Paul Kangas' Stocks In The News
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: The bigger-than-expected rise in consumer prices did not sit well on Wall Street. Neither did a smaller-than-expected .1 of 1 percent rise in the leading economic indicators. Just before noon, the Dow was off 65 points, NASDAQ down four. That firmness in the tech-laden NASDAQ market helped stem the decline overall, but a surge in oil and other commodity prices precluded any comeback for stocks in general. So the Dow Industrial Average closed off 48.23 at 12,738.41. The NASDAQ Composite gained 5.38 at 2,518.42, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell just over 2 points to end at 1,457.63. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 4/32 to 99 14/32, putting the yield at 4.70 percent.
Big board volume leader on 17.6 million shares, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) down $2.03. After the close yesterday, as we reported, first quarter earnings jumped 26 percent, but the stock today down on concern among analysts as to whether the company can maintain such good earnings growth.
Ford Motor Co (F) down there $0.18.
And then Pfizer (PFE) lost $0.23.
General Electric (GE) a $0.20 loss.
EMC Corp (EMC), fifth in volume, up $0.19.
Motorola (MOT) was down $0.27. Lehman Brothers downgraded it from "over weight" to "equal weight" in light of the slow recovery of handset profit margins and ThinkEquity brokerage today downplayed speculation Motorola might acquire Palm Incorporated.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.09.
Medtronic (MDT) fell $2.52. Third quarter earnings out today, $0.61, up from $0.55 last year, but the company defibrillator sales slipped a bit and that had analysts concerned.
Advanced Micro (AMD)
down $0.36.
Then AT&T (T), tenth in volume, down $0.50. The company received a $1 billion five-year contract to provide networking services for General Motors, nice contract for AT&T.
Look at this gain, Chemed (CHE) up $7.61. This is a company that owns Roto-Rooter among other things. The stock traded as high as $50.14 today after the company reported fourth quarter earnings $0.67, way up from $0.16 last year. Revenues rose 11 percent in the period.
Then Jack in the Box (JBX) up $6.45. First quarter earnings $1.03, well above last year's $0.70, as a matter of fact, $0.22 better than the Street's consensus.
And Sealy (ZZ) investors will sleep well tonight. The stock up $1.46. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $0.22, $0.03 above the Street estimate and Sealy plans to buy back up to $100 million of its own stock.
Tween Brands (TWS) up $2.16. Fourth quarter earnings excluding one- time items, $0.89, $0.05 better than the Street was looking for and revenues were up a respectable 16 percent.
Big loser of the day, Novastar Financial (NEI) tumbling $7.46. It traded as low as $9.81. The subprime lender experiencing an increase in defaults and it reported a fourth quarter loss of $0.39 versus earnings a year ago and it is now considering changing its status from real estate investment trust, hard hit on that stock.
Aaron Rents (RNT) down $2.12. Yesterday the company reported slightly higher fourth quarter earnings, $0.35, versus $0.29 a year ago and today Merriman Curran brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral."
Elsewhere we see Group 1 Automotive (GPI) down $4.20. Fourth quarter earnings excluding items, $0.67, $0.10 below the Wall Street estimate.
And the Vail Resorts (MTN) stock up $4. Prudential upgraded it from "neutral" to "over weight."
Topping the active list on NASDAQ, Apple (AAPL) up $3.30. Prudential boosted its March quarter earnings estimate to $0.68, $0.07 above the Street estimate, also kept its $100 a share price target.
Google (GOOG) up $3.76.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.52 gain.
Intel (INTC) dropped $0.30.
Research in Motion (RIMM) was up $0.36 a share, fifth in volume.
Amgen (AMGN) up $1.06.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell $0.28.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.65. AG Edwards downgraded it from "buy" to "hold" on valuation.
Yahoo! (YHOO) down $0.36.
And Oracle (ORCL), tenth in volume, moved up $0.22.
Jupitermedia (JUPM) up $2.05. The "New York Post" reports the company's in talks to be acquired by Getty Images for about $11 a share.
And finally, Hawaiian Holdings (HA), the parent company of Hawaiian Airlines tumbled $1.33 after reporting a larger than expected fourth quarter loss.
