Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, April 30, 2007
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PAUL KANGAS: After flying to record highs last week, Wall Street's blue chips headed still higher this morning. They were fueled by a continuing flow of strong corporate earnings and signs of a still healthy economy with subdued inflation. At midday, the Dow was up 31 points, NASDAQ down four. That weak tech sector undermined the blue chips as the day wore on, sending the Dow into the red at the final bell. Dow Industrial Average closed off 58.03 at 13062.91. The NASDAQ Composite slid 32.12, ending at 2525.09, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 11.70, ending at 1482.37. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 18/32 to 99 31/32, putting the yield at 4.63 percent. Topping the active list on the big board, 24.7 million shares traded, General Electric (GE) moving up $0.02. Friday, the stock had a good move up after a Citicorp analyst said the company's too complex and should spin off several divisions. Pfizer (PFE) a $0.15 loss.
Citigroup (C) itself was up $0.25. The "Financial Times" of London says it could become the target of activist hedge funds seeking to break up the company.
EMC Corp (EMC) $0.46 loss.
AT&T (T) edged $0.08 higher.
Motorola (MOT) a $0.24 drop.
Halliburton (HAL) edged $0.02 higher.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.98.
Ford Motor Co (F) a penny loss there.
And then Time Warner (TWX) gained $0.02 a share.
Verizon Communications (VZ), which is a Dow stock, up $0.29. First quarter earnings, $0.54, up from $0.46 last year and a penny above the Street consensus.
Procter & Gamble (PG), another big Dow stock, up $1.33. That stock up on optimism that tomorrow's third quarter earnings report will show earnings that exceed the Wall Street estimate of $0.74 per share.
Radioshack (RSH) had a good day, up $1.35. First quarter earnings jumped to $0.31, versus only $0.06 last year. The company cited improving profit margins and lower costs. Keybanc brokerage upgraded it from "under weight" to a "hold" recommendation.
Wm Wrigley Jr Co (WWY) up $3.83. First quarter earnings excluding one- time items, $0.50 a share, $0.03 above the Street estimate. This stock got really chewed up here, down $18.90. A "Barron's" article says that at Friday's stock price close, it carried a 70 percent premium to the underlying value, which it estimated at $65 a share. Incidentally Carl Icahn is a major shareholder in this company.
International Securities Exchange (ISE), on the other hand, a gain of almost $21. The company has reportedly agreed to a $67.50 per share buyout bid from Deutsche Boerse.
Eagle Hospitality Properties Trust (EHP) up $1.35. This is a hotel real estate investment trust and it will be acquired for $13.35 a share by AP AIMCAP.
Nam Tai Electronics (NTE) losing $1.42. First quarter earnings dropped to only $0.19 from $0.29 a year ago. That was $0.03 below what Wall Street was expecting.
Orma Technology (ORA) plunging $4.75. This company's involved in geothermal power plants and it's predicting a first quarter loss of $0.14 to $0.17 a share. The Street estimate was for a profit.
Humana (HUM) down $1.69. First quarter earnings fell 15 percent to 42 percent but that was still $0.02 higher than the Street estimate.
Also on the downside, Wellcare Health Plans (WCG) off $5.91. The Jefferies brokerage downgraded it from "hold" to an "under perform" rating.
And Circuit City Stores (CC) in regular trading, lost $0.48. After the close, the company withdrew its previous sales guidance for the first half of fiscal 2008 due to substantially below planned sales. In after hours trading, I saw the stock as low as $15.90 a share.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $0.12.
And then Microsoft (MSFT) $0.18 loss.
Google (GOOG) fell $7.63.
Amazon.com (AMZN) off $1.27. The BWS financial brokerage downgraded Amazon from "buy" to "hold" on a valuation basis.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) was down $0.29, nothing but losses on that board.
But Amgen (AMGN) managed to gain $0.87.
Intel (INTC) $0.37 loss.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.83 drop.
Comcast "A" (CMCSA) down $0.27.
And completing this blur of minus signs, down $0.02 on Dell (DELL).
Ionatron (IOTN) was up $1.06, nice percentage move there. The company said it signed a $500,000 Navy contract for its laser-guided energy technology.
And a good gainer in Enpath Medical (NPTH) rising $3.07. Greatbatch Incorporated will acquire this company for $14.38 per share cash.
Those are our stocks in the news tonight.
