For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – January 26, 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: Halliburton Company (HAL), Schlumberger Limited (SLB), AK Steel Corporation (AKS), Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (SWKS) and Google (GOOG).
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Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:
Halliburton Beats – Barely
Halliburton Company (HAL) — one of the largest oilfield service providers in the world — reported marginally better–than-anticipated fourth-quarter results, benefiting from increased activity in North America. Earnings per share from continuing operations, excluding receivable settlement charge in Venezuela, came in at 28 cents, a penny above the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Revenue & Profitability
On a year-over-year basis, Halliburton’s adjusted earnings per share was down more than 46% while revenue decreased 25% to $3.7 billion, hurt by weaker drilling activity and pricing pressures in the all-important North American region to which the company is heavily exposed through its market-share-leading pressure-pumping business. During the quarter, North America accounted for approximately 39% of Halliburton’s total revenue and 21% of its operating income.
Balance Sheet
Halliburton’s capital expenditure in the fourth quarter was $474 million, bringing the figure for the full year 2009 to $1.9 billion. At the end of the quarter, the company had approximately $2.1 billion in cash and $4.6 billion in long-term debt (including current maturities), representing a debt-to-capitalization ratio of 34.3%.
Outlook
Halliburton management indicated that North America margins had bottomed in most basins during the third quarter and now appears to be poised for a rebound. The world’s second-largest oilfield services company after Schlumberger Limited (SLB) sees 2010 as a transition year in which the industry looks to balance supply growth with recovering hydrocarbon demand.
AK Steel Beats Expectations
Shares of AK Steel Corporation (AKS) gained more than 6% after the company reported a net income of $39.8 million or 36 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2009, in contrast to a net loss of $430.6 million or $3.87 per share for the fourth quarter of 2008. Reported earnings were ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 20 cents. For the full-year 2009, AK Steel reported a net loss of $74.6 million, or 68 cents per share, compared to a net income of $4.0 million, or 4 cents per share, for 2008.
Revenues for the quarter declined to $1.32 billion on shipments from $1.46 billion in the year-ago quarter, despite an increase in shipments to 1.37 tons in the reported quarter from 1.07 tons in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Higher shipments reflect an improvement in the year-over-year demand for steel. However, revenues and average selling prices were lower than in the fourth quarter of 2008 as the U.S. and global markets continue with a gradual recovery. Operating profit for the quarter was $87.0 million, or $64 per ton, compared to an operating loss of $689.2 million or $642 per ton for the fourth quarter of 2008.
Net sales for the year were $4.1 billion on shipments of 3.93 million tons, compared to sales of $7.64 billion on shipments of 5.87 million tons in 2008. Average selling price for 2009 was $1,036 per ton, about 20% below its 2008 average of $1,303 per ton.
The decline in shipments and revenues reflect the significant decline in the economy and the resultant decline in demand for steel products, especially in the first half of 2009. The company posted an operating loss for 2009 of $70.1 million, or $18 per ton, compared to operating profit of $28 million, or $5 per ton for 2008.
Skyworks Delivers Solid Quarter
Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (SWKS) reported revenues of $245.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2010, up 17% year over year and surpassed management’s guidance range of $238 million – $242 million.
The top-line growth was driven by increasing demand for mobile Internet applications, increasingly diversified linear products and the rapid adoption of smart-grid technologies.
Gross margin came in at 42.2%, up 130 basis points sequentially driven by a richly diversified product mix, volume ramp of high-margin new products, continued factory process and productivity enhancements, product and end yield improvements and double-digit year over year material cost reductions.
Operating margin came in at 21.3% compared to 14.4% in the previous quarter. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at 27 cents easily, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 21 cents. The reported EPS beat management’s guidance by 2 cents and was up from 17 cents reported in the first fiscal quarter of 2009.
Going forward, management expects revenues to grow 30% year over year to approximately $225 million, driven by broad-based strength and new applications. Gross margin is projected at 41% – 41.5%. EPS is forecasted at 21 cents.
Skyworks continues to gain share across the mobile Internet spectrum, which covers everything from net books and data cards to smartphones and even entry-level handsets. In the reported quarter, Skyworks added several new Android-based platforms including Google’s (GOOG) recently launched Nexus One mobile phone.
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