Stock Twits

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Updates, advisories and surprises

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/updates-advisories-and-surprises-2010-09-01

By MarketWatch
H.J. Heinz quarterly profit climbs to $240 million

(8:36 AM ET) NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- H.J. Heinz Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!hnz/quotes/nls/hnz (HNZ 46.43, +0.19, +0.41%) said Wednesday its fiscal first-quarter earnings rose to $240.4 million, or 75 cents a share, from $212.6 million, or 67 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Sales rose to $2.48 billon from $2.44 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet Research were looking for earnings of 73 cents a share, on average, with sales of $2.53 billion. For the fiscal year, Heinz sees earnings-per-share growth of 7% to 10%, on a constant currency basis. Shares of Heinz closed Tuesday at $46.24, up a fraction.

Brown-Forman net income drops 8%

(8:00 AM ET) NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Brown-Forman /quotes/comstock/13*!bf.a (BF.A 60.84, -0.24, -0.39%) , [a: bf.b] on Wednesday said its first-quarter earnings fell 8% to $111.4 million, or 76 cents a share, from $121.4 million, or 81 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 1% to $745 million. Wall Street analysts expected the company to earn 83 cents a share, on revenue of $723.4 million, according to a survey by FactSet Research. Brown-Forman said it continues to expect 2011 earnings of $2.98 a share to $3.38 a share. "We expect net sales to continue to grow in line with trends of the prior two quarters, operating expenses to moderate later in the year, and underlying operating income to grow in the mid-single digits for the full fiscal year," the company said.

Joy Global lifts outlook as profit slips 4.7%

(6:23 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Mining equipment manufacturer Joy Global Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!joyg/quotes/nls/joyg (JOYG 57.93, +1.21, +2.13%) on Wednesday lifted its earnings outlook as it said fiscal third-quarter net profit fell 4.7% to $118.5 million, or $1.13 a share, from $124.3 million, or $1.21 a share, a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter ended July 30 fell 11% to $850 million. Analysts polled by FactSet research had been expecting earnings of $1.02 a share on sales of $879 million. The group said the decline in revenue was due to lower sales of underground mining equipment. It added, however, that new orders in the latest quarter jumped 51% to $973 million, with original equipment orders more than doubling and after-market orders rising 20%. The company lifted its earnings forecast for fiscal 2010 to a range of $4.10 to $4.15 a share, from its previous target range of $3.85 to $4 a share. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $4 a share for the year.

Bombardier's second-quarter net profit drops

(6:16 AM ET) FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Bombardier Inc. /quotes/comstock/11t!e:bbd.a (CA:BBD.A 4.44, 0.00, 0.00%) /quotes/comstock/11t!e:bbd.b (CA:BBD.B 4.44, 0.00, 0.00%) said its fiscal second-quarter net profit fell to $144 million, or 8 cents a share, from $198 million, or 11 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue dropped to $4.08 billion from $4.95 billion. "The uncertain economic environment continues to be reflected in Aerospace's financial results," said Pierre Beaudoin, chief executive of Bombardier. "However, the group is starting to see signs of recovery as shown by the significant reduction in business aircraft order cancellations."

Hargreaves Lansdown profit up 18%

(2:38 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. financial services group Hargreaves Lansdown /quotes/comstock/23s!e:hl. (UK:HL. 390.00, +0.90, +0.23%) said Wednesday that its net profit for the fiscal year ended June 30 rose 18% to a record 61.3 million pounds ($94 million) as revenue grew 20% to 159 million pounds. The brokerage and asset management group said total net business inflows during the year jumped 65% to 3.3 billion pounds and total assets under administration were up 47% at 17.5 billion pounds. "Even though we continue to face economic uncertainty, I believe that the company is extremely well placed to build on the momentum that has been generated so far," said CEO Peter Hargreaves.

Vivendi net down; adjusted profit beats estimates

(2:21 AM ET) TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Vivendi SA, /quotes/comstock/11i!vivdy (VIVDY 23.15, +0.31, +1.36%) /quotes/comstock/24s!e:viv (FR:VIV 19.14, +0.73, +3.97%) the Paris entertainment giant, reported second-quarter net income slipped 3.5% on 6.2% higher revenue. Earnings fell to 669 million euros, or 0.54 euro a share, from 695 million euros, or 0.58, in the year-earlier quarter. Adjusted earnings fell 3.4% to 790 million euros, or 0.64 euro a share. Revenue reached 7.06 billion euros from 6.65 billion. A survey of analysts by Dow Jones Newswires produced consensus estimates of adjusted profit of 719.2 million euros on revenue of 6.86 billion euros. In a Thursday statement, Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy attributed the results to "excellent" results at Vivendi's recent acquisitions: GVT, Activision Blizzard and SFR broadband and fixed. And he said Vivendi lifted the earnings estimates for the three firms.