Market Blog submits:
By David Berman
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (ANCTF.PK) reported disappointing earnings on Tuesday, sending the stock down 5.9%. On Wednesday, the stock was down again as the reality of the slow U.S. economic recovery sinks in.
Zacks.com submits:
Burger King Holdings Inc. (BKC), the second largest hamburger chain, hinted that adverse weather conditions in the Central and Eastern part of the U.S. dragged down the U.S. & Canada segment comparable sales.
Ockham Research submits:
Fortune Brands (FO) is the holding company for a variety of brands including everything from Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark whiskey to Moen faucets to Titleist golf balls. Today, Fortune Brands has decided to sell the Cobra golf equipment brand to Germany’s Puma AG, although specific financial details of the deal were not made available. Fortune Brands will instead focus its efforts on its other golf assets including Titleist the #1 ball in golf and Footjoy which is tops in golf shoe and glove sales. Cobra was most known for its golf clubs, but it has lagged Titleist in golf club sales as well. Clearly, Fortune Brands see more benefit to shareholders in sticking with its most valuable brands in the golf division rather than splitting its concentration between competing brands.
The only financial details made available were Fortune Brands expectations that the deal will be two-cents dilutive to 2010 EPS, but will yield a one-time gain of five cents in the
quarter when the deal official closes. With just about 152 million shares outstanding, we can surmise the deal will net the company somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 million, which is not a huge sum for the brand, IP, inventory, endorsement contracts, and staff.
Zacks.com submits:
Staples Inc. (SPLS), the global leader for the supply of office products, recently boosted its quarterly dividend by 9%. The Board has approved an increase in annual dividend to 36 cents (or 9 cents quarterly) from 33 cents a share (or 8.25 cents quarterly).
Framingham, Massachusetts-based, Staples, said that the higher dividend will be paid on April 15, 2010, to shareholders of record as on March 26, 2010. Staples’ strong liquidity provides financial flexibility to drive future growth and reward shareholders.
theflyonthewall.com submits:
Aeropostale (ARO) is expected to report Q4 earnings after the market close on Thursday, March 11 with a conference call scheduled for 4:15 pm ET.
Analysts are looking for a profit of 95c on revenue of $796.1M. The consensus range is 94c-$1.00 for EPS, and revenue of $758M-$800M, according to First Call. The company reported that January same-store sales increased 11% and February SSS increased 7%, both better than analysts expected. The teen retailer raised its Q4 EPS guidance to $1.00 from 90c-92c in February, and announced a 3-for-2 stock split in March. Barron’s has been positive on Aeropostale in recent months, noting that its gross margin was up in February.
Andrew Horowitz submits:
Aside from Skechers (SKX) shoes being rather ugly, the idea that this new technology / shape will help to shape you up by the nature of its design is close to ridiculous. They appear to be sneakers for befitting of the stylishness of Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, but that is my opinion. As for the facts of this company, there are many that also point to ugliness in its stock price potential.
Currently we are seeing an opportunity for a limited risk short on Skechers (SKX). Technical levels are all pointing to a short-term pull back with Stochastics exiting the overbought territory and sloping downward. We are also seeing Relative Strength beginning to decline and the MACD crossing down. Secondly, on 3/3 we saw an substantial increase in insider selling taking place.
Zacks.com submits:
The Kroger Company (KR) recently posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter 2009 results. The quarterly earnings of 39 cents a share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 34 cents but fell 26.4% from 53 cents reported in the prior-year quarter.
The quarterly earnings topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 14.7%. In the third and second quarters of 2009, quarterly earnings missed the consensus by 25% and 11.4%, respectively.
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