Month: December 2012

Last week, ProAssurance Corporation ( PRA ) announced the culmination of its acquisition of Independent Nevada Doctors Insurance Exchange (INDIE) – a reciprocal exchange based in Nevada. Consequently, INDIE will be converted into a stock insurance company from a reciprocal exchange, and thereafter operated as a subsidiary of ProAssurance. […]

Recently, Liberty Media Corp. ( LMCA ) filed a new application named Form 4 to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, as the company has further acquired 1.88 million shares of SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. […]

Texas-based Range Resources Corporation ( RRC ) has begun spudding the Horizontal Mississippian play along the Nemaha Ridge in Oklahoma and Kansas prior to its first-quarter 2013 schedule. The proposed five-rig drilling program is generating results above expectations. The drilling site along the Nemaha Ridge is possibly the most lucrative. […]

Consistent with its strategy of expanding into the social gaming market,leading video game developer and publisher Electronic Arts Inc. ( EA ) recently launched a new social game called Word Derby . […]

Following NuStar Energy L.P. ’s ( NS ) grim third quarter results, we have recalibrated our investment thesis on the midstream energy partnership to Underperform from Neutral. San Antonio, Texas-based NuStar is a master limited partnership (MLP), which engages in the transportation and storage of crude oil as well as refined products in the U.S., the Netherlands Antilles, Canada, Mexico and the U.K. […]

In an effort to consolidate its footprint in Canada, Willis North America, a unit of Willis Group Holdings plc ( WSH ), inked a deal to buy Montreal-based Avalon Actuarial Inc. Alongside, the acquisition marks Willis’ foray into the Canadian employee benefits market. […]

Farmington Hills, Michigan-based real estate investment trust (REIT), Agree Realty Corporation ( ADC ) , recently added a Big Lots unit and a Dollar General Market unit in its portfolio for an aggregate price of $5.3 million. With these twin acquisitions, the company’s portfolio now exceeds a hundred properties. The acquired 30,000 square foot Big Lots Inc. […]

We are retaining our Neutral recommendation on gold miner Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. ( AEM ). […]

VRS.V: Q3 Update / New Core Data By Brian Marckx, CFA Q3 Financials Verisante ( V.VRS ) / ( VRSEF ) filed their Q3 2012 financials for the period ending 9/30/2012. Operating expenses of $688k remained in-line with the first two quarters of the year and were well below our $1.2 million estimate due to lower than modeled stock-based compensation. Net loss and EPS were $700k and ($0.01), also in-line with the first two quarters of 2012 and compared favorably to our $1.2 million (loss) and ($0.02) estimates. […]

Macy’s Inc . ( M ) – one of the leading department store retailers in the U.S. – posted both sluggish comparable-store sales as well as sales for the four-week period ended November 24, 2012 […]

Good news flowed in at Gilead Sciences Inc. ( GILD ) from Europe regarding its drug Viread. […]

As per TechCrunch, Capital One Digital Labs – a wing of Capital One Financial Corp. ( COF ) – has purchased nearly all assets of the New York-based data aggregator, Bundle Corp. Either of the parties have not disclosed the terms of the deal […]

The semiconductor and solar technology provider MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. ( WFR ) recently announced that its subsidiary SunEdison will sell a 20 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic power plant to Riverside Public Utilities for an undisclosed sum. […]

Global delivery service provider FedEx Corporation ( FDX ) announced a hike in its shipping rates for ground and home delivery. The company increased rates by an average of 4.9% to be effective from January 7, 2013. The average rates of FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery will go up by 5.9% […]

Basic apparels provider HanesBrands Inc. ( HBI ) recently raised its earnings expectation for full year 2013 in the range of $3.25 to $3.40 per share, from the previous low $3 range, following early repayment of long-term debt. […]

As per The Wall Street Journal , taking cue from last year’s backlash related to the imposition of fees for the overdraft facilities, Bank of America Corporation ( BAC ) has called off its plan to levy new fees by the end of this year. The fees were supposed to be charged to nearly 10 million BofA customers. […]