Search results for Jim Jubak
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Posted
Oct 26 2009, 12:58 PM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Third-quarter earnings, announced before the opening on Monday, should be a reminder of why I added Verizon (VZ) to my Dividend Income portfolio rather than to any of my more growth-oriented portfolios on October 9th.
Making enough money to pay the stock's 6.6% dividend doesn't seem to be a problem; getting enough growth in the new businesses to compensate for the decline in the old businesses continues to be a challenge.
The company did manage to beat Wall Street's earnings estimates for the quarter by a penny a share. Revenue came in as expected at $27.3 billion, up 10.2% from the third quarter of 2008. The total number of wireless customers grew to 89 million. That's a 26% increase.
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Posted
Oct 23 2009, 03:24 PM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
When I added Microsoft (MSFT) to Jubak’s Picks on July 24, 2009 after the company announced results for its fiscal fourth quarter, I wrote “This is as bad as it gets.”
After its Oct. 23 earnings release, the company is now saying the same thing. In the post-earnings conference call, Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell said that the fourth quarter may have been the bottom. Certainly, the company is behaving as if it were: Microsoft resumed buying back shares in the quarter that ended in September, with purchases of 1.4 billion shares.
First quarter earnings for fiscal 2010 fell to 40 cents a share, but that beat the 32 cents expected by Wall Street. Revenue declined by 14% from the first quarter of fiscal 2009 to $12.92 billion. That big drop in revenue came because Microsoft deferred $1.47 billion in revenue from customers upgrading to Windows 7. Put that back in and revenue came to $14.39 billion, a 4% decline from the year-earlier period.
Microsoft beat Wall Street estimates this quarter by cutting costs by more than Wall Street expected. Operating costs dropped 6.9% after the company made its first ever company-wide firings, slashed travel costs, and cut the prices it pays vendors. In the conference call, the company increased its cost-cutting target.
The big question going forward, however, isn’t about cutting costs, but about how many copies of the new Windows 7 operating system Microsoft can sell.
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Posted
Oct 22 2009, 01:43 PM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Now that’s the kind of quarter investors own McDonald’s (MCD) for.
Earnings for the third quarter, reported before the market open on Oct. 22, climbed to $1.15 a share from $1.05 in the third quarter of 2008. That was above Wall Street expectations of $1.11 a share. (This puts McDonald’s among the 80% of so of Standard & Poor’s 500 stocks that have beat Wall Street estimates so far this quarter. For more on that, see this Oct. 20 post.)
Revenue fell 3.5% to $6.05 billion. That was below analyst projections of $6.1 billion. But on a constant currency basis, revenue was up 2% from the third quarter of 2008
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Posted
Oct 21 2009, 09:15 AM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Finally, someone with real power in the current financial world has stated the obvious: The world's big banks need to be broken up into utilities that do what you and I think of as banking, and speculative trading companies that take risky bets on the markets with their own money.
The speaker of such truths: Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England.
Proposed market reforms, including rules that would require banks to raise more capital, don't address the basic danger posed by banks that are too big to fail, King said in a speech on October 20 in Edinburgh.
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Posted
Oct 19 2009, 01:03 PM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
When it comes to offshore oil and gas drilling rigs, it's a tale of two markets.
The market for jack-up rigs and shallow water semi-submersibles, the types of rigs used in relatively shallower water, is still taking a beating.
For example, in its latest fleet status report on October 9, Transocean (RIG) announced that it would stack (take out of service) an additional three jack-up rigs. That's a total of 22 jack-up rigs and six mid-water floaters that the company has stacked. On the other hand, orders for deep-water rigs, the hottest part of the market, got even stronger
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Posted
Oct 16 2009, 11:33 AM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Google's (GOOG) strong earnings report indicates something, but just what?
On October 15th, after the market's close, Google reported earnings of $5.89 a share, 47 cents a share above the consensus estimate of $5.42. Revenue, after traffic acquisition costs, climbed 8.4% from the third quarter of 2008. That was about $160 million ahead of the Wall Street consensus of $4.24 billion.
But what do the numbers mean?
I know it's commonplace to put Google in the technology sector -- I do it myself -- but despite its huge technology footprint, the company's revenue still comes mostly from advertising.
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Posted
Oct 15 2009, 01:43 PM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The fundamentals are improving in Brazil -- but right now global cash flows are driving emerging-market stocks.
In the long run, I want Brazil in my portfolio because of those improving fundamentals. In the short run, I want to own Brazilian stocks because global cash is flowing their way. In the intermediate term, though -- say, nine months from now -- I want to get increasingly cautious as the U.S. Federal Reserve moves towards raising U.S. interest rates.
Right now all that adds up to a new higher target price for Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (BRF).
First, the fundamentals. On October 14th, Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill said that with the right mix of policies, Brazil could sustain average annual economic growth of 5% over the next ten years.
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Posted
Oct 14 2009, 11:51 AM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
There were no big negative surprises from JPMorgan Chase (JPM). That was the good news Wednesday morning, when the financial giant reported third-quarter earnings of 82 cents a share, way above the 50 cents a share expected by Wall Street analysts.
A nice positive surprise that.
The company also told investors it had added another $2 billion to its reserves against losses in its credit card business. That brings total credit reserves at JPM Chase to $31.5 billion. Wall Street had been expecting that JPM Chase would add $1.4 billion or so to reserves.
Not the huge negative surprise that some on Wall Street feared.
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Posted
Oct 13 2009, 12:04 PM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
No matter what health care reform bill emerges from Congress this year -- or if there's no bill at all -- the pressure to get costs out of the health care system is just going to get more intense. (For the reasons why, see my October 13th post)
In that effort, requiring that health plans replace proprietary drugs with generics is an easy way to cut costs (or to look like you're cutting costs).
So, generic drug makers win once because any legislation will expand the number of insured able to afford drugs, and twice, because economics will continue to move patients, doctors, and health care bill payers to generics.
No wonder Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA) is guiding Wall Street to 30% earnings growth in 2010.
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Posted
Oct 12 2009, 11:23 AM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
I bought shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) for Jubak's Picks on Sept. 25 because, among other reasons, the company has a history of buying promising new technologies and then using its huge market clout to grow them. It's about as close to a venture capital fund as you can buy on the stock market.
Buying Corning (GLW) will give your portfolio a similar new technology boost -- with one difference: The new technologies you get from buying Corning were invented there.
This company is one of the most prolific research and development operations in U.S. business. And unlike some companies that are good at inventing things but never manage to get them to market, Corning has been able to turn everything from fiber optic cable to ceramic dinnerware to glass for displays and LCDs into major and profitable businesses.
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