Posts tagged Stock
Facebook Co-Founder Evading Taxes, U.S. Senators Not Happy
May 18th
Co-founder of the social network giant Facebook will be saving some money once the company goes public today.
Eduardo Saverin will save at least $67 million in taxes once people start buying shares of the company. This is because he dropped his U.S. citizenship in September and lives in Sinapore where there is no capital gains tax.
His savings could increase as Facebook shares rise in trading today. Currently his around 4% stake in Facebook may be worth as much as $2.89 billion.
Government officials are not happy with this news. At a press conference, U.S. senators Chuck Shumer and Bob Casey said they would stop at nothing to get Saverin to pay up. They plan on passing legislation that would tax expatriates even after they left the country.
Their so called “Ex-Patriot Act” would impose a mandatory 30% tax on American investments for those who renounce their citizenship and would prevent those renouncing their citizenship from re-entering the country.
No matter what happens though, Saverin is set to make billions of dollars off his stake once Facebook starts trading.
Foot Locker Tops Estimates As Comp Sales Rise 9.7%
May 18th
Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) reported Q1 EPS of $0.83, topping estimates of $0.74.
Revenues in the quarter came in at $1.58 billion, also beating estimates of $1.55 billion. The company reported its Q1 comp-store sales rose 9.7%, up from 7.5% the same period last year.
Ken C. Hicks, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Foot Locker, Inc. said, “2012 has gotten off to an outstanding start, with our first quarter results representing the highest level of quarterly earnings in the Company’s history as an athletic business. The first quarter continued our recent track record of meaningful sales and profit increases over the comparable prior-year periods. We remain focused on executing the initiatives of our updated strategic plan and objectives in order to continue to drive our strong financial performance.”
Investors are liking this stock after the opening today. Currently, Foot Locker is trading more than 13% higher at $31.53.
JP Morgan Slides As Trading Loss Widens: NYT
May 17th
It keeps getting worse for JP Morgan Chase. The big bank is currently down over 3% in early trading on news their trading loss might increase.
According to the New York Times, the originally reported $2 billion trading loss has surged by at least $1 billion.
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that the $2 billion in losses announced last week could double within the next few quarters depending to day-to-day market fluctuations.
The overall health of the bank is currently strong, even with the additional losses. However, shareholders are worried that JP Morgan will cut its annual dividend to make up for losses. As of right now, the bank says there is no plan to do that.
However, bank analysts are saying that if losses continue to rise the bank might not have a choice.
Alkermes Reports Narrower-Than-Expected Loss
May 17th
Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) reported a fiscal Q4 loss of $0.14 per share, beating estimates of a loss of $0.16 a share.
Revenues in the quarter rose 155% year-over-year to $130.5 million, above expectations of $125.88 million.
Richard Pops, Chief Executive Officer of Alkermes commented on the earnings, “During fiscal 2012, we laid the groundwork to build a major biotech company and are now in a position that few biotech companies ever achieve: we have a financial engine that is generating cash, a pipeline of several promising late-stage candidates and an efficient corporate structure,” “Looking forward, we expect to generate significant cash flow while also advancing our most promising late-stage pipeline assets.”
For the 2013 fiscal year the company expects a non-GAAP diluted EPS in the range of $0.62 to $0.77.
Alkermes is currently trading down close to 3% to $17.69.
Microsoft To Roll Out Redesigned Bing Platform In Days (MSFT,GOOG)
May 11th
5-10-12-In its latest effort to grab market share from the current search king Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has redesigned the Bing Internet search engine to make its results more social by listing related functions, content from user’s friends, according to Microsoft’s post yesterday.The new design, which is due to be unveiled over the next few days, will alter the layout of the web page, dividing it into 3 panes, with the third pane showing related content from friends. The new design will also be made available for mobile devices in the coming weeks.
Diamond Offshore Lands $655 Million Drillship Contract With Hyundai
May 11th
5-10-12-Diamond Offshore (NYSE:DO) announced that its subsidiary landed a turnkey contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries for construction of a new ultra-deepwater drillship. The delivery of the ship is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2014. Total cost of the contract is expected to be approximately $655 million. The new drillship, to be named Ocean BlackLion, will be of the same design as Diamond Offshores three units currently on order with Hyundai. All four drill ships currently under construction will be equipped with an additional blowout preventer for use as a spare to improve the reliability of the rigs.
Goldman Sachs Loses Money On 1 Q1 Trading Session
May 10th
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) lost money trading one day in the first quarter. The bank disclosed in its 10Q that traders made over $100 million each day on 24 days in the first quarter and losses didn’t exceed VAR during the quarter.
It may owe $1.33 billion if rating is cut 1 notch and $2.21 billion if rating falls 2 levels.
The bank sees “reasonably possible” legal losses of about $2.7 billion.
Also of note, on February 28th the bank disclosed in its fourth quarter it had 4 days of trading losses and had sees about $2.4 billion in “reasonably possible” legal losses.
Goldman Sachs is fairing well on the markets this morning. Currently, it is up over 1 and a half percent to $108.92.
Cisco Systems Forecasts Lower Q4 Profits
May 10th
Cisco Systems announced its forecast for profit in the fourth quarter, after releasing their third quarter earnings yesterday.
The networking company posted an EPS of $0.48 a share on revenue of $11.6 billion which was inline with estimates.
This wasn’t horrible news until the company released its fourth quarter outlook on their conference call. Cisco expects to post a fourth quarter EPS in the range of $0.44 to $0.46 a share. They expect revenue to increase 2% to 5% year over year to a range of $11.4 billion to $11.8 billion. This was below what analysts were expecting of an EPS of $0.48 on sales of $12 billion.
Disney Stock to Watch After Positive Earnings Results
May 9th
Disney will be a stock to watch this morning after their positive earnings results released yesterday.
Despite the disastrous flop of the film “John Carter”, Disney posted second quarter net income of $1.14 billion or $0.63 a share, beating analyst estimates. Revenue for the quarter rose 6% from the prior year coming in at $9.6 billion, also above estimates of $9.56 billion.
These results, however, do not include Disney’s newest hit “The Avengers” which was produced by their Marvel Entertainment unit.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger commented on the earnings, citing Disney’s newest success, “With 18% adjusted growth in earnings per share, we’re pleased with our second quarter performance. We’re incredibly optimistic about our future, given the strength of our core brands, Disney, Pixar, Marvel, ESPN, and ABC, and our extraordinary ability to grow franchises across our businesses, such as The Avengers, which shattered domestic box office records with a $207.1 million opening weekend for a global performance of more than $702 million to date.”
Strong Earnings Results Boosts Dead Foods Shares
May 9th
Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) reported its first quarter results this morning, with adjusted EPS of $0.31 a share, exceeding estimates of $0.20 a share.
Adjusted first quarter consolidated operating income totaled at $152 million, 42% higher than the $107 million made the same period last year.
Gregg Engles, Chairman and CEO commented on the earnings, “Today we announced strong first quarter results, driven by stronger than forecasted growth across each of our three operating segments, and supported by tight expense control across the business. As a result, consolidated adjusted operating income increased 42% above year ago levels. Our financial performance was further bolstered by declining interest expense, resulting in first quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.31, more than double the previous year and the sixth straight quarter we have delivered adjusted EPS at or above our guidance.”
With these strong earnings, Dead Foods is soaring in early trading, up over 7% to $13.67.
