Three Buy List Earnings Reports

Harley-Davidson (HOG) reported earnings of $1.14 a share this morning which is a penny better than expectations and a 25.3% increase over last year. The company said that it expects full-year growth of 4% to 6%. For 2008 and 2009, the company expects growth of 11% to 17%. Hmmm, those numbers strike me as unusually exact.
These are decent results but I was expecting more from HOG. Last quarter, Harley beat by two cents, the stock jumped from $61 to $66, then slipped back to the low $60s for much of the last three months. The stock is down sharply this morning.
After excluding some charges, Danaher (DHR) beat by a penny a share. This is a very solid stock. The company made 94 cents a share compared with 80 cents last year. The company now expects Q3 EPS of 92 cents to 97 cents. DHR also bumped up its full-year range from $3.70-$3.80 to $3.74-$3.82.
The stock had been in a trading range for several months, but finally broke out a few weeks ago. Shares of DHR are down a bit today.
UnitedHealth (UNH) is getting smacked around this morning. The company earned 87 cents a share, six cents better than estimates. That’s a big jump from the 70 cents a share it made last year.
I’m not really sure why the market is so unhappy with UNH. The company’s projections are basically in line with Street’s forecast. UNH expects Q3 EPS of 91 to 93 cents, the Street expects 92 cents. For the year, UNH is looking for $3.43 to $3.48, the Street expects $3.45.

Posted by on July 19th, 2007 at 10:33 am


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