Stocks To Open Lower
Stocks appear set to open lower on
Tuesday.
ESS Technologies
(
ESST |
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PowerRating) said
it
expects Q2 results to beat prior guidance. The company sees earnings per share
to be greater than 34 cents vs. prior earnings guidance of a range between 24
cents to 28 cents a share. Multex consensus was for 27 cents.
United Healthcare
(
UNH |
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PowerRating) has
entered an agreement to acquire AmeriChoice for $560 million. The deal includes
approximately 5.5 million shares of UNH as well as the assumption of $30 million
in debt.
Linens N’ Things
(
LIN |
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PowerRating) priced 3.3
million shares of common stock at $30.90 per share.
UBS Warburg initiated coverage on the
Biotech sector. The firm started Genentech
(
DNA |
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PowerRating) and
Medimmune
(
MEDI |
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PowerRating)
with Strong Buy ratings and Amgen
(
AMGN |
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PowerRating),
Chiron
(
CHIR |
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PowerRating), Genzyme
(
GENZ |
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PowerRating)
with a Buy rating and IDEC Pharmaceuticals
(
IDPH |
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PowerRating) and
Biogen
(
BGEN |
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PowerRating) at Hold.
Morgan Stanley cut IBM’s
(
IBM |
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PowerRating)
estimates for 2002 from $3.95 to $3.85 and 2003 from $4.45 to $4.35,
putting estimates well below consensus.
Broadcom
(
BRCM |
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PowerRating) was upgraded at
Morgan Stanley from Equal Weight to Overweight based on valuation.
Pier 1 Imports
(
PIR |
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PowerRating) reported Q1
earnings of 23 cents a share, in line with Multex consensus.
Morgan Stanley lowered its estimates
on PC growth for 2002. It sees unit growth coming in the range of -2.0% to +2.0%
from 0.0% to +5.0%.
Kirby Corp
(
KEX |
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PowerRating) lowered guidance
for Q2 from a range of 46 cents to 50 cents to a range of 36 cents to 38 cents.
Multex consensus is for 50 cents.
Consumer Prices were unchanged for the
month May, which shows that there is virtually no worry of inflation and in turn
allows the Federal Reserve to delay any decisions to raised interest rates.
Housing starts shot up 11.6% in May
the largest gain in almost 7 years.