united parcel service posts
FeedPosted Sep 18th 2009 9:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, FedEx Corp (FDX), United Parcel'B' (UPS)
As Trey Thoelcke observed in his earnings preview, FedEx (NYSE: FDX), a package shipper that competes with UPS (NYSE: UPS), is considered by many to be a bellwether of the economy. The company reported Q1 earnings on Thursday; what do the results say about the country's financial situation?
Well, to me, they say things are still rough. Revenues decreased 20%, operating margin declined, and earnings per share plummeted 53% to 58 cents. Yeah, I'd say we're still having problems.
Continue reading FedEx reports much lower income, but is all the bad news priced in?
Posted Aug 31st 2009 6:00PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Other issues, Deals, Consumer experience, Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY), Amazon.com (AMZN), FedEx Corp (FDX), United Parcel'B' (UPS), Small business

The United States Postal Service has been heavily promoting it's flat rate deliveries based on the the size of the box instead of the weight in an attempt to retrieve some of the business that it has lost to
Federal Express Corp (NYSE:
FDX) and
United Parcel Service.(NYSE:
UPS) over the years.
The increasing use of the internet has reduced snail-mail traffic, hurting USPS revenue, while the internet has increased the traffic of package delivery services as sites like
Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and
eBay (NASDAQ:
EBAY) continue to expand their businesses and new enterprises and existing traditional companies expand their web presence.
Continue reading FedEx & UPS challenged by USPS flat rates
Posted Aug 11th 2009 3:30PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, United Parcel'B' (UPS), Options, Serious Money

Let's face it, all those things you heard about efficient markets over the years were hogwash. In the short term, markets are not efficient and as we have learned on too many occasions, not even rational. If everything was always priced just right you would not have winners and losers and everyone would live happily ever after. For some things the short term might be as long as five to ten years.
Three years ago I lost out on the purchase of a property close to my office when someone decided it was worth 40% more than I did. At the time I told the broker the buyer was nuts and would lose money, if not more. I remember the broker telling me that the property was worth what someone is willing to pay. That is not true, but far be it from me too convince a broker that just made a terrific deal for his client that people often pay more than something is worth. To make a long story short, the property is now in default and I am trying to buy the note from the bank that made a bad loan accepting a silly valuation.
Continue reading Serious Money: UPS -- No sure things, but ...
Posted Jun 17th 2009 4:30PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, FedEx Corp (FDX), United Parcel'B' (UPS)
FedEx (NYSE:
FDX), the delivery company that competes with
United Parcel Service (NYSE:
UPS), issued its Q4
earnings report on Wednesday. At first glance, it's scary. On a
GAAP basis, FedEx said it lost $2.82 per diluted share during the quarter. You say to yourself, "Man, has the recession gotten worse!" Then you take a breath and see that the loss is sourced back to goodwill charges related to the Kinko's and Watkins Motor Lines transactions. Therefore, adjusting for those elements, FedEx earned $0.64 per diluted share.
You feel a little better as a shareholder when you realize the loss has some accounting context surrounding it. The bad feelings return, however, just like a package that you forgot to put postage on, when you check the results achieved in the year-ago period. You find out that FedEx earned $1.45 per diluted share at that time. Is there any saving grace now?
Continue reading FedEx packages better-than-expected profit
Posted Feb 17th 2009 12:25PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), United Parcel'B' (UPS), Options, Bargain stocks, Chasing Value, Stocks to Buy, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI), Best Stocks for 2009

In reading recent stories that
Warren Buffett continues to increase his stake in
Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE:
BNI) -- now standing at 22.4% -- I started to wonder if some day the name might be changed to
"Berkshire" Northern Santa Fe RR?'My pal Warren' is no doubt looking long term, and for most of the past two years has been up on
Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE:
BRK.A) BNI investment. However that is not the case today as his most recent purchase at $75.00 per share (not bought in the open market) is under water; the shares closed at $66.04, down 12%. He is losing even more on his average purchase price.
Continue reading Chasing Value: Has BNI become 'Berkshire' Northern Santa Fe
Posted Feb 17th 2009 11:30AM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Other issues, Competitive strategy, Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), United Parcel'B' (UPS), Options, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2009

Right or wrong, I have been buying stocks on dips for the last five months, and the past two weeks I started adding naked puts to the mix on down days.
In short (no pun intended), I am opening
an option to sell a stock I do not own. These "naked puts" pay me cash on the first day to accept an obligation to buy a stock in the future at a predetermined price. If the stock is one cent or greater below the strike price, it gets "put to me" and I have to cover the position by buying the shares pledged.
Continue reading Investor fear puts me 'naked' on Wall Street
Posted Feb 7th 2009 3:40PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Avon Products (AVP), Costco Wholesale (COST), Monster Worldwide (MNST), Yum Brands (YUM), Mattel, Inc (MAT), United Parcel'B' (UPS), Alcatel-LucentADS (ALU), Hasbro Inc (HAS), Electronic Arts (ERTS), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), SanDisk Corp (SNDK), Northrop Grumman (NOC)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: UPS, Kraft, Mattel, Avon, Northrop Grumman and others
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 2:44PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, United Parcel'B' (UPS)
United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) is scheduled to discuss fourth-quarter 2008 results tomorrow, February 3, in a conference call at 8:30 AM ET hosted by UPS Chairman and CEO Scott Davis and Chief Financial Officer Kurt Kuehn. You can listen in to the call via the live webcast on the company's website.
For the quarter that saw lower fuel prices, a weak holiday shopping season, and the opening of a new UPS hub in Shanghai, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the Atlanta-based company to report earnings of $0.85 per share, down from $1.07 per share in the same period of the previous year. Revenue for the quarter is expected to total $13.2 billion, down 1.4% from a year ago. UPS's earnings have topped estimates in the past five quarters, by as much as 7.9%.
Continue reading Earnings preview: UPS expected to deliver lower Q4 profit
Posted Feb 1st 2009 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, AFLAC Inc (AFL), Avon Products (AVP), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Northrop Grumman (NOC)
If you've been watching earnings this past week, or if you read last week's Week in Preview, then this coming week may leave you feeling a bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day. That is, again analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect earnings declines to be more frequent and deeper than earnings gains.
Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW), Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC), IAC Interactivecorp (NASDAQ: IACI), Moody's Corp. (NYSE: MCO), Elizabeth Arden Inc. (NASDAQ: RDEN), Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN), Diebold Inc. (NYSE: DBD), Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC), United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL), ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT), and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) are scheduled to report quarterly results this week, and they're all expected to report double-digit declines in earnings.
But again this week, let's take a look who Wall Street feels may have done well in the past quarter.
Continue reading The week in preview: High hopes for MasterCard, Avon, Aflac, Northrop Grumman
Posted Dec 23rd 2008 3:40PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Products and services, Microsoft (MSFT), General Electric (GE), McDonald's (MCD), United Parcel'B' (UPS), Chasing Value, Stocks to Buy

When oil prices were rising quarter after quarter through July of this year -- topping $147 per barrel -- it was very problematic for
United Parcel Service (NYSE:
UPS) to run its television commercials bragging they had the largest fleet of planes and trucks in the world.
Fuel prices that hurt the economy have hurt UPS more. The stock is down from the high $80s a few years ago to the current lows closing Monday at $52.77. It is trading below its 2001 IPO price after averaging around $70 for most of its "public life."
Just about every business journal is coming out with its stock picks for 2009, and among them are many blue chip stocks. These include familiar names like
General Electric (NYSE:
GE)
Chasing Value: Add General Electric to the list,
Johnson and Johnson (NYSE:
JNJ),
Microsoft (NASDAQ:
MSFT), and
McDonald's (NYSE:
MCD), to name a few.
While I was reading this weekend I saw a UPS ad and realized that nobody was directing investor attention to this fine company.
That got me thinking. UPS has a clean balance sheet, great cash flow and is AAA rated. The company has weathered the high fuel prices and reduced business. UPS itself has become a valuable barometer over the years to measure the state of the economy and I often check with our carrier about his business traffic. On Friday he said they were laying off 10% of the drivers but he would be above the cut.
Continue reading Chasing Value: United Parcel -- forgotten blue chip
Posted Dec 19th 2008 12:20PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, FedEx Corp (FDX), United Parcel'B' (UPS)
Hey, FedEx (NYSE: FDX) beat the estimates of Wall Street! That's awesome, right? Not in this case. The nemesis of United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) reported Q2 numbers on Thursday, and they didn't matter for the most part. What mattered more was that management seemed to be in a frantic mood over cutting costs and capital expenditures.
According to this article, FedEx only managed to deliver (yes, I used that word on purpose) a four-cent rise in earnings per share; they came in at $1.58, one penny higher than what analysts expected. Problem for FedEx is this lousy economy. The company will have a hard time ensuring that it can deliver (there's that word again) on its promised guidance for the rest of the year. Simply put, if the economy continues to sour, and if confidence doesn't bounce back soon, then there will be less demand for its services. No complex arguments necessary for this thesis, so far as I can tell. I would imagine that it's going to be rough for management to keep employee morale going at an acceptable level with all the cost reductions and job cuts that are being used to navigate the stormy seas. One of the worst problems I see is the minimum one-year freeze on 401(k) company matching contributions that was mentioned in the press release. Seriously, that will be a bitter pill to swallow for many.
I personally would stay away from FedEx's stock. Yes, it is well off its highs, but is all the bad news priced in the stock? My opinion: not on your life. I cannot see how anyone could read that earnings release and subsequently decide to buy shares of the company. The commentary is kind of unnerving, if you ask me. CEO Frederick W. Smith thinks the current financial climate is one of the worst seen in the company's history. Tell us something we didn't already know, buddy! What I find unnerving is that I really don't get a sense that there's any sort of plan beyond the cuts. The company is just looking to survive as best it can. I wish FedEx luck, but I don't want to get involved with the stock. At all.
Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.
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