Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, March 30, 2007
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SUSIE GHARIB: Wall Street opened to the upside on relatively strong readings on personal income and spending which suggested the economy is holding its own. The Dow rose 41 points at the outset of trading while the NASDAQ gained 9 points. The market turned abruptly lower in late morning on that news that the Commerce Department will start imposing tariffs on some Chinese goods. With the help of end of quarter institutional buying however, stocks bounced back this afternoon and ended on a mixed note. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 5.60 at 12,354.35. This week, it rose twice, fell three times, had a net loss of 126.66 points. The NASDAQ Composite up 3.76, closing at 2421.64 today. It fell twice and rose three times this week losing 27.29 points overall. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.67 to 1420.86 today. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 2/32 to 99 26/32, putting the yield at 4.65 percent.
LSI Logic (LSI) topped the active list gaining $0.41. The company expects to close on its acquisition of Aguirre (ph) on Monday and since it's a stock deal, that's why LSI was at the top of the active list, trading 33.1 million shares.
Then came Kraft Foods (KFT) with a gain of $0.14. Today, the Altria Corporation completed the spin off of its Kraft shares and incidentally, Kraft stock will be added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, replacing Sabre (ph) Holdings.
General Electric (GE) a $0.19 loss.
Motorola (MOT) dropped $0.04.
AT&T (T) moved up $0.26 a share, fifth in volume.
Time Warner (TWX) down $0.13.
Pfizer (PFE) fell $0.15.
Ford Motor Co (F) $0.06 drop there.
EMC Corp (EMC) managed to gain $0.19.
Tenth in volume, ExxonMobil (XOM) losing $0.79 a share.
Checkpoint Systems (CKP), one of the stars of the day, up $3.74. Fourth quarter earnings, including one-time items, $0.51, versus $0.28 a year ago. That's $0.13 better than the Street expected and revenues were up a respectable 12 percent.
Devry (DV) up $2.57 or Devry as it's pronounced. Bank of America upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" and boosted its price target from $29 to $37 a share in the belief the company's positive enrollment trend will continue.
Geo Group (GEO) up $1.22. The prison management company was upgraded by Lehman from "equal weight" to "over weight" because of the company's recent reduction in its debt levels according to Lehman.
And then Global Payments (GPN) dropping $5.11, even though third quarter earnings rose to $0.42 from $0.36 a year ago, but the revenues of $260 million in the third quarter fell about $3 million short of expectations and on top of that, Standard & Poor's cut its 12-month price target on the stock from $50 down to $41 a share.
WP Stewart & Co (WPL), this is a Bermuda-based asset management firm, down $0.93. The company said first quarter earnings will be cut by $0.11 a share due to terminations and also the company did cut its quarterly dividend from $0.23 to $0.15 a share.
Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) down $1.03. The mobile phone giant warned that its United Kingdom profits may be pressured by lower margins.
JC Penney Co (JCP) moving up $0.89. The board of directors approved the $400 million stock buyback and the company's boosting its quarterly dividend by 11 percent to $0.20 a share.
Then Grupo Aeroportuario (ASR), this is a Mexican airport managing company and its chairman has offered to buy about 43 percent of its stock at about $50 per American depository share, nice move in the stock today.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list, down $0.84.
Google (GOOG) a loss of $2.76.
Microsoft (MSFT) moved up $0.12.
Then the big gainer of the day, Dendreon (DNDN) up $7.71, traded as high as $18.05. An FDA advisory committee said evidence showed the company's Porvenge (ph) for prostate cancer treatment appears to be safe and effective.
Intel (INTC) $0.04 gain, fifth in volume.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a dime gain.
Dell (DELL) down $0.18 after the close yesterday as we reported, the company said it has some major accounting problems.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.41 gain.
A nickel gain in Amgen (AMGN).
And Broadcom (BRCM) was up $1.02, tenth in dollar volume on NASDAQ.
New issue today, Capital Product Partners Lp (CPLP), this is an oil tanker charter company, 11 3/4 million shares offered to the public at $21.50 a share, opened at $26, high of the day, $26.95. It closed near the high, pretty good debut in the stock.
And then over on the American Exchange, Adams Resources & Energy (AE), crude oil and nat gas marketer, had sharply lower fourth quarter earnings, $0.47, down from $1.80 last year. Revenues in the period fell 18 percent.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
