For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – April 12, 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: Intel Corporation Inc. (INTC), Chevron Corp. (CVX), ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) and ConocoPhillips (COP).
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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:
Earnings Preview: Intel
Intel Corporation Inc. (INTC) is slated to announce its first quarter 2010 results on April 13, 2010, and analyst estimates for future periods have been going up.
Analyst opinion has turned increasingly positive over the last thirty days, with eight of the 40 analysts covering the stock making positive revisions for the upcoming quarter, 10 making positive revisions for fiscal 2010 and 9 for fiscal 2011. Roughly half the revisions have been made over the past 7 days.
There are a number of reasons for the positive sentiment regarding Intel. First, Intel is a beneficiary of the resurgence in corporate IT spending and the ongoing server refresh cycle, which should continue through 2010 and 2011.
Second, Intel has a compelling range of products, including the recently launched microprocessors that effectively expand its reach into the data center market. Third, pricing has been favorable for the company in recent months and product shortage is expected to drive prices higher. Fourth, Intel has been using its “tick-tock” strategy to consistently lower costs of production, which should lead to further expansion in margins.
Chevron: Bullish Downstream Update
U.S. energy behemoth Chevron Corp. (CVX) released its first-quarter 2010 interim update, covering the first 2 months of the quarter. On the whole, the update is on the bullish side, with earnings expected to be higher than the previous quarter.
The company expects the upstream segment to benefit from higher commodity prices, somewhat offset by lower liquids liftings. More importantly, Chevron’s downstream results are likely to return to profit, buoyed by improved refining margins.
Regarding downstream operations, the second-largest U.S. oil company by market value after ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) said that its U.S. refinery crude-input rose 35,000 barrels per day (more than 4%) from the previous quarter, following planned fourth quarter maintenance at the company’s El Segundo refinery in California. Ex-U.S., Chevron’s refinery crude-input volumes were up 17,000 barrels per day, driven by higher crude inputs at affiliate refineries in South Korea and Thailand.
First-quarter refining margins increased $1.21 per barrel sequentially on the U.S. West Coast and $5.26 per barrel on the Gulf Coast. This will help Chevron’s downstream segment to turn the corner and return to profit during the first quarter. In recent times, Chevron has witnessed plummeting downstream profits on the back of weak demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Chevron further informed that its downstream results are likely to include a severance charge of $150 million, as it cuts 2,000 jobs in 2010 to realize savings in its refining operations. Also, this is the first quarter since Chevron included its chemical business within the refining operations in order to reduce costs.
In view of the increasingly bearish outlook for the marketing and refining operations, Chevron has decided to streamline its downstream portfolio, a plan that has been followed by several other oil majors, including Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) and ConocoPhillips (COP).
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