For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – February 4, 2010 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO), Honda Motor Co. (HMC), Entergy Corporation (ETR), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and Automatic Data Processing (ADP).
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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:
Cisco Beats Big
Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) kept the recent string of positive earnings surprises from big technology companies alive with better-than-expected Q2 results today after the bell.
Sales for the three months ending January 23 were up 8% from last year to $9.8 billion.
Earnings also came in strong at 40 cents per share on an adjusted basis, 10 cents better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Cisco has been very consistent over the last year in a tough market, beating in all four quarters by an average of 16.5%.
Cisco gained in a couple of key categories during the quarter. The company’s cash flows from operations jumped to $2.5 billion from $1.5 billion last year. Cisco also continued to grow its massive treasure chest of cash, with cash and equivalents increasing $5 billion from two quarters ago to $39.6 billion.
Cisco has also remained committed to its share repurchase program, snapping up 63 million shares of common during the quarter for $1.5 billion, bringing the company’s total shares repurchased during the current campaign to 2.9 billion at a cost of $60 billion.
Honda Profits Jump to $1.5 Billion
Honda Motor Co. (HMC) has posted a profit of ¥134.6 billion ($1.5 billion) for the third quarter of its fiscal ended December 31, 2009, a huge increase of 565.1% from the same period in 2008. This was equivalent to earnings per share of ¥74.19 (81 cents), an increase of ¥63.03 (68 cents) from ¥11.16 (12 cents) for the corresponding period last year.
Consolidated net sales and other operating revenue in the quarter rose 11.5% to ¥2.2 trillion ($24.3 billion). This was attributable to unfavorable currency translation effects and decreased sales in the automobile business.
Entergy Beats Zacks Consensus
Entergy Corporation (ETR) reported strong earnings per share (EPS) of $1.75 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, soundly beating both the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.64 and the year-ago quarterly EPS of 99 cents. The upside came from lower taxes and lower operational costs.
Of the 15 analysts covering the stock, 7 have upped their estimates for fiscal 2010, along with two positive revisions over the last 7 days. Currently the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2010 is $6.46, which is a tad lower than the fiscal 2009 EPS of $6.67. In fiscal 2008, Entergy registered an EPS of $6.51.
Revenue in the reported quarter fell 16.7% to $2.5 billion from $3 billion in the year-ago quarter, with Electricity down 24.2% and Natural Gas down 19.8%, while Competitive Businesses was up 9.8%. Residential sales increased 6.1% compared to the year-ago quarter, commercial sales increased 3.4%, governmental sales increased 5.4% and industrial sales increased 7.1%. Overall volume sale increased 4.4% in the reported quarter. The company was able to improve upon the overall headcount of customers year-over-year by 1.1%, barring the industrial customers which shrunk 3.3%.
Comcast Outperforms, Outlook Flat
Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) reported better-than-expected fourth quarter 2009 financial results. Quarterly GAAP net income was $955 million or 33 cents per share, compared to just $412 million or 14 cents per share in the prior-year quarter.
However, in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company recognized $130 million (4 cents per share) of income tax benefit. Excluding this item, fourth quarter EPS of 29 cents exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 27 cents. Higher revenue and lower interest expense from a reduction in total debt are the primary reasons for the positive surprise.
ADP Sees 22,000 Jobs Lost
The nation’s largest payroll processor, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported today that the country lost 22,000 private sector jobs in January. That is slightly better than the consensus expectation of a 30,000 job drop.
This is the most important preview of the big “official” jobs report from the BLS due out on Friday morning. While in the past, the ADP numbers and the BLS numbers have not always seen eye to eye, in December the ADP numbers were spot on — with an original estimate of -84,000 and the BLS coming in at -85,000.
This month, ADP has revised down the job losses for December by 23,000 to 61,000. The overall decline in jobs is the smallest by ADP’s reckoning since February 2008.
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