Microsoft (MSFT) has decided that it would rather be the video game market share leader than make a buck at the business.
Redmond cut the price of its Xbox 360 to $199. That drops it from its previous sticker of $279. The action may take some business away from the Sony (SNE) PS3, but it is more clearly aimed at market leader Nintendo which has remained in the front spot for months with its $250 Wii.
Corning Inc (GLW). Chief Executive Wendell Weeks is on the hot seat with investors after the glassmaker lowered earnings guidance because of lower-than-expected shipments of LCD glass. Even bigger problems may lay on the horizon for the Corning, New York,-based company over the next few years.
According to Corning’s latest 10-Q, several of its customers entered into long-term purchase and supply agreements with its Display Technologies business in 2004 and 2005 for periods of as long as six years. Between 2004 and 2007, Corning received $937 million in deposit from these clients.
Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN) has filed to sell up to 6,000,000 shares of common stock in a secondary offering. These shares of common stock to be sold are going to registered under the REIT’s existing shelf registration statement on file with the SEC. The underwriting syndicate consists of Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, UBS, and Merrill Lynch. The underwriters will receive a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 900,000 shares to cover over-allotments.
Corning (GLW) Revises forecasts down. Falls to $17.04 from 52-week high of $28.07.
Forest Laboratories (FRX) Major drug plans go off track. Down to $29.81 from 52-week high of $43.38.
McDermott International (MDR) Oil-related stocks still doing badly. Sells down to $28.10 from 52-week high of $67.14.
Barrick Gold (ABX) Gold stocks keep moving South. Dips to $30.94 from 52-week high of $54.74.
The new top dog among the IPO universe we follow for 2008 is now IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: IPCM). Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) had been in that position with the highest gain from its IPO pricing, although today’s drop took care of that. That is also misleading in that the Visa IPO priced at $44.00 and actually opened up around $60.00 and the lows have only been $55.00. IPC The Hospitalist is now up roughly 68% from the $16.00 IPO inJanuary. If you consider that it has actually traded at $16.25 after asubstantial premium give-back in March when shares fell from north of$20.00.
GM (GM) did not lose 25% to 30% of its sales in August when the numbers were compared to last year. It was less bad than that.
The company reported a 20.3% fall in August U.S. light vehicle sales to 307,285 cars and trucks from 385,529 a year ago. Cars slid 13.9% while trucks slumped 24.1%.
GM may still be headed toward a position where it is going to be low on cash. It is just not moving there at flank speed. With incentive pricing, it is paying for each sale, in a maner of speaking.
Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) today released a presentation it will be making at the Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) Energy and Power Conference later this week. The presentation put a bit of meat on the bone of a statement in Valero’s earnings release that the company was reducing cap-ex by $700 million, from $4.5 billion to $3.8 billion.
"Worst case scenario" is a term used by people who have been out of business school for less that two years. It is a buffoon’s way of saying that a firm has gone directly to the Ninth Circle of Hell in the Inferno section of Dante’s The Divine Comedy.
Ford posted its worst day since the company nearly went bankrupt at the end of WW II. The family brought in Henry Ford II, or "HF, The Deuce" as he was known, to fix his grandfather’s operation.
Codexis Inc. has filed with the SEC last night to withdraw its planned initial public offering. Based in Redwood City, California, the company provides solutions for pharmaceutical chemical process development and manufacturing, The company has withdrawn its registration for an IPO of up to $100 million. One interesting note is that this company is V.C.-backed and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is one of the V.C. investors via a collaboration pact. Other investors are CCTV Investments, CMEA Ventures, Pequot Capital, and others. Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs were going to be co-lead underwriters. You can guess the reasons behind this withdrawal: due to current public market conditions….
Jon C. Ogg
September 3, 2008
The most bizarre thing about the economic slowdown is the continued strength of Urban Outfitters Inc. (URBN).
Not only is the Philadelphia-based retailer continuing to post impressive results but its stock just hit an all-time high. The company continues to open stores as well. During the six months ended July 31, it added 24 new locations, including 10 Urban Outfitters stores, 7 Anthropologie stores, 6 Free People stores and 1 Terrain garden center. It expects to open 45 new stores during the full fiscal year. The company also boosted gross profit margins by 373 and 408 points respectively in the three and six months ended July 31.
Pier 1 Imports (PIR) shareholders have been through a painful quarter. Stock in the company have dropped over 40% in the last 90 days.
That got worse today. PIR said its same-store sales for the second quarter fell 1.7 percent.
VS Investor posted several day-trade alerts.
The first was for McAfee (MFE) which was hammered by analyst downgrades.
Ambac (ABK) spiked up 20% on strong volume.
LoJack Corp. (NASDAQ: LOJN – News) may have seen some of the first positive news in some time, which will allow the company to migrate away from being reliant solely upon tracking autos at a time where consumers are cutting whatever expenses they can cut without disrupting their lives. The FCC has granted LoJack’s petition from back in 2005 which will allow it to use the nationwide frequency used to assist in stolen vehicle recovery for a more diverse tracking and recovery applications in previously untapped or at least have not been deeply penetrated.
GM (GM) likes its "employee pricing" incentives so much that it is going to extend them through the end of September and make them available on more models.
Good new. Bad news. Clearly GM is selling more cars that it might have if it was charging "retail" for all of the same models. The move clears out inventory, much of it last year’s models, and may help dealers who are having trouble moving cars. It is an especially good way to to SUVs and pick-ups which are of interest to fewer and fewer buyers.
The first point most investors will make about CostCo’s (COST) August revenue is that it came in under expectation.
But, that would be to miss the point. A survey of analysts by FactSet Research produced a consensus estimate of $22.91 billion of sales for the quarter
These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive calls we are seeing this Wednesday morning:
Jon C. Ogg
September 3, 2008
These are some of the top analyst downgrades and negative calls we are seeing this Wednesday morning:
Jon C. Ogg
September 3, 2008
Banks have been taking money from the Fed for months. They can pledge dirty dishes and wall paper in exchange for real cash at low interest rates. The system has been hailed as the salvation of the financial system. While things could still get worse, the Fed has done everything it could.
The theory behind giving the banks that money is that they would do two things with it. The first was to strengthen their balance sheets. That has sort of worked out. The other goal was to get more liquidity into the consumer and business markets. The effect of that should be to decrease the costs of credit for the average citizen and companies that needed capital to grow.
The good thing about the Apple (AAPL) iPod is that the company has sold 160 million of them. That is the bad thing about the device as well. Apple ships about 10 million units a quarter, and that figure is no longer going up very fast.
It does not seem right to say that too many people have iPods but it is starting to look that way. Apple has to come up with a new reason for consumers to walk into store with iPods on their minds. Mac and iPhone sales have been good, but the little MP3 player is what makes Jobs run.
After months of haggling with governments in the US and Europe along with IMF officials. the world’s largest sovereign funds have agreed that their investments in banks and corporations will not be a veiled attempt to take over the American government.
According to The Wall Street Journal an important goal was to assure recipient countries that the funds "act from commercial motive rather than other motives."
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