• Cisco Beats the Street
    Posted by on February 6th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    Cisco (CSCO) just reported earnings of 33 cents a share, two cents more than Wall Street was expecting. The company had gross margins of (GASP) 64.8%. I think only the mafia does better.
    For the decade (and century and millennium), shares of Cisco are down -49.07%. Over that time, the Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) is down -51.64%.

  • Harley sees layoffs, output cuts; blames strike
    Posted by on February 6th, 2007 at 4:13 pm

    Reuters reports:

    Harley-Davidson Inc. plans to lay off up to 740 workers and cut production at two sites because of a strike at its largest motorcycle plant, the company said.
    Negotiators for the company and the strikers planned to meet with a federal mediator today, Harley said. No details on the meeting were made public.
    Nearly 2,800 workers at Harley’s York, Pennsylvania, plant, which makes some of the company’s most profitable motorcycles, walked off the job on February 2 after their contract expired. Harley is seeking a variety of concessions from the workers.
    In a statement posted on its Web site, dated February 5, Harley said it would reduce production of engines, transmissions and components at two plants that supply parts to the York facility. That will mean the temporary layoff of about 740 workers at the plants in Menomonee Falls and Tomahawk, Wisconsin, it said.

    The article notes that analysts believe the strike will cost Harley a penny per share a day in profits. Here’s Harley’s statement. The stock closed higher today.

  • Share Crazy
    Posted by on February 6th, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    Guess what country’s stock market is up 787% since 2002?
    I’ll give you a hint: Kenya.
    Give up?
    From the Guardian:

    Kenya has gone share crazy. The incredible performance of the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) – which is next to the public auditorium and provides the live share-price feed – is the talk of the country. From 2002 to 2007, the main NSE index rose 787% in dollar terms, according to Standard & Poor’s, the investment research firm, making it one of the world’s best-performing markets.
    Jimnah Mbaru, the NSE chairman, said: “We have several stock market billionaires [1bn shillings equals £7.2m]. We’ve stopped counting the multimillionaires.”

  • Nicholas Financial Hits New 52-Week Low
    Posted by on February 6th, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    Shares of Nicholas Financial (NICK) got down to $10.96 a share this morning, a level it hasn’t seen since January of 2006. The P/E ratio is now in the single digits.
    For the first nine months of NICK’s fiscal year, net earnings were up 12.4%

  • Jim Cramer – Sex Machine
    Posted by on February 6th, 2007 at 11:34 am

  • Apocalypse Dow
    Posted by on February 6th, 2007 at 11:07 am

    Bloomberg looks at the market for catastrophe bonds–debt linked to “insurance claims from calamities such as hurricanes, earthquakes or disease.”

    Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world’s largest reinsurer, estimates the market for insurance-linked securities, which includes everything from Triple-X and bird flu bonds to so-called sidecars, will grow to $350 billion in a decade after more than quadrupling to $27 billion in the past five years. With as much as $2 billion in underwriting fees up for grabs, almost every investment bank, from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to Deutsche Bank AG, is building teams to sell and trade insurance.
    “You can’t match these yields,” said Brynjolfsson, who holds $1 billion of catastrophe bonds at Newport Beach, California-based Pimco. “They fully compensate the investor for the risks that are being underwritten and provide an additional premium. I’m making a real strong push with issuers and Wall Street to bring out more of these securities for my investors.”

  • You’re the TV Guy!
    Posted by on February 6th, 2007 at 10:45 am

    This is cute. Lindsay spots that guy. You know, that guy from that TV show. Oh, you know. That guy!

  • State Street Buys Investors Financial Services
    Posted by on February 6th, 2007 at 10:23 am

    In August, I profiled Investors Financial Services (IFIN) which is a company very similar to our SEI Investments (SEIC). They both do the “back office” work for banks and mutual funds. It’s a great business. Yesterday, State Street (STT) said it was going to buy IFIN for $4.5 billion. The stock jumped 27%.

  • Precision-Guided Cancer Weapons
    Posted by on February 5th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

    Business Week looks at some wicked cool technology from our very own Varian Medical Systems (VAR) that’s helping to fight cancer:

    In early 2005, Phil Ogden noticed he was having trouble swallowing food and went to a doctor, thinking he might have acid reflux. The news was far worse. The 66-year-old retired cop from Modesto, Calif., had esophageal cancer, and it had already spread to nearby lymph nodes. Dr. Albert Koong, a radiation oncologist with Stanford University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, asked if Ogden would mind being the first person to undergo a new type of radiation treatment. “The doctor said: ‘For the first time in history, we can bomb the equivalent of an outhouse from 30,000 feet with no collateral damage,'” Ogden recalls.
    Koong was referring to treatment with a $3 million device from Varian Medical Systems Inc. (VAR ) It combines a linear accelerator, which emits high-energy X-ray beams, with advanced imaging gear. The machine enabled the doctor and his team to home in on cancerous cells and deliver precise doses of radiation over a six-week period without harming surrounding tissue. For the patient, that meant fewer side effects of radiation, such as a dry mouth and weight loss. Within days, Ogden was putting on pounds as it became easier to swallow. Ogden has since had to receive chemotherapy to treat small spots of cancer elsewhere in his body, but his esophagus remains cancer free.

    Year……….Sales……….Oper Earnings……Taxes……….Net
    2002……….$873.1………….$148.0……….$53.3……….$94.7
    2003……….$1,041.6……….$200.6……….$70.2……….$130.4
    2004……….$1,235.5……….$258………….$90.3……….$167.7
    2005……….$1,382.6……….$308.3……….$101.7……..$206.6
    2006……….$1,597.8……….$318.7……….$75.1……….$243.6

  • Forecast Is Cut by UnitedHealth
    Posted by on February 5th, 2007 at 10:38 pm

    From Reuters:

    The UnitedHealth Group cut its 2007 revenue forecast yesterday after determining that membership in its full-service Medicare plans for older patients would probably decline “modestly” this year.
    The company lowered its Medicare Advantage projection for the second time in two months, even as a rival health insurer, Humana, said it picked up 100,000 such Medicare members in January alone.
    UnitedHealth’s new Medicare Advantage forecast led analysts to speculate that the company’s performance has suffered as it tries to emerge from a stock options scandal.
    The insurer, which is based in Minnetonka, Minn., now expects consolidated revenue to exceed $78 billion this year, down from a forecast last month of approximately $79 billion. It maintained its net earnings forecast for the year at $4.7 billion to $4.75 billion.

    This is minor, and the market seems to agree. But it will be interesting to keep an eye on.