Month: December 2012

We have reaffirmed our Neutral recommendation on Life Technologies ( LIFE ) with a target price of $52.00. The company’s third quarter adjusted earnings of 92 cents per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 89 cents but missed the year-ago quarter’s 94 cents. Revenues increased 1.4% at CER to $911 million, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $908 million […]

We are maintaining our long-term ‘Neutral’ recommendation on Bank of America Corporation ( BAC ) to reflect the company’s improving credit quality and various restructuring measures undertaken. Yet, we expect revenue headwinds, incessant litigations and various issues related to the regulatory changes to continue to impact the near-term results. Further, BofA reported break-even third quarter earnings compared with Zacks Consensus Estimate loss […]

Vale S.A. ( VALE ) expressed its inability to continue working on the much sought after Simandou project, citing the Guinea government’s inordinate delay as a reason. Although the company still remains interested in working on the site of the world's largest untapped deposit of iron ore, uncertainty associated with the delay from the government to review the mining contract has given rise to serious misgivings regarding the future of the project […]

We maintained our Neutral recommendation on Cosan Limited ( CZZ ), Brazil’s leading sugar and ethanol producer yet again. This is the second consecutive Neutral recommendation reiteration for the company, after it was downgraded from an Outperform recommendation in June, 2012. Despite net earnings of US$0.48 per ADR more than doubling the year-ago earnings of US$0.22 per ADR, it’s the fall in sugar and ethanol sales that has raised our concerns for the stock. […]

The shareholders of T. Rowe Price Group Inc. ( TROW ) now have a reason to applaud […]

Canada’s biggest energy firm and the largest oil sands outfit, Suncor Energy Inc. ( SU ) recently issued updates related to its activities at the Firebag facility, Oil Sands Base plant and the Terra Nova Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility. At Firebag 4 facility, Suncor produced its first oil throughput following its secure commissioning during the third quarter of 2012. […]

Recently, Zillow Inc. ( Z ) completed the acquisition of Mortech Inc. […]

Magna International Inc. ( MGA ) has announced that its Powertrain operating unit has acquired ixetic Verwaltungs GmbH, a Germany-based manufacturer of automotive vacuum, engine and transmission pumps. […]

The for-profit education industry has been going through trying times recently. Industry watchers had tied its fortunes with those of Mitt Romney in the Presidential elections. […]

One of the leading homebuilding companies in the U.S., KB Home ( KBH ) recently acquired 45 finished lots and 160 undeveloped lands in Copperfield community in Converse. Prices of KB homes in Converse are expected to start from $150,000s. Owing to its operational business model KBnxt, KB Home always begins construction only after a purchase agreement is executed […]

In yet another attempt to cut costs, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. ( AMD ) announced that it would reduce its fourth quarter and 2013 wafer purchase commitment with GlobalFoundries. GlobalFoundries, which manufactures integrated circuits (ICs) for semiconductor companies such as Broadcom ( BRCM ), Qualcomm ( QCOM ), and STMicroelectronics ( STM ) was formed in 2009 by divesting AMD’s manufacturing unit […]