Corporate Earnings Announcements for the Second Week of August

Looking for some interesting moves in some stocks this upcoming week? Check out the companies that will be reporting earnings this week.

If earnings exceed analysts' expectations, the stocks can shoot up. If the numbers underperform, the stock can tank. Then again, occasionally, stocks don't move the way you would have expected.

Anyway, many traders use earnings plays for trading strategies. Also, option traders look for high implied volatility of stocks for for option selling strategies.

Here are many of the enormous number of stocks reporting earnings this week:

Monday

AGN
ARNA
NILE
HTZ
MAIN
BID
TSN
WBMD

Tuesday

AMSC
CECE
CHTR
COH
EXC
GWPH
LSCC
MWW
SCTY
VRX
DIS
YELP

Wednesday

BUFF
RL
SHAK
SLW
WEN

Thursday

BABA
HIMX
M
JWN
NVDA
PBR
RT
JET

Friday

AYA
BAM
JCP
JHX

If you like interesting stock lists like this, be sure to check out many of the free stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

You Could have Bought Twitter Yesterday and Made a 16% Profit Today

If you had bought Twitter (TWTR) yesterday, you could have sold the stock today for a 16% profit, based on the closing prices. If you had bought LinkedIn (LNKD) yesterday, you could have sold for a profit today in excess of 10%.

So why did these and other stocks move so much in one day? Earnings announcements. In simple terms, the companies reported financials that made investors happy. Of course, you could have picked the wrong stock, such as Yelp (YELP), which was down 21.5% today or GoPro (GPRO), which tanked 13% today. In that case, you would have lost a lot, unless you had shorted the stock or owned an option straddle.

It's earnings season, and this is the time of year when many popular stocks can really move. If you can choose the right direction, you can bank bucks.

Or if you use the right option spread, you can make money whether the stock goes up or down. Here is an example. Yesterday, you could have bought the February 6 2015 call and put with a strike price of 41. The call traded around 2.60 yesterday and the put at 2.58, for a total cost for the straddle of 5.18 or $518.

Today, you could have sold the straddle for 6.75 or $675. This works out to a profit of over 30% in one day. What's your total risk? $518. What's your potential gain? Unlimited on the upside and around $4,300 on the downside, in the event a black swan hits the stock.

Now you might ask, what other stocks are coming out with earnings reports in the next week? Here is a list for you, which contains a lot of the stocks that can make big moves depending on their earnings.

February 09, 2015

Hasbro (HAS)

February 10, 2015

Akamai (AKAM)
Blue Nile (NILE)
Cerner (CERN)
CVS (CVS)
Health Net (HNT)
Jive Software (JIVE)
LifeLock (LOCK)
Molson Coors (TAP)
Monster Worldwide (MWW)

February 11, 2015

500.com (WBAI)

AOL (AOL)

Baidu (BIDU)

Cisco (CSCO)

Panera (PNRA)

Skechers (SKX)

Tesla (TSLA)

Cheesecake Factory (CAKE)

Top Valentines Day Stocks

Most people know when Valentine's Day is, but in case you missed the memo, it is Monday, February 14, so if you haven't done the shopping for your Valentine, then you better get cracking. One option is to give a gift of shares of stock in companies that may produce Valentines Day related products. Here are some stocks that may benefit, including chocolate, jewelry, flowers, greeting cards, and gift wrap.

Hershey (HSY), founded in 1894, is the largest manufacturer of chocolate in North America and one of the largest chocolate and candy companies in the world. Hershey's Kisses were invented in 1901 and the Hershey chocolate chips were introduced in 1928. The stock trades at 22 times earnings, with a CD beating yield of 2.7%.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. (RMCF), based in Durango, Colorado, makes and markets caramels, creams, mints, and truffles. The company, which was founded in 1981, has over 300 franchise locations in 40 states, along with Canada and the United Arab Emirates. The P/E ratio is 15.8, and the yield is a delicious 3.9%.

1-800-Flowers.com Inc. (FLWS), the largest publicly traded flower seller, also sells plants, gourmet foods, cookies, cakes, candies, wine, gift baskets, and other gifts. The company recently generated negative earnings, but trades at 31 times forward earnings.

Tiffany & Co. (TIF), founded in 1837, is one of the top jewelry companies in the world, with over 60 U.S. stores and over 100 international locations. The metric carat as a weight standard for gems was developed by a Tiffany gemologist. The New York City flagship store is home to the 128-carat Fancy Yellow Tiffany Diamond. The stock has a PE of 23, and a yield of 1.7%.

Blue Nile Inc. (NILE), founded in 1999, is a leading web based retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry, and the largest online retailer of certified diamonds. The stock has a PE of 66.

Signet Group plc (SIG), owns 1,400 jewelry stores in the United States, under the trade names of Kay Jewelers and Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry. The stock has a P/E ratio of 17.

Zale Corporation (ZLC) has over 690 jewelry stores in throughout the United States. The company has recently generated negative earnings.

American Greetings Corp. (AM), founded in 1906 and based in Cleveland, Ohio, is the largest publicly-traded greeting card company in the world. The stock has a PE of 10 and a decent yield of 2.6%.

CSS Industries Inc. (CSS) markets gift wrap, gift bags, boxed greeting cards, gift tags, tissue paper, decorations, and decorative ribbons and bows. The stock trades at 17 times forward earnings, and a yield of 3.3%.

You will notice that more than half of these stocks pay fairly decent dividends. If you like high dividend stocks, check out the free listings at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. You can also find other unusual lists of stocks at wsnn.com, including Beatles stocks, birth control stocks, cloud computing stocks, and stem cell stocks.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Wedding Stocks

Can you believe it's already June? June, which comes from the name Juno, is generally considered the most popular month of the year for getting married. Juno is the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods. Here are some wedding stocks worth looking at. By the way, did you see the unusual wedding ceremony?

Let's start with the engagement, and with every engagement is a ring. Tiffany & Co. (TIF), which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, was founded as a “stationery and fancy goods emporium” in 1837. It is now one of the leading jewelry stores in North America. The stock has a PE of 18.5, a PEG of 1.57, and pays a yield of 2.2%. Did you know that Tiffany comes from the Greek name Theophania, which means manifestation of God.

Signet Group plc (SIG) is a specialty jewelry retailer has stores in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company operates under the names Kay Jewelers, Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry, JB Robinson Jewelers, Marks & Morgan Jewelers, Belden Jewelers, and Weisfield Jewelers. The stock has a PE of 16.

Another jewelry store is Blue Nile Inc. (NILE), which is an online portal for rings, diamonds, and jewelry, and trades on NASDAQ. It is the largest online retailer of certified diamonds in the world. Blue Nile has a PE of 54 and a PEG of 2.29.

Zale Corp. (ZLC), which trades on the NYSE. is the second largest specialty retailer of fine jewelry in North America. Zale offers moderately priced jewelry numerous stores throughout all 50 states. Zale has recently generated negative earnings.

For planning weddings, couples turn to The Knot, Inc. (KNOT), traded on NASDAQ, which has offers media services to the wedding and newlywed markets. The company owns TheKnot.com, WeddingChannel.com, and TheNest.com, The forward price earnings ratio is 75 and the PEG is a 6.66.

A wedding isn’t a wedding without flowers. They are available through FTD Group Inc., which markets flowers and specialty gifts. The company, also known as Florists' Transworld Delivery, was founded in 1910. FTD is owned by United Online (UNTD). United stock has a PE of 9, a favorable PEG of 0.43, and pays a yield of 6.2%.

1-800-Flowers.com Inc. (FLWS) was was one of the first major retailers to establish an Internet presence back in April 1995. The company retails flowers, plants, gift baskets, gourmet foods, and other products. The company has a forward P/E of 14 and a PEG of 5.63.

Another wedding related group of stocks includes the diamond stocks.

Author owns UNTD.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks for Mother's Day

Sunday, May 9, 2010 is Mother's Day, so if you haven't done the shopping for your mother and/or wife, then you should start now. You may want to consider a gift of some shares in companies that may participate in sales of Mother's Day related products. Why not buy her some chocolate, flowers, and jewelry. Don't forget the greeting card and gift wrap.

Hershey (HSY), founded in 1894, is the largest manufacturer of chocolate in North America and one of the largest chocolate and candy companies in the world. Hershey's Kisses were invented in 1901. Hershey chocolate chips were introduced in 1928. The stock has a P/E of 21, a PEG of 2.92, with a favorable yield of 2.7%.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. (RMCF) is a very low cap stock [and should therefore be considered very speculative], based in Durango, Colorado, which makes and markets caramels, creams, mints, and truffles. The company, which was founded in 1981, has over 300 franchise locations in 40 states, along with Canada and the United Arab Emirates. The P/E is 17, and the company pays a nice yield of 4.1%.

1-800-Flowers.com Inc. (FLWS), the largest publicly traded flower seller, also sells plants, gourmet foods, cookies, cakes, candies, wine, gift baskets, and other gifts. They have a P/E of 15 and a PEG of 3.88.

Tiffany & Co. (TIF), founded in 1837, is one of the top jewelry companies in the world, with over 60 U.S. stores and over 100 international locations. The metric carat as a weight standard for gems was developed by a Tiffany gemologist. The New York City flagship store is home to the 128-carat Fancy Yellow Tiffany Diamond. The stock has a PE of 23, a PEG of 1.76, and a yield of 1.6%.

Blue Nile Inc. (NILE), founded in 1999, is a leading web based retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry, and the largest online retailer of certified diamonds. The stock has a PE of 64 and a PEG of 2.71.

A couple other jewelry companies are Signet Group plc (SIG), with a PE of 17, and Zale Corporation (ZLC) which has recently generated negative earnings.

American Greetings Corp. (AM), founded in 1906 and based in Cleveland, Ohio, is the largest publicly-traded greeting card company in the world. The stock has a PE of 12, a PEG of 0.93, and a yield of 2.2%.

CSS Industries Inc. (CSS) markets gift wrap, gift bags, boxed greeting cards, gift tags, tissue paper, decorations, and decorative ribbons and bows. The stock has a PE of 17, and a yield of 2.8%.

Don't forget to include a trillion dollar bill in the greeting card.

If you like interesting lists like this, you should check out the various stock lists, including high yield stocks, at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above

By Stockerblog.com

Diamond Stocks: A Girl's Best Friend?

Diamonds are the hardest substance on earth and come in a variety of colors including blue, yellow, brown, green, purple, pink, orange or red. The major player in the diamond industry is the De Beers company, which was formerly a publicly traded stock but is now privately held.

However, there is an indirect way to invest in De Beers, through Anglo American (AAUKY.PK) which owns 45% of De Beers.De Beers company owns twenty mines in Africa, producing 15 million carats of diamonds every year with in excess of half coming from its Venetia mine. Anglo American has operations in every major continent around the world, with interests in platinum, gold, diamonds, copper, iron ore, coal, and nickel. The company has had a net profit margin of 14% for the last year, with a 20.6% annual operating margin increase.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) is a a natural resource company that explores for and produces diamonds, titanium, potash, copper, silver, lead, zinc, bauxite, and uranium. A significant source of their revenues comes from petroleum and natural gas. The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 14 and pays a 2.1% yield.

Harry Winston Diamond Corporation (HWD) is a Canadian based miner and retailer of diamonds. It owns a 40% interest in the Diavik Diamond Mine in northern Canada, and markets diamonds through retailers under the Harry Winston brand. The stock has a forward PE ratio of 110.

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MDM) explores for and produces diamonds, primarily in northern Canada. The stock has recently generated negative earnings and has a low market cap of about $130 million.

In addition to the miners of diamonds, there are also the retailers. Zale Corporation (ZLC) has over 690 stores in 50 states. The stock has recently generated negative earnings and has a low market cap of about $118 million.

Tiffany & Co. (TIF), founded in 1837, is one of the top jewelry companies in the world, with over 60 U.S. stores and over 100 international locations. The metric carat as a weight standard for gems was developed by a Tiffany gemologist. The New York City flagship store is home to the 128-carat Fancy Yellow Tiffany Diamond. The stock has a forward PE of 20, and a yield of 1.7%.

Blue Nile Inc. (NILE), founded in 1999, is a leading web based retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry, and the largest online retailer of certified diamonds. The stock has a forward PE of 44.

Signet Group plc (SIG), owns 1,400 jewelry stores in the United States, under the trade names of Kay Jewelers and Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry. The company has recently generated negative earnings.

Speaking of jewelry, if you like gold and silver, you might want to check out the list of gold and silver ETFs at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

The Stock That's a Screaming Buy

First, let me get the disclosures and disclaimers out of the way. I own shares in the following stock. It is a 'screaming buy' for me. I am not recommending it as an investment for you as most of you who are aware of from previous articles, I never make any recommendations; however, occasionally I strongly suggest that you take a closer look a certain stocks.

For example, back on March 8, 2007, when I wrote the article ‘Why Amazon.com Stock could be Up Substantially by Year End’. The article listed twelve reasons why Amazon.com (AMZN) looked extremely favorable. The stock closed at 38.10 that day, started shooting up in April and never looked back, now trading around 120 per share.

So what is the stock I am writing about? It is eBay (EBAY), which closed at 21.77 on Friday. This is the company that owns PayPal, the online payment services company. Remember several years ago when eBay took a lot of grief for buying PayPal? Now look at it; it is driving the company.

PayPal's total payment volume, also known as TPV, jumped above $20 billion for the latest reported quarter. PayPal operates in 190 markets around the world, with over 80 million active accounts, supporting 24 different currencies.

The Merchant Services division of PayPal grew by an incredible 50% for the fourth quarter. So what is Merchant Services? This is essentially the checkout process that you see when you purchase something online, whether you are buying from a small, medium, or even large companies such as Wal Mart (WMT), 1-800-Flowers (FLWS), and Blue Nile (NILE). Usually you see a choice of VISA (V) or MasterCard (MA), and often in addition, Discover (DFS) and American Express (AXP).

A major bank or other financial institution would normally process this whole checkout procedure. But PayPal is moving in on this business in a big way. With PayPal handling it, consumers can still use a credit card to check out through PayPal even if they don't have or don't want to use a PayPal account. Smaller merchants are realizing that they have been paying a lot in monthly fees to some merchant service company in addition to being subject to a minimum monthly dollar amount in transactions. Whereas with a basic PayPal plan, no monthly fees and minimums.

So for the Merchant Services business of PayPal, the company's total payment volume grew at a rate of ten times the market growth rate for ecommerce in general, with the international services growing at 80% over last year, boosting non-US volume to 40% of PayPal's total TPV.

The international business is significant, with the cross border trade amounting to about one quarter of all of PayPal's total payment volume.

Oh year, I think the company also has some kind of an online auction business. But seriously, the eBay marketplace portion of the business is holding its own. Revenues for the eBay Marketplace increased by 15% for the latest quarter, with sold items growing by 11% worldwide over last year. Gross marketplace volume grew by almost 50% over last year in the Asia Pacific region. And in Europe, the number of live listings has practically doubled.

Same store sales growth for the fourth quarter for top-rated sellers grew by over 10% in the United States, 25% in Germany, and 35% in the UK.

There is even an eBay app for the iPhone, which has been downloaded practically 7 million times, which has generated more than $600 million in GMV during 2009, a 200% increase over the prior year.

I look at the eBay marketplace business a practically a utility. People will always have stuff they want to sell, and people will always be looking for stuff to buy. Whether we are in a recession or a booming economy, the eBay transactions will always continue.

As for eBay's other businesses, it has completed the sale of its 70% interest in Skype for about $1.9 billion. StubHub had a 54% fourth quarter increase in ticket sales over the same quarter last year. The classifieds business increased by 20% for the year. Revenue for Shopping.com, Rent.com and other businesses was up 7% for the latest quarter.

As for the company in general, revenues grew by 16% to $24 billion for the latest quarter, with non-GAAP earnings per share increasing by 9%. The company generated almost $600 million in free cash flow. And most important of all, the company is debt free. (I just love debt free companies.)

The company has $5.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and non-equity investments, amounting to about $4 in cash per share. The line of credit is paid off. Did I mention that the company has no debt?

The company reported financials on January 20. If the stock market and the economy had been stronger at the time, I think eBay would have performed better over the last few weeks. So if you are looking for a company to do your homework on, take a very close look at eBay.

Author owns AMZN and EBAY.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Stocks for Valentines Day

OK, it's now February. Have you got a gift for your Valentine yet? Do you even know when Valentine's Day is? Sunday, February 14 is the big day, so if you haven't done the shopping for your sweetheart, then you better get started. Why not a gift of shares of stock in companies that may produce Valentines Day related products. Here are some stocks that may benefit, including chocolate, jewelry, flowers, greeting cards, and gift wrap.

Hershey (HSY), founded in 1894, is the largest manufacturer of chocolate in North America and one of the largest chocolate and candy companies in the world. Hershey's Kisses were invented in 1901 and the Hershey chocolate chips were introduced in 1928. The stock has a P/E of 21, with a favorable yield of 3.3%.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. (RMCF), based in Durango, Colorado, makes and markets caramels, creams, mints, and truffles. The company, which was founded in 1981, has over 300 franchise locations in 40 states, along with Canada and the United Arab Emirates. The P/E is 16, and their yield is 4.6%. This is a very low cap stock and should be considered very speculative.

1-800-Flowers.com Inc. (FLWS), the largest publicly traded flower seller, also sells plants, gourmet foods, cookies, cakes, candies, wine, gift baskets, and other gifts. They recently generated negative earnings, and has a forward PE of 9. This is a low cap stock and should be considered very speculative.

Tiffany & Co. (TIF), founded in 1837, is one of the top jewelry companies in the world, with over 60 U.S. stores and over 100 international locations. The metric carat as a weight standard for gems was developed by a Tiffany gemologist. The New York City flagship store is home to the 128-carat Fancy Yellow Tiffany Diamond. The stock has a PE of 33, and a yield of 1.7%.

Blue Nile Inc. (NILE), founded in 1999, is a leading web based retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry, and the largest online retailer of certified diamonds. The stock has a PE of 72.

Signet Group plc (SIG), owns 1,400 jewelry stores in the United States, under the trade names of Kay Jewelers and Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry. The company has recently generated negative earnings.

Zale Corporation (ZLC) has 693 jewelry stores in throughout the United States. The company has recently generated negative earnings. These are very low cap stocks and should be considered very speculative.

American Greetings Corp. (AM), founded in 1906 and based in Cleveland, Ohio, is the largest publicly-traded greeting card company in the world. The stock has a PE of 59 and a yield of 2.6%.

CSS Industries Inc. (CSS) markets gift wrap, gift bags, boxed greeting cards, gift tags, tissue paper, decorations, and decorative ribbons and bows. The stock has a PE of 11, and a yield of 3.5%.

You will notice that more than half of these stocks pay fairly decent dividends. If you like high dividend stocks, check out the free listings at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com