Earnings Around the Corner
Stocks edged higher on a relatively quiet day with no economic news to speak of. Earnings season kicks off in earnest this week, with aluminum maker Alcoa (NYSE: AA - News) taking its traditional role as one of the first large caps to release quarterly results tonight after the bell. JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM - News) reports on Friday.
The Biotechnology Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by Inhibitex (Nasdaq: INHX - News) with a 140% gain. The Specialized Healthcare and Outpatient Services Stocks Index was the day's worst performing tickerspy Index, with IPC The Hospitalist (Nasdaq: IPCM - News) down -33%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 12,393, up 33 points to start the week. The S&P 500 added 3 points to 1,281, while the Nasdaq was up 2 points to 2,677. Gold was down by -$8.70 per ounce to $1,608.10, while oil shed -25 cents per barrel to end at $101.31.
In earnings news, Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI - News) said its fourth-quarter 2011 revenue would miss Wall Street estimates. The company expects sales of $3.4 billion compared with the consensus estimate of $3.88 billion. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - News) is in the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility. Shares of Motorola Mobility fell -0.7%. Google was off -4.2%. Fifty-three pros held Motorola Mobility in their portfolios at the end of Q3 and more than 100 tickerspy members own the stock in their portfolios.
Shares of CareFusion (NYSE: CFN - News) plunged -8.6% after the company lowered its fiscal second-quarter earnings forecast to a profit of 41-45 cents a share. Analysts were expecting a profit of 46 cents a share. The company makes medical devices and provides healthcare services. Eighteen pros held CareFusion in their portfolios at the end of Q3 and nearly 50 tickerspy members own the stock in their portfolios.
Schnitzer Steel (Nasdaq: SCHN - News) reported a fiscal second-quarter net profit from continuing operations of $7 million, or 25 cents a share, compared $18 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting a profit of 23 cents a share on revenue of $790.27 million. Shares of Schnitzer Steel rose 1.1%.
Shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI - News) soared 9.2% after the company reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of $29.9 million, or 70 cents per share, compared with $24.4 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 12% to $474.3 million. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 74 cents a share. Analysts expected 66 cents on revenue of to $463.5 million.
Fun and informative, tickerspy.com is a free investing website where you can track multiple stock portfolios and compare against 250 proprietary Indexes tracking themes from dividends to ETFs to green energy to precious metals. Best of all, tickerspy.com lets you spy on the portfolios of nearly 3,000 Wall Street institutions and hedge funds and see graphs of their performance. Try tickerspy.com today and find out how you stack up against investing legends like Warren Buffett!
