Month: August 2011

Baker Hughes Incorporated ( BHI ) has won a contract from the Russian oil company, LUKOIL, to offer full drilling and completion services for 23 wells at the West Qurna field in Iraq. Under the two-year contract, Baker is entitled to provide supply drilling services, formation evaluation, casing and tubing running services, completion tools and services, wellbore intervention services, wireline logging as well as perforation operations. Additionally, the company expects to contract all third-party services, equipment, personnel, tools and materials required for the project, including five drilling and three workover rigs. […]

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ( ANF ), a specialty retailer of casual apparel, reported preliminary solid sales results for the second quarter of fiscal 2011. […]

Last week, PartnerRe Ltd. ( PRE ) had its issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a-” and debt ratings reaffirmed by rating agency, A.M. Best, reflecting a stable outlook for all […]

NuStar Energy L.P. ( NS ) has signed an agreement with two subsidiaries of EOG Resources ( EOG ) — EOG Resources Rail Yard (Louisiana) LLC and EOG Resources Marketing — to construct a rail offloading facility in St. James, Louisiana […]

Apple Inc. ( AAPL ) recently won an important victory against smartphone maker HTC Corp., after International Trade Commission (ITC) agreed to review its patent infringement complain against the Taiwan based company. According to a latest report from Bloomberg, ITC will investigate Apple’s five patent violation charges against HTC related to software architecture and user interfaces in portable electronic devices, hardware for touch screens and movement sensors. […]

The Fed just finished its meeting, and here is its current policy statement , along with its previous statement (from June 22, 2011). I present the two statements on a paragraph by paragraph basis, and then intersperse my translation/commentary. […]

Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes ( GOL ) will be reporting its second-quarter 2011 earnings on Thursday, August 11, 2011. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings per share (EPS) is a negative 9 cents, representing an annualized growth of 15.15%. With respect to earnings surprises over the trailing four quarters, GOL outperformedthe Zacks Consensus Estimate in two quarters and underperformed in the other two […]

The Fed just finished its meeting, and here is its current policy statement , along with its previous statement (from June 22, 2011). I present the two statements on a paragraph by paragraph basis, and then intersperse my translation/commentary. […]

General Mills Inc . ( GIS ) announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2011 on June 29 with operating earnings of 52 cents a share, in line the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Earnings for the full year 2011 went up 7.8% year over year to $2.48 per share. […]

Defense behemoth The Boeing Company ( BA ) and Siemens Corporation, a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG ( SI ), said they have entered a strategic deal to jointly develop and sell "smart grid" technologies to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). […]

We are maintaining our long-term Neutral recommendation on Nabors Industries ( NBR ) reflecting its strong position in the majority of fertile natural gas and oil-based shale plays that is partially offset by weak natural gas fundamentals. Nabors enjoys a large, high-quality fleet of drilling and workover rigs, making it the leading North American land drilling contractor. […]

Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ( OPTR ) posted second quarter 2011 earnings loss per share of 52 cents, wider than the year-ago loss of 26 cents per share and the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 39 cents. The wider loss was the result of increased operating expenses associated with the commercial launch of antibiotic Dificid, Optimer’s only marketed drug. […]

Consumer goods packaging products manufacturer Silgan Holdings Inc. ( SLGN ) announced that its board of directors has authorized an aggregate buyback of $300 million of common stock, including the previous authorization. The company will have to repurchase the shares within December 31, 2014, as per the new authorization […]