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Earnings News

Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein says firm is doing 'God's work'

By Douglas McIntyre | Nov 9th 2009, 5:10AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Earnings, Goldman Sachs

Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs (GS), has put an unusual spin on the bank's activities. He says his firm is doing "God's work." This may seem like an audacious statement coming from a man whose company has been harshly criticized for planning to give many of its employees multi-million pay packages just a bit more than a year after the collapse of the credit markets.

Blankfein told The Times of London, "We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have...

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Sun Mircosystems's poor quarterly results justify Oracle's concerns

By Douglas McIntyre | Nov 7th 2009, 1:00PM EST Filed Under: Technology, Earnings, Oracle, Sun Microsystems

sun-mircosystems-quarterly-results-justify-oracles-concerns Oracle, (ORCL) which is trying to buy Sun Microsystems (JAVA) for $9.50 a share, has been concerned that the smaller company's financial position will be hurt by delays in the acquisition. On Friday, Sun filed its 10-Q report with its results for the third quarter, and the numbers proved that Oracle was correct to be concerned.

Sun lost $120 million in the period or $0.16 a share. In the same period a year ago, the company lost $1.68 billion, but it took at $1.5 billion "impairment...

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Nomura's Joseph Mezrich sees market rally continuing as profits recover

By Anthony Massucci | Nov 6th 2009, 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Retirement, Company News, Columns, Economy, People, Investing, Earnings

Bears who warn the U.S. stock market has gone too far too fast -- the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 18 percent year to date -- may not get much vindication anytime soon. Investors should see stocks continue to rally as long as corporate profits keep recovering, says market expert Joseph Mezrich (pictured), Nomura Securities International's head of quantitative research.

And the signs look good. The estimated earnings growth rate for the Standard & Poor's 500 during the fourth quarter is 216 percent, according to Thomson Reuters. Even stripping out the volatile financial sector, the other eight out of nine sectors are expected to show a blended growth...

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Daily Blogwatch: The best-performing S&P 500 stock since Obama was elected

By James Altucher | Nov 6th 2009, 8:00AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, Columns, Economy, People, Investing, Earnings, Media

Unbelievable. Guess which is the best-performing S&P 500 stock since Obama was elected.

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Good thing the FTC is protecting us from those monopolistic robber barons in the pretzel industry.

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Hedge fund manager James Matthews really hates me.

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Insurer AIG posts second consecutive profit

By AP | Nov 6th 2009, 7:36AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Earnings, American International Group, INC.

AIG (AIG) says it was profitable for the second straight quarter as its core insurance operations continue to stabilize after being bailed out by the government last year.

But investors' initial reaction to the report is negative, as AIG shares are down about 6 percent in premarket trading.

The insurance giant on Friday said its profit available to common shareholders totaled $92 million, or 68 cents per share. AIG lost $24.47 billion, or $181.02 per share, during the year-ago quarter when it was rescued from near collapse by the government.

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Whole Foods stock tumbles as guidance disappoints investors

By AP | Nov 6th 2009, 6:35AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Earnings

Shares of Whole Foods Market Inc. tumbled Thursday after the upscale grocery chain offered a cautious outlook for its new fiscal year.

Shares fell $5.22, or 16.3 percent, to $26.84 in afternoon trading. In the past 12 months, shares have traded between $7.04 and $34.40.

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Starbucks says foot traffic, customer spending up

By AP | Nov 6th 2009, 6:31AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Earnings, Starbucks

More people are visiting Starbucks Corp. coffee shops this year than last, and they're spending more money when they do, an executive said Thursday.

But it was the company's hefty cost-cutting that boosted its profit in its fiscal fourth quarter. It had fewer stores than a year earlier, and its revenue fell slightly.

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British Airways fires 3,000 as airline industry turns ugly

By Douglas McIntyre | Nov 6th 2009, 5:00AM EST Filed Under: Economy, Earnings

British Airways lost $485 million for the six months that ended in September. The airline's CEO Willie Walsh told the BBC that this has been the "most difficult year in the history of British Airways". BA is planning to cut 3,000 more workers in an attempt to return to profitability, but the firm's outlook for an improvement in passenger traffic is bleak.

The BA news should not be seen in isolation. After a brief period in which analysts and traders hoped for a full-scale turnaround in the global airlines industry, those sentiments have faded. The dismay is reflected in the stock prices of US-based airlines. Shares of American (AMR) are down...

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Fannie Mae reports $19 billion loss and asks feds for another $15 billion loan

By Eric Wahlgren | Nov 5th 2009, 6:10PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Earnings, Fannie Mae

The news just keeps getting worse at embattled mortgage finance company Fannie Mae (FNM). The Washington, D.C.-based company, which buys up mortgages from banks, posted on Thursday a staggering $18.9 billion loss -- its ninth consecutive deficit -- as it incurred more expenses stemming from foreclosed properties. The news forced the outfit, which already has a $200 billion credit facility with the U.S. government, to hit up the feds for another $15 billion, the company said in a statement.

On the plus side, Fannie Mae, which has been under government receivership since last year, said its third-quarter revenue rose 6 percent to $5.9 billion from $5.6 billion in the previous...

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Book publishing gives an unexpected silver lining to dismal media earnings

By Sarah Weinman | Nov 5th 2009, 1:45PM EST Filed Under: Earnings, Media, News Corp.

Media and newspaper companies have had dismal fortunes last year, and book publishing is no exception. Layoffs, mergers of imprints, declining sales, rising costs -- all put the biggest publishing houses deep in the red in the last two quarters of 2008. But the latest quarterly numbers coming in tell a more optimistic story for their massive parent conglomerates.

Lagardere's (LGDDF) preliminary Q1 earnings report, released Wednesday, won't have anyone popping Champagne bottles. Consolidated revenues for the first nine months of 2009 fell 3.7% (or 3.9%...

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