Earnings After The Close…

  • February 7, 2005
  • Brice Wightman

Stocks were mixed, taking a breather
after Friday’s big gains. narrow range trading; the Dow had a range of only 35
points today. Last week, the Dow rose 2.8%, the Nasdaq gained 2.05% and the SPX,
+2.7%.

Wellpoint
(
WLP |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
profit fell 12%, but still beat expectations.

Humana
(
HUM |
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News |
PowerRating)
beat by 0.02 and raised forecast for 2005.

Hasbro
(
HAS |
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Chart |
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PowerRating) missed by 0.05.

Beazer Homes
(
BZH |
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News |
PowerRating) split 3:1.

Included in the 2005 budget is a $419.3 billion increase in defense spending.
Companies likely to benefit are: Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), General Dynamics
(
GD |
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News |
PowerRating), United Defense Industries
(
UDI |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Alliant TechSystems
(
ATK |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating).

Wendy’s
(
WEN |
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PowerRating) increased its dividend by 12.5%.

Coca-Cola
(
KO |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is adding Splenda to its Diet Coke.

After the close, Biogen Idec [BIIB|BIIB} missed by 0.02. The stock
traded down after hours. EDS beat by 0.02. TriQuent
(
TQNT |
Quote |
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News |
PowerRating)
beat by a penny. Business Objects
(
BOBJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.04. The stock
traded up after hours. Quality Systems [QSIIQSII] beat by 0.08.

Earnings season is beginning to wind down; however, tomorrow after the close,
look for Cisco to report. Estimates are 0.22.

Strong sectors were: Drugs
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.53%  Chemicals  
(
$CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.33%  Healthcare
(
$HCX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.17%.

Weak sectors were: Gold
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.66%  Oil Services
(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.81%   Healthcare Providers
(
$HMO.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.94% 

Dow -0.37 10,715.76
S&P 500 -1.31 1201.72
Nasdaq -4.63 2082.03

The dollar was +0.66 at
85.04

Crude Oil was -1.18 at
45.30

Gold was -0.70 to 413.40

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 1.3 billion on the NYSE and
1.68 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was mixed.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1694 Up Vol 561
Declining 1614 Down Vol 613
1.04 1.09
Nasdaq
Advancing 1457 Up Vol 579
Declining 1649 Down Vol 945
1.13 1.63

Stocks in the News

Louisiana Pacific
(
LPX |
Quote |
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PowerRating) missed by 0.13.

ImClone
(
IMCL |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will be in focus after Carl Icahn disclosed a 6%
stake in the company.

Kerr-McGee
(
KMG |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was the subject of a positive article in
Barron’s.

RealNetworks
(
RNWK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was also the subject of a positive article in
Barron’s. The company may be an acquisition target.

Brice Wightman