Earning Plays

[3xBuBu]

Friday, Aug. 29
PartyGaming swings to profit, names new chairman(2:48 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Online gambling company PartyGaming (UK:PRTY: news, chart, profile) on Friday reported a first-half net profit of $22.7 million, or 5.3 cents a share, compared to a loss of $50.6 million, or 12.3 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue for the six month period rose 17% to $254.8 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 76% to $64.9 million and were ahead of the $57.7 million forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires poll. The group said revenue grew across all its games, but the primary driver was its online casino as both the number of players and the amount they each gambled increased. PartyGaming said discussion with the U.S. Department of Justice, which began in June last year are still continuing. Separately the group said it's appointed Rod Perry as its new non-executive chairman. He succeeds Michael Jackson, who announced his plans to step down in May.
Bradford & Bingley swings to loss as bad debt charges soar(2:35 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. mortgage bank Bradford & Bingley (UK:BB: news, chart, profile) said Friday that it swung to a first-half net loss of 17.2 million pounds ($31.4 million) from a profit of 129 million pounds a year earlier. The bank, which recently completed a 400 million pounds rights issue at the third attempt, said the loss mainly reflected losses on treasury assets, including an impairment charge of 64.8 million pounds on its structured investment portfolio. Underlying pretax profit fell over 60% to 70.2 million pounds as arrears levels continued to rise and the bank's margin declined. Bad debt charges jumped to 74.6 million pounds from 5.3 million pounds a year earlier. Total pretax loss was 26.7 million pounds, while analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods had been expecting a pretax loss of around 20 million pounds.
Thursday, Aug. 28
PetSmart second-quarter net income dips to 30 cents a share (4:20 pm ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- PetSmart Inc. (PETM: news, chart, profile) late Thursday reported its fiscal second-quarter net income fell to $37.2 million, or 30 cents a share, from a net income of $47.1 million, or 35 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue increased to $1.24 billion from $1.12 billion a year earlier, said the nation's largest retailer of pet goods. Comparable store sales, a key retailing metric, rose 4% from a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had forecast the company to earn 29 cents a share on revenue of $1.22 billion. The company expects third-quarter earnings of 25 cents to 29 cents a share with comparable stores sales growth of mid-single digits. Analysts are forecasting the company to earn 27 cents a share in the third quarter. In 2008, the company is projecting earnings of $1.51 to $1.59 a share while sales are likely to rise by high single digits to low double digits. Same-store sales are expected to expand by mid-single digits.