Month: September 2011

We recently downgraded our recommendation on WPP Group plc ( WPPGY ) from Outperform to Neutral. The downgraded rating is backed by highly competitive and fragmented communications services industry, wherein risk of clients shifting their accountability to other agencies may result in loss of market share, thereby decreasing profit. […]

Walgreen ( WAG ) reported adjusted earnings of 57 cents per share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 55 cents and were 38.3% higher than the year-ago quarter. Results for the quarter excluded an after-tax gain of 30 cents per share associated with the company’s sale of pharmacy benefits management (PBM) business, Walgreens Health Initiatives, to Catalyst Health Solutions ( CHSI ). The result includes negative impact of 2 cents per share from Walgreen’s acquisition of drugstore.com and restructuring and restructuring-related costs of a penny per share associated with the company’s Rewiring for Growth initiative […]

Recently Celgene Corporation ( CELG ) received some encouraging news when the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) concluded that the benefits associated with Celgene’s Revlimid outweighed the risks in patients suffering from multiple myeloma (MM). The CHMP reached the decision after conducting a safety review (article 20) of Revlimid in combination with dexamethasone in MM patients who have received at least one prior therapy. […]

Rogers Communications Inc. ( RCI ) continues to perform well as it has become the first wireless carrier in Canada to launch super-fast (4G) LTE networks. In the first half of 2011, the company achieved quite a few milestones including the sale of the highest number of smartphones to new customers, the second highest number of smartphone activation, and a significant increase in wireless data revenue […]

Gilead Sciences, Inc. ( GILD ) is having a great year going by the series of good news announced lately. Numbering among these is a recent positive recommendation of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency for its once-daily single tablet regimen (STR) for the treatment of HIV in previously untreated adults […]

We recently maintained a Neutral recommendation on Companhia Paranaense de Energia ( ELP ), also known as COPEL. The company is a leading Brazilian electric utility, accounting for roughly 7% of total electricity production in the country. Copel primarily engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in the State of Parana. […]

Recently, SurModics Inc. ( SRDX ) introduced a new product – BioFX TMB Enhanced HRP Membrane Substrate (ESPM) – through its subsidiary, SurModics IVD (In Vitro Diagnostics). The IVD segment at SurModics includes components and technologies for diagnostic test kits and biomedical research applications such as microarray slide technologies, protein stabilization reagents, substrates, and antigens […]