Posts for Ticker ‘UTX’

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/11/2009) (AMR)(INTC)(GE)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

11:45 AM EST: Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) may seek to sell its Home & Networking division for about $4.5 billion according to WSJ. -Jon Ogg

American Air (NYSE:AMR) may team with private equity firm TPG to make an investment in Japan Air.  (Bloomberg)

AIG (NYSE:AIG) CEO Robert E. Benmosche may resign. (WSJ)

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) plans to release a new programming language called Go that can help computer coders improve efficiency  (CNET)

China may benchmark the yuan against currencies other than the dollar. (CNBC)

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) may hold a critical edge against the EU in the antitrust battle.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) is in talks to sell its security systems unit to United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) for over $1.5 billion. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 8:41 am in Rumors, , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/27/2009) (SNE)(UTX)(BRK.A)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Updated 10.21 AM EST: The pricing of the Ancestry.com IPO may be much too high.  (BreakingViews).

Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) new social search feature may not include industry leader Facebook  (TechCrunch)

David Sokol interim CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) subsidiary NetJets Inc, is the top candidate to take Warren Buffett’s job  (The Deal)

There could be another seven million home foreclosures in the US.  (TheStreet.com)

Home prices could drop another 5% to 10% by mid-2010. (Bloomberg)

United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) has is the frontrunner in the bidding for GE’s (NYSE:GE) fire alarm and surveillance systems business. (Bloomberg).

Former AIG (NYSE:AIG) boss Hank Greenberg is actively stealing talent from his old company.  (NYTimes)

NBC Universal which is 80% owned by GE, could be spun out as an IPO. (CNBC)

“The Obama administration is scheduled to announce Tuesday where it is spending $3.4 billion of stimulus money on 100 smart-grid projects in 49 states. As part of the funding, utilities are contributing $4.7 billion to the projects, making the total spending $8.1 billion. (CNET)

Nintendo may launch a large screen DSi which could be a challenge to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony (NYSE:SNE) game system sales. (TechTree)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 9:13 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

5 Wins in DJIA Component Earnings (CAT, KO, DD, PFE, UTX)

Bull and Bear ImageWe have seen the earnings reports from all five DJIA components which were on deck to report this Tuesday.  We are seeing a theme here: almost all posted lower earnings from a year ago that still beat earnings estimates, but this continues the trend that it is on cost cuts and/or on much lower revenues from a year ago.  The earnings came from Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), The Coca Company (NYSE: KO), EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), and United Technologies (UTX).

We provided details on each, with guidance where appropriate, some added color, and how well these have each done in stock performance since the June 30 close of Q2 and since the March 9 close where traders use as the end of the bear market on the index closing bell basis.
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Posted on: October 20, 2009 – 8:07 am in Earnings, , , , ,

5 DJIA Components Reporting Tuesday (CAT, DD, PFE, KO, UTX)

Bull and Bear ImageWe have provided some basic details on Tuesday’s earnings reports from DJIA components Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), DuPont or EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), and United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

Included are the earningd estimates from Thomson Reuters.  Then we also gave some added color where applicable.  Lastly, we gave the performance of each stock since June 30 and then the recognized date of the close of March 9 that traders use for the day the bear market died.
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Posted on: October 19, 2009 – 4:04 pm in Calendar, Earnings, , , , ,

At Least The Chinese Stimulus Works For The American Economy

china

Economists debate the impact of the U.S. economic stimulus plan, and if a second round of stimulus is needed. But there’s no doubt that China’s plan is working for us.

In the many rounds of second-quarter earnings calls, the CFOs of U.S. companies are lauding how well they are doing in China. Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) topped Q2 expectations, saying that China’s fiscal stimulus is beginning to work for them. United Technologies Corp.(NYSE: UTX), expects strong second-half China results, as the economy there begins to recover. Read More »

Posted on: July 22, 2009 – 10:33 am in Autos, Banking, China, Economy, Oil & Gas, , , , , ,

DJIA Component Earnings Trifecta (DD, MRK, UTX)

Money Stack ImageSo far we have three DJIA components with earnings out.  DuPont (NYSE: DD), Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) have all posted earnings.  So far there are no train wrecks and technically these are above the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates as far as the earnings per share numbers numbers are concerned.  All details are below.
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Posted on: July 21, 2009 – 6:27 am in Earnings, , , , , ,

Media Digest 4/22/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaper21According to Reuters, Yahoo!’s (YHOO) profit dropped 80% and it will cut 5% of staff.

Reuters reports that Chrysler bondholders offered to swap some debt for equity.

Reuters reports that Geithner says most banks are well-capitalized.

Reuters writes that a bear market still grips stock and credit markets.

Reuters writes that regional banks have been hit hard by the recession and bad loans. Read More »

Posted on: April 22, 2009 – 2:41 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , ,

The Silver Lining of Lower DJIA Earnings (CAT, KO, DD, IBM, MRK, UTX)

money-stack-image43There have been some pretty poor reports on earnings from DJIA components such as Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK), and United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).  But there may be a flip-side here for the ultra-bullish traders.  These estimates are being lowered to extreme levels and the bar may be set very low for the future.
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Posted on: April 21, 2009 – 8:52 am in Conglomerates, Earnings, Index, , , , , ,

Media Digest 3/11/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaper10According to Reuters, Madoff will plead guilty.

Reuters reports that most consumers do not expect any recovery until 2010.

Reuters reports that Bernanke says new management at AIG (AIG) has curbed costs.

Reuters reports that Chinese exports fell.

Reuters writes that the uptick rule may be brought back.

Reuters writes that Greenspan says the Fed did not cause the housing bubble. Read More »

Posted on: March 11, 2009 – 2:53 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

United Tech Slashing 11,600 Jobs; Cut Guidance Too (UTX)

united-tech-logoUnited Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) is trading higher on what would have been considered bad news in other economies or in different times.  The company announced an additional $600 million of restructuring actions for 2009 to now come to a total of $750 million.  Yep, you guessed it: layoffs.  The company is cutting its global workforce by 11,600.  It is also slashed 2009 guidance.
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Posted on: March 10, 2009 – 7:52 am in Conglomerates, Earnings, Labor & Unions,

Earnings Warnings Hardly Affecting Many Stocks (LSCC, UTX, STLD, FUL, WAT)

Burning_money_pic_3Earnings warnings are generally bad omens that rarely have a one quarter impact.  But with many of these stocks already pricing in really bad scenarios.  So when companies come in and say that revenues are down 3% or 12%, in many cases these are being rewarded by bottom-fishing traders who are trying to get into the stocks when the shares have sold off in many cases 50% or 75% (or more).  Some companies which issued earnings warnings are Lattice Semiconductor (NASDAQ: LSCC), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ: STLD), H.B. Fuller (NYSE: FUL) and Waters Corp. (NYSE: WAT)

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Posted on: December 12, 2008 – 10:40 am in Earnings Warning, Economy, Trading Alert, , , , ,

Media Digest 12/12/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

Newspaper_2According to Reuters, the auto bill died in the Senate and there will be no more action this year.

Reuters reports that the Bank of America (BAC) will cut as many as 35,000 jobs,

Reuters writes that with higher jobless rates, fewer people are missing work, even if they are unhappy with their jobs.

Read More »

Posted on: December 12, 2008 – 3:53 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , ,

Why So Many Mergers Are Failing (WMI, RSG, AW, VSH, IRF, DBD, UTX, SNDK)

Broken_merger_torn_moneyBack in normal economic times and back when private equity was king, Mondays were often referred to as "Merger Monday" because mergers would be announced at the start of the week.  If you monitor mergers and possible buyout targets in the manner we do at 247 Wall St., then today might feel like it should be named De-Merger Monday.  There are three very large mergers which have been scrapped today and this brings up issues in another pending giant technology merger.

Read More »

Posted on: October 13, 2008 – 1:05 pm in Mergers and Buy Outs, , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 10/9/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

NewspaperAccording to Reuters, the US Treasury may buy interests in large banks following the model set up by the UK.

Reuters reports that IBM’s (IBM) earnings strength helped calm tech investors.

Reuters reports that MetLife (MET) and The Hartford (HIG) may be in merger talks.

Read More »

Posted on: October 9, 2008 – 2:59 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (CBT, PCYC, THX, X, UTX)

These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive calls we are seeing this Wednesday morning:

  • Cabot Corp. (CBT) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.
  • Pharmacyclics (PCYC) Raised to Outperform at RBC.
  • Tenet Healthcare (THC) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  • U.S. Steel (X) Raised to Outperform at CIBC.
  • United Tech (UTX) Raised to Buy at UBS.

Jon C. Ogg
September 3, 2008

Posted on: September 3, 2008 – 7:09 am in Analyst Calls, , , , ,

Dow Components Rocking Earnings So Far (KO, JPM, UTX)

This morning we are seeing futures rise on the news from DJIA components being solid on the earnings front.  There are some mixed reactions, but we saw solid earnings in a tough environment out of Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), and United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) managed to beat EPS targets by $0.05 with $1.01 per share on a 17% revenue jump to $9.05 Billion; First Call estimates were $0.96 EPS and $8.93 Billion in revenues.  The company said that its worldwide unit case volume rose by 3% in the quarter, with the breakdown being a 5% gain in International and essentially a "maintaining unit case volume" in North America.  The company called it a difficult operating environment.  Because of currency adjustments and because of the difficult environment, shares are indicated down 2% at $51.20 before the open.  Its 52-week trading range is $49.52 to $65.59.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) posted a more than 50% drop in net income to about $2 Billion or $0.54 EPS but that is above the $0.44 estimate from First Call.  The banking giant also took a $3.46 billion provision for credit losses, which included a $1.3 Billion gain for loss reserves.  Jamie Dimon is not raising the dividend but shares are indicated up over 4% at $37.65 before the open.  Its 52-week range $29.24 to $49.95.

United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) also beat its earnings targets with $1.38 EPS on a 12.5% gain to $15.67 Billion in revenues.  First Call had estimates at $1.30 and $15.33 Billion in revenues. The company issued mixed guidance for Fiscal-2008 as it sees $4.80 to $4.98 EPS, above prior target of $4.65-4.85 and above $4.89 estimates from First Call.  It also sees Fiscal-2008 revenues north of $60 Billion ($59.78 Billion consensus).  United Tech’s shares are trading up over 5% at $64.50 in pre-market trading.  Its 52-week trading range is $58.87 to $82.50.

Dow futures are up roughly 84 points at 11,290 in pre-market levels right before the open.

Jon C. Ogg
July 17, 2008

Posted on: July 17, 2008 – 8:20 am in Earnings, , ,

Major Buybacks This Week (CCOI, FOSL, HIG, KALU, OSG, URI, UTX)

As we have pointed out over and over, it appears that buyback announcements are on the decline in a serious way as far as "new buyback plans" being announced.  Ultimately we believe that the buyback paces coming to a crawl is for several factors, with the main issues being the need of cash and the embedded insurance policy this gives companies who want to shore up their capital during a weak economy.  We did not count the smaller buyback announcements, but these are the larger ones we saw  this week (alphabetically rather than chronologically):

Cogent Communication (NASDAQ: CCOI) completed its prior plan and added another $50 million to its buyback machine.  The market cap is about $682 million.

Fossil Inc. (NASDAQ: FOSL) announced that it would repurchase some 2 million shares, or roughly 3% of its shares outstanding.

Hartford Financial Services (NYSE: HIG) added $1 Billion to its prior plan, and its market cap is nearly $23 Billion.

Kaiser Aluminum Corp. (NASDAQ: KALU) is one of the old ones that would be easy to overlook or forget about.  But the company raised its dividend and announced a $75 million share repurchase program.  This is only about 1.1 to 1.2 million shares, but when you compare it to the $1.3 Billion market cap and the 390,000 share average daily volume it large on a percentage basis. 

Overseas Shipholding (NYSE: OSG) replaced its prior buyback plan with a $250 million stock buyback announcement, and it raised its dividend too.  This represents more than 3 million shares at current prices and compares to about a $2.4 Billion market cap.

The big kahuna buyback came from United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) announced it was doing a swap and buyback of some 27.16 million shares.  This represents close to 31% of its entire outstanding share count.

United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) was perhaps the largest buyback from the largest company this week.  The company announced it would buy back up to 60 million shares as a replacement to its prior plan.  Based on a near-$70 price, this implies a sum of up to $4.2 Billion if prices remained static.  This has roughly 973 million shares outstanding.

Jon C. Ogg
June 13, 2008

Posted on: June 13, 2008 – 12:02 pm in Stock Buybacks, The Week, , , , , , ,

GE (GE) Breaks To Another 52-Week Low

GE (GE) has reaffirmed guidance and will sell off its appliance division. That has been not enough to keep sellers at bay. Shares in the conglomerate moved down to $30.52, a new 52-week low. While the Dow is off a bit less than 5% this year, GE is down 17%.

After falling on disappointing earnings for the first quarter, GE regained some of its footing, but selling the appliance business has not been considered an adequate solution to the company’s problems. Wall St. still believes that GE is in too many businesses to effectively manage them. While its infrastructure operations have done well, other parts of the company including its medical and industrial arms have not.

Shareholders are also concerned that Asia, which was to be the company’s big growth engine, is no longer economically robust enough to support major revenue improvements for GE. If its operations there falter, the US and Europe are only likely to contribute modestly the the firm’s success.

Wall St. continues to believe that the solution to the conglomerate’s troubles is to break the company into pieces. The minority report on GE is that it needs new management and that similar operations like United Technologies (UTX) are doing better.

Whether its is the company’s structure or its management, GE’s shares are not going back up.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: May 23, 2008 – 9:07 am in Conglomerates, ,

GE’s New 2008 Fair Value: $33.75… Conglomerates Head Lower (GE, MMM, UTX, HON)

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) poor earnings report may be a shock to most.  When you consider that the annual preview was just given one month ago, this flies in the face of the economy and the financial malaise bottoming out around current numbers.

So what we wanted to do was come up with a fair market value based upon Jeff Immelt’s new guidance for 2008.  Immelt put guidance at $2.20 to $2.30.  If you take a mid-point of $2.25 and assign a fair market P/E multiple of 15, you derive a new fair value of $33.75 for the stock.

To make matters worse, investors in stocks will still want a return in the vicinity of 6% to 8% for taking the risk in equities versus fixed income.  If that is the case, then GE shares may see $31.25 to $31.83 for the required rate of returns to be in the stock.  Before this, GE’s shares had recovered nicely and analysts had an average target price that was north of $42.00.  Those targets will be coming down sharply.  Right before the open, GE shares are down over 11% at $32.60.  Interestingly enough, the 52-week low is $31.65.

Analysts will be looking for the fallout in other conglomerates this morning.  They’ll also hit financials, as if there are any safe zones after the news.  Management at 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), or Honeywell (NYSE: HON) might want to get their guidance for 2008 out today or Monday.  Those companies are all down this morning, but all are initially down by less than 2% right at the open as they are deemed as having lower exposure to the financial sector.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about special financings, secondary offerings, IPO’s, M&A, and more previews for other special situations in various stages.

Jon C. Ogg
April 11, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.  He can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: April 11, 2008 – 8:37 am in Conglomerates, , , ,

Media Digest 3/4/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

According to Reuters February car sales dropped sharply especially for US made vehicles.

Reuters writes that BHP Billiton (BHP) is working on raising $55 billion for its potential takeover of Rio Tinto (RTP).

The head of Dubai International Capital said more money would be required to rescue Citigroup (C).

The Wall Street Journal writes that Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) agreed to a code of conduct with New York’s attorney general that would bar inflated appraisals

The Wall Street Journal writes that gold and platinum hit record highs.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Citigroup (C) and Wachovia (WB) face lawsuits from a hedge fund in a dispute over insurance derivatives contracts.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Merck (MRK) has made further steps in settling Vioxx suits.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Deibold (DBD) rejected a buy-out bid from United Technologies (UTX).

The Wall Street Journal writes that Intel (INTC) cut estimates for its gross margins.

The Wall Street Journal reports that more big banks may have to cut dividends.

The Wall Street Journal writes that GM’s (GM) eight brands often compete against themselves, hurting the company’s turnaround effort.

The New York Times writes that the total cash held by companies in S.&P.’s industrial index exceeded $600 billion in February, up from about $203 billion in 1998.

The New York Times reports that Porsche is closer to a takeover of VW.

The FT writes that Ambac (ABK) has decided not to split itself into two companies.

The FT writes that GE (GE) will gain large orders for its jet engine business due to EADS getting a new military contract for building tankers.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: March 4, 2008 – 3:51 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,