It wasn't the actual EPS number, but the revenues.

The sportswear maker posted EPS of $0.40 and revenues of $186.9 million; First Call estimates were $0.34 EPS on $190.95 million revenues. Under Armour now expects revenue between $590 million and $600 million for 2007, compared with an earlier expectation for between $580 million and $590 million and consensus is already $596 million.

Gross margin for the third quarter of 2007 remained steady at 50.6% compared to 50.6% in the prior year. Another set of issues here were a doubling of inventories to $151.8 million with a simultaneous marketing boost to 12 to 13 percent instead of a prior 10 to 12 percent of revenue forecast. Higher marketing costs may pay off, but the higher inventories are rarely a welcome wagon for investors in high growth apparel trend stocks.

We did get some preliminary 2008 targets today. Under Armour said 2008 revenue and income from operations will come in ahead of prior goals of reaching long-term growth of between 20 to 25 percent.

With earnings due out tomorrow, only those comfortable with potential near-term volatility should consider Mark Fightmaster's recommendation for Under Armour (NYSE: UA). Nevertheless, the analyst with Schaeffer's Investment Research says, "I am a raging bull when it comes to this athletic apparel firm."

He explains, "Under Armour has a lot going for it. UA darn near has the market cornered when it comes to performance apparel. Its marketing is aggressive and catchy, and it was the innovator, not the imitator."

"Walk into your local sporting goods store or look at UA's internet site," he notes, and "check out the ducats you need to shell out for one of the company's shirts."

The advisor continues, "Okay, now let's take a look at UA's technical merits and see if my bullish enthusiasm is warranted. The shares are positioned above potential support at their 50-week moving average. Since its inception, UA has finished just one week below this trendline, which is rapidly ascending into the technical picture to provide support."