Among the companies Team serves are refiners, pipeline and oil field services firms. The company said the estimate cuts are the result “primarily of cost and utilization challenges in the quarter.”

The issues appear to be local to Team, and not applicable generally to the industry. The company added more resources than it could effectively utilize in the quarter. Team said its lower revenue growth reflected fewer large turnaround projects, presumably in the refining sector.

Team now expects earnings per share (EPS) of $0.52 to $0.60. In March the company guided EPS at $0.69 to $0.84. The consensus estimate had called for EPS of $0.74.

The previous revenue estimate of $192 million to $207 million also has been narrowed, to $195 million to $200 million. Gross margins are expected to fall 2%.

Saying that the firm will issue 2014 fiscal year guidance in August, Team did offer guidance based on its initial review. The company expects 2014 revenues of $790 million and EPS of about $2.00 a share. The consensus estimates call for EPS of $2.24 on revenues of $789.17 million.

Shares are down more than 16%, at $35.32 in a 52-week range of $24.95 to $46.66.

On a GAAP basis, Priceline posted EPS $4.76 a share, which excludes an adjustment of $215,000 for unvested restricted stock units and performance units.

The company’s CEO said:

“International gross bookings growth of 43% in the 1st quarter reflects continued strong performance of our international brands around the world. … We continue to see economic uncertainty in certain regions, and competition in the online travel sector remains intense. We are encouraged by the solid growth our businesses are delivering globally and will continue our investments in people, marketing, geographic expansion, content and innovation to lay the foundation for future growth

Priceline is “targeting” second quarter revenues about 15% to 22% above those in the same quarter last year and expects adjusted EPS in the range of $8.87 to $9.45. The consensus estimates for the second quarter call for EPS of $9.58 and revenues of $1.64 billion. Priceline’s high-end revenue estimate is $1.62 billion.

The company said that concerns about sovereign debt and the viability of the euro “have negatively impacted historical operating results and may impact future results.” priceline noted that “the variability around its guidance is elevated” due to uncertain global economic conditions.”

Needless to say, shares are down about 3% in after-hours trading, at $737.50 in a 52-week range of $553.42 to $745.24. Thomson Reuters had a consensus target price for the shares at around $826.60 before today’s report.

Last week, IBM reported its first quarterly earnings miss in eight years, and the company said at the time that it would spend $1 billion cutting jobs among its workforce as a way to reduce expenses. The memo to CDI claims that IBM’s reduction in hours is intended to “retain as many CDI resources as possible for future work.”

Neither IBM nor CDI responded to requests for comment on the memo. At this time, the reduction in hours only applies to the second quarter of 2013. CDI employees make be exempted from the 36-hour rule upon written authorization from IBM management.

Shares of CDI are down more than 6% at $13.82 after posting a new 52-week low of $13.58 earlier today. The stock’s 52-week high is $18.23.

IBM’s shares are up about 0.8% at $201.12 in a 52-week range of $181.85 to $215.90.

We would also point out that February production was raised to a 1.1% gain from a prior report of 0.8%.

What is interesting is that both Dow Jones and Bloomberg pointed out in a blurb that the production gains are being tied to utility usage being up more than 5% for the month of March. Manufacturing actually was down by 0.1%, versus being up by 0.9% in February. Manufacturing also was shown to have decreased 0.3%, if you back out vehicle-related items, in March after a 0.8% increase the prior month. Mine production was down 0.2%, and that was even before this latest drop in commodity prices.

Pay attention to capacity utilization. This marked the third consecutive month in which capacity was above 78%, and that is a first since before the recession.

Safeway currently owns about 96% of Blackhawk and “will continue to hold shares of Class B common stock representing a significant majority of the combined voting power” of Blackhawk’s outstanding shares after the offering. The lead underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, BofA/Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank Securities.

According to the filing, Blackhawk currently counts among its gift-card customers such high-profile companies as Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW), Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes. The company also serves the three large payment networks: American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP), Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) and Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA). Blackhawk also issues reloadable cards for Green Dot Corp. (NYSE: GDOT) among others, including its own PayPower brand.

Blackhawk’s filing indicates that the company will receive none of the net proceeds from the offering. Class A shares will have one vote and Class B shares will have 10 votes on all matters that are put to a shareholder vote.

According to the filing, Blackhawk posted net income of $48.165 million in 2012 on operating revenues of $959.07 million, up from $362 million in revenues and $22.7 million in operating profits in 2001, the year the company was founded.

AIG released a press release showing that its Connective Mortgage Advisory Company is “drawing on the company’s investment expertise and United Guaranty’s mortgage insight” for the purchase of residential mortgages for investments. The company said:

AIG announced today it has launched a new business unit called Connective Mortgage Advisory Company. The new company, which recently facilitated AIG’s first correspondent mortgage purchase, draws upon AIG’s investment expertise and the experience of its mortgage insurance subsidiary, United Guaranty Corporation, to identify and buy residential whole loan mortgages as investments.

The new Connective unit is focused on identifying residential first-mortgage loans to be purchased as long-term investments for AIG. As a part of the terms for the loans to purchased as investments, AIG will manage the loan-servicing component. The reality is that AIG can easily handle this. The public perception of this, however, is likely to be far different. The problem is that AIG effectively blew itself up and was a major contributor of what would have blown up so many other financial giants during the recession had it not been for the billions and billions of taxpayer bailout dollars.

AIG maintains in this release that direct investment in residential mortgage loans “offers attractive investment returns and enables a proactive approach to managing mortgage risk.” Again, our concern is not really whether AIG can manage this. Our concern is that the public will ask, “Isn’t that sort of why we bailed them out just a few years ago?” Whether the insurance giant created a hole worth endless of billions by insuring and participating in mortgages, CDOs and other securitizations may get lost in the shuffle here in what is, by and large, a liberal media that does not really like Wall St. and those who create wealth merely from financial dealings. Here is the supporting data offered by AIG:

Over the past several years, United Guaranty has been using a multivariate risk-assessment model to determine the quality of individual loans in the pricing of its mortgage insurance. United Guaranty is contributing deep knowledge of the residential mortgage landscape to the Connective project. “With the support of AIG, United Guaranty became the mortgage insurance market-share leader with risk-based pricing products,” said Donna DeMaio, United Guaranty’s Chief Executive Officer. “United Guaranty’s understanding of residential mortgage markets combined with AIG’s investment expertise creates unique new investment opportunities for AIG.”

AIG said that the Connective unit will establish correspondent relationships with lenders and will underwrite loans, and that it will provide support throughout the loan purchase process. It also said that all mortgage purchases will be subject to rigorous underwriting and risk management standards.

Here is where the difference from the past comes into play: There are no plans for Connective to conduct any direct lending or securitization. Our problem with today’s news is that the public is still too rattled to hear that AIG is getting more active in another major aspect of the public’s finances, even if this is different from what really blew up the company.

The reality is that the public no longer owns AIG. Reality and perception may differ. As CEO Robert Benmosche has indicated previously, the company just cannot get involved in certain things (like suing the government over the bailout terms) because of the public perception. The public perception by many is still that AIG owes the public, even if that debt is merely a moral one.

It is one thing for AIG to actually do this new mortgage investing initiative. It is quite another thing to telegraph the launch of this new initiative. Perhaps AIG should have just launched this new mortgage effort without formally announcing it.

While things continue to be very rough here for this for-profit online educator, one analyst is looking through the tea leaves and sees some light at the end of the tunnel.

Deutsche Bank has raised its analyst rating to a somewhat cautious Hold from a prior Sell rating. We would note that most traders and investors consider a Hold rating in negative light, but that is not the case when the upgrade involves removing a formal Sell rating.

The firm has talked about a distressed valuation over enrollment and placement issues, as well as the ongoing regulatory reviews. Deutsche Bank is not exactly calling for improvement. The firm’s take is that there is limited downside as of now, even if the enrollments continue to decline.

As this is a Hold rating, the price target is immaterial. It is always interesting when a brokerage firm tries to call a bottom after a highly extended period of negative trends. It also requires for investors and traders to recall one caveat about a light at the end of a tunnel. Sometimes that light is truly the end of the tunnel. Sometimes that light is a freight train headed your way.

Apollo Group shares are up 5.8% at $17.154 on the upgrade today, against a 52-week trading range of $15.98 to $43.80.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) held on to the market share lead in the fourth quarter, claiming 36.5% of sales, identical with its share in the fourth quarter of 2011. Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) held on to second place, with market share of 24.8%, down’ 1.8% from its fourth quarter share a year earlier, and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) finished third, with share of 15.1%, down just 0.3% from same period in 2011. Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), Fujitsu, and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) finished in a statistical tie for fourth place with around 3% to 4% share each.

The revenue picture was a bit brighter, with total year-over-year quarterly revenue growth of 3.1%, but the growth was spread unevenly. IBM posted growth of 3.1%, to $5.34 billion for the quarter, while Cisco grew revenue nearly 51%, to $480 million. Dell’s revenue grew 5.7% to $2.22 billion, while HP’s revenue fell 3.2% to $3.63 billion.

IDC noted that average selling prices “increased sharply” in the quarter, with most growth coming at the low and high ends of the server product offerings. Mid-range server revenues declined for the quarter by 10%, while low-end machines posted revenue growth of 4.2% and revenue on high-end machines grew by 6.4%.

Servers powered by Windows from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) grabbed 45.8% of revenues, while Linux-based machines garnered 20.4% of revenues, mostly at the expense of Unix-based servers. IBM’s mainframes saw a revenue boost of more than 55%, to $1.8 billion, the first positive spurt after five consecutive quarters of decline.

This time, the chief executive has been cleared recently of another Department of Justice inquiry into his stock trading practices, but the company has cut its forecast dramatically, once again costing shareholders hundreds of millions of dollars.

Maybe the lesson from all this is that skepticism should be the rule when an investor is considering putting some money into VeriFone. It just could be that there is no there there.

Shares are down nearly 39% this morning to $19.62, and they posted a new 52-week low of $19.43 earlier today. The prior 52-week range was $27.33 to $55.89.

For the fourth quarter Moody’s reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.70 on revenues of $754.2 million. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $0.43 on revenues of $567.1 million. Fourth-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.69 and $683.34 million in revenues.

For the full year, the company reported adjusted EPS of $2.99 on revenues of $2.73 billion, compared with a consensus call for EPS of $2.98 on revenues of $2.66 billion.

What is most interesting about Moody’s is how the management is reacting to the recent charges against Standard & Poor’s related to ratings on mortgage bonds. S&P is owned by McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. (NYSE: MHP). The conventional wisdom on the subject is that S&P did nothing that the other agencies did not also do, so when does the other shoe drop? Moody’s conference call takes place at 11:30 this morning, and this is certain to be a topic.

As to earnings, the company’s CEO said:

Moody’s delivered strong financial performance throughout 2012, with double-digit revenue growth in most lines of business. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, we anticipate generally favorable market conditions to remain in place in 2013.

The company forecast 2013 EPS in the range of $3.45 to $3.55. Moody’s expects revenue growth in the high single-digit percent range. The consensus estimate for the current quarter calls for EPS of $0.77 on revenues of $690.13 million. For the full year, the consensus estimate calls for EPS of $3.18 on revenues of $2.83 billion. Neither Moody’s forecast nor the consensus estimate takes into account potential federal fraud charges though.

Moody’s shares are trading up fractionally in the premarket this morning, at $47.01 in a 52-week range of $33.86 to $55.58. The consensus target price for the shares was around $51.50 before today’s report.