Stocks to watch Monday - UPDATE 2 05.07.2003 18:27 Headlines
Earnings season is swirling offshore and arrives in moderate strength
Tuesday.
Aluminum giant Alcoa is due to report Tuesday, with Yahoo and Genentech on
deck for Wednesday.
Akorn , which makes medical and pharmaceutical products, said after Thursday's
bell that its lenders approved a forbearance agreement on its senior debt and
will add $1 million to its line of credit. Akorn said its sales were below
expectations from April through June, and that slowdown is expected to continue.
Alcatel said Friday that it repurchased 342 million euros of its own bonds, 20
percent of the total outstanding. The telecom manufacturer said the repurchase
price was on average 0.60 percent higher than the minimum price it had set out
in mid-June.
American Airlines said late Thursday that it was satisfied with a 10th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that dismissed a suit alleging predatory pricing
by the airline on some of its routes. The Justice Department filed the action in
1999.
Utility operator Aquila said after Thursday's close that it requested a 15.5
percent electricity rate increase in Missouri. Another request seeks a 19.2
percent increase in charges it makes for steam supplied to six commercial
customers.
Regional carrier Atlantic Coast Airlines said late Thursday that its June
traffic totals showed a 24.7 percent increase in revenue-passenger miles over
the previous year, with an 11.4 percent gain in available seats. For the second
quarter, revenue-passenger miles rose 18.8 percent and available seats were up
6.6 percent from a year earlier.
Boyd Gaming and MGM Mirage will be looking for some payback after opening a $1
billion casino, the Borgata, in Atlantic City on Thursday.
Brookfield Homes , announcing its date for reporting second-quarter earnings,
said after Thursday's bell that its orders for the first six months, combined
with a backlog from 2002, totaled 95 percent of its home-building target for the
entire year.
Cablevision Systems Corp. said in an 8-K regulatory filing Thursday that the
Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a formal investigation of its
expense accounting. CVC is the largest cable operator in the New York area. The
SEC is looking into a matter the company first reported June 18 regarding its
Rainbow Media Group, the filing. Cablevision said it notified the SEC and the
U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn about accounting irregularities it found at
its American Movie Classics unit. It fired 14 executives after an investigation;
Cablevision said that $6.2 million in expenses were improperly booked in 2002
instead of 2003, according to a June 18 SEC filing.
Cirrus Logic , which makes semiconductor chips for entertainment devices, said
late Thursday that it expects sales for its fiscal first quarter of 2004, ended
June 28, to be at the low end of its previously announced outlook of $40 million
to $45 million and anticipates double-digit percentage revenue growth in the
September quarter due to improving business conditions and growing backlog.
Thomson First Call analysts had been expecting a loss of 14 cents a share.
Separately, Cirrus said late Thursday that Steven Overly had stepped down as
chief financial officer. His job will be filled by controller W. Kirk Patterson,
who has been with the company three years and formerly worked at
PricewaterhouseCooper and BP.
Cable TV operator Comcast said late Thursday that it will sell its stake in TV
shopping channel QVC to Liberty Media for $7.9 billion. Terms were still in
flux, said a statement from the companies, with payment possible in a
combination of cash and stock and subject to regulatory approval. Shares of
Vivendi Universal , meanwhile, gyrated Friday in European markets on the
possibility that Liberty Media's deal might make it a less aggressive bidder for
Vivendi's entertainment properties.
CET Services said late Thursday it had sold a note from Road Runner Oil,
previously considered uncollectible and written off, for its $500,000 face
amount plus $46,000 interest. CET, which rehabilitates and develops contaminated
urban sites, said the deal delivers a material infusion to its working capital.
Chesapeake Utilities said after Thursday's close that it sold two of its seven
water-service businesses. Terms and the buyer were not disclosed. Chesapeake
said its water units are producing disappointing results and that it intends to
concentrate on its energy business.
Delta Air Lines warned investors late Thursday about a tender offer from TRC
Capital, at $13.55 a share, which is below the carrier's Thursday close of
$14.20. The SEC has warned about such "mini-tenders" as attempts to take
advantage of unaware investors.
Electric utility operator Dominion said after Thursday's bell that it filed to
issue up to $3 billion in securities over the next two years. Dominion said that
a second filing allows it to issue shares that satisfy convertible securities
that mature in the next few years.
Dynegy said late Thursday it has reached an agreement to settle four contracts
it had to supply power to grocery-chain Kroger .
Gilead Sciences could be a leader in the biotech sector's earnings season,
thanks to the drug developer's Viread treatment for the virus that causes AIDS.
Hearst-Argyle said late Thursday that it expects its second-quarter revenue to
be down 2 percent from the year-ago $182.3 million, citing the 2002 political
advertising that is not available this year. Earnings per share are expected at
27 cents, the television station operator said. Analysts reporting to Thomson
First Call had been expecting EPS of 31 cents and revenue of $181.4 million, on
average.
Canada-based gold miner Iamgold said late Thursday that it had been added to
the American Stock Exchange's Gold Bug Index .
Interstate Bakeries said late Thursday that losses by its workers' compensation
insurance provider will require higher reserves in the company's self-insured
fund. That will knock down earnings by 10 to 12 cents from Interstate's previous
estimate, according to the maker of snack pastry such as Twinkies and Drake's.
Interstate was projected to report 7 cents a share in earnings, according to the
Thomson First Call consensus.
Auto parts maker Methode Electronics said after Thursday's bell that its board
will evaluate an unsolicited cash tender offer from Dura Automotive . The offer,
announced early Thursday, was $23 per share, more than double the target's
$11.44 close at the end of the week's trading.
Microsoft declined to comment late Thursday on a story from the French
newspaper Les Echos that said the software giant would pay out $10 billion in a
special dividend. The report cited an unnamed source.
Netease , a China Web portal, said Friday that it will pay $4.6 million to
acquire the remainder of its shares held by News Corp. and its affiliates.
Netease said the 27 million shares were from an investment before its IPO in
2000.
Oracle said late Thursday that it extended its tender offer for PeopleSoft
until July 18. The software company's initial offer, announced June 9, was to
expire July 3.
Orasure Technologies , which makes dental products, said late Thursday it filed
to offer up to $75 million in securities to be used for general corporate
purposes.
Parkervision , which makes communications products, said late Thursday that it
registered about 1.4 million shares that had been privately placed in March with
members of the controlling Parker family.
Barron's figures Portfolio Recovery Associates is in a squeeze. The company
buys delinquent debt, such as credit-card accounts, and uses call centers "to
chase the deadbeats," though the company's Web site says it is committed to
giving debt collectors a good name. Barron's says the company's stock multiple
is about 31 times trailing earnings, which compares to a P/E of 10 for the
nearest competitor. Growth is a way to justify the company's multiple, but
Barron's checks with experts who say the key is to buy bad debt cheaply enough
to profit, and that takes keen judgment in competitive bidding. Two other
problems are raised: A secondary offering was completed despite the loss of a
contract that provided 10 percent of the company's revenue, and Portfolio
Recovery reports earnings based on estimates of debt recovery, requiring
restatements if those estimates were wrong.
Redback Networks said late Thursday that it expects to report $22 million in
second-quarter revenue, below the $30.7 million consensus of analysts reporting
to Thomson First Call. The maker of broadband telecom equipment cited continued
caution by its customers and weakness in the Pacific/Asian market.
Royal & Sun Alliance's insurance financial strength rating was downgraded one
notch Friday by Moody's to "Baa2" from "Baa1," as the rating agency noted
concerns that it may have to inject capital into its U.S. operations. The
outlook on all RSA group ratings outside the USA is stable; for the USA
subsidiaries the outlook is negative.
Shurgard Storage Centers said late Thursday that it plans a public offering of
4 million shares, with a 600,000 share over-allotment.
Printing company Troy Group said a special committee of its board had rejected
a sweetened takeover offer from Westar Capital LLC, which raised an unsolicited
bid from $3.50 per share to $4. Meantime, Troy is working toward an August close
of its merger with Dirk Inc., which is controlled, like Troy, by the Dirk
family.
UAL , parent of United Airlines, dropped its employee stock ownership plan,
freeing the workers' investment group to sell shares in the No. 2 airline, the
Chicago Tribune reported Friday.
US Airways said late Thursday that its June passenger loads had declined, with
revenue-passenger miles down 5.8 percent and capacity off 7.3 percent from the
previous year. For the whole second quarter, the airline said revenue-passenger
miles were down 10.5 percent on an 11 percent capacity decrease. The airline
filed for bankruptcy last year, re-emerging March 31 with about 17,000 fewer
workers and scaled-down operations.
U.S. Liquids , which provides services related to liquid waste, said after
Thursday's bell that it had completed its restatement of earnings, reducing
operating income by about $2.1 million over three years.
An Arkansas Supreme Court ruling, announced late in Thursday's trading period,
reversed a labor union verdict and requires Wal-Mart to allow union
representatives to attempt to organize in the retail chain's stores. The United
Food and Commercial Workers union Web site said the ruling overturns a
nationwide injunction against its organizers.
This story was supplied by CBSMarketWatch. For further information see
www.cbsmarketwatch.com.
|
Thread abonnieren
so 'long' tinti
so 'long' tinti 
