What Are The Bright Spots In Wal-Mart's Earnings?

From Seeking Alpha

The world's leading brick and mortar retailer Wal-Mart (WMT), has reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2013 in which it missed Wall Street expectations. This was partly due to the bad weather, delays in tax refunds and a payroll tax increase. However, there were some bright spots in Wal-Mart's performance. The company continues to grow globally in the e-commerce space while the management believes that Wal-Mart is increasing its market share in groceries, despite the lackluster performance as compared to some of its rivals .... Read More
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Cisco's Growth, Software-Defined-Networking 'Threat' And The New Price Target

From Seeking Alpha

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) continues with inorganic growth in cloud computing and mobile technologies. The company has reported strong quarterly results as it looks for growth in non-core areas by selling servers and other equipment as opposed to the traditional communications equipment such as routers and switches. This transition was apparent in the current quarterly results in which strong growth in data center, wireless and service provider video made up for the lackluster performance of switching and NGN routing - two of its biggest business segments. The two units are also .... Read More
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ConocoPhillips And Canada's Oil Sands: Everything You Need To Know

From Seeking Alpha

According to a recent report, ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has decided not to sell its stake in the Canadian oil sands assets as the company has already reached its capital targets by divesting from other resources. Canada's oil sands can be an attractive venture but due to large financial requirements, technical and political challenges, explained later in the article, ConocoPhillips would have had a tough time finding the right buyers .... read more

Earnings Review: Looking For Positives In Amazon, eBay And Groupon

From Seeking Alpha

The e-commerce behemoth Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has recently reported its earnings in which it missed the revenues estimates but easily beat the earnings expectations, which were already very low. Its rival eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) also reported its quarterly results in which it also missed the top line estimates. Both of the companies are facing difficulties in the international operations. Ebay has been doing a major overhaul of its seller fees to become more competitive. Meanwhile, the value of Amazon's stake in LivingSocial continues to fall while its rival Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) has added billions to its market cap. Both Amazon and Groupon are ... read more
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Unilever Takes the Spotlight in Emerging Markets

From the Motley Fool, dated May 13, 2013

In the recent round of earnings, the leading fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms reported modest to flat growth. Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) did not report any growth in its biggest business unit. The subsequent fall in its share prices could provide an entry point for safe investors. While the company, under pressure from shareholders, is focusing on trimming down costs by cutting $10 billion through 2016, its rival Unilever (NYSE: UL) is gearing up to expand in emerging markets and is betting billions on India. 

World's Biggest Rig Developer Posts a Massive Drop in Income

From the Motley Fool, dated 9th May, 2013

Keppel Corp (NASDAQOTH: KPELY.PK), the world’s largest builder of offshore oil rigs has reported a significant slide in earnings, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise as management has been giving warning signals to shareholders. The company also operates in property and infrastructure segments, but its bread and butter mainly relies on developing offshore rigs for oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A). Keppel is one of the biggest firms in Singapore, and is responsible for half of the world’s jack-up rigs delivered since 2000.It has also moved into the relatively newer Floating LNG, or FLNG, vessel segment and is currently

Audi vs. Mercedes: Who is Winning?

From: The Motley Fool

Two of the leading German car makers, Daimler AG (NASDAQOTH: DDAIF.PK) and Volkswagen AG (NASDAQOTH: VLKAY), have reported massive drops in profits in their most recent earnings releases. Daimler is the world’s third biggest luxury car-marker and the owner of the iconic Mercedes brand of cars and trucks. Volkswagen, the parent of Audi and the maker of the Beetle, has been eying global expansion, particularly in China, as it aims to compete with the big boys of the auto industry such as General Motors and Toyota. While Mercedes barely managed to increase its total car sales, Audi posted rising unit sales in almost all of its markets as the latter widened its lead over the former from 7,802 cars in Q1 2012 to 27,090 cars in Q1 2013. 

Cheniere Energy: How Attractive Is The Industry's Outlook?

From Seeking Alpha 

The Freeport LNG terminal recently received a conditional approval for the export of natural gas from the Department of Energy (DoE) as the sector gears up for some significant development. The glut of natural gas in the U.S. following the massive shale gas boom has made exports of the commodity more lucrative. Markets were already expecting positive developments, particularly after President Obama indicated his support for exports of natural gas when he said earlier that the U.S. could become a net seller of LNG in the next seven years.

So far, Cheniere Energy's (NYSEMKT:LNG) Sabine Pass terminal has been the only other facility to have received a conditional approval for exports of up to 2.2 billion cubic feet/day about two years ago.

The Freeport LNG terminal is partly owned by the energy firm ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and the chemical giant Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW). The approval still requires .. Read More

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Why Goldman and Morgan Stanley's Results Are Unimpressive

From The Motley Fool, Dated May, 7th 2013. 

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), the largest independent investment bank in the U.S., and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), the sixth-largest bank in the U.S., have recently released their quarterly results.

Goldman Sachs was able to beat both top-line and bottom-line estimates, but revenue from its biggest segment fell by 10%. Similarly, while Morgan Stanley’s earnings were also above the Wall Street expectations, the firm failed to impress investors as its fixed-income operations continue to under-perform.

The Numbers Behind Apple’s Sluggish Growth

From The Motley Fool, dated May 3, 2013

So Apple’s growth has been slowing down, but exactly by how much? and what about Samsung?

Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) growth has been slowing down but exactly by how much? According to its latest earnings release, the business still sells 420,562 iPhones, 218,843 iPads, 44,404 Macs and 63,295 iPods – all in a single day, every day, which is phenomenal to say the least. But the extraordinary growth figures -- which used to pump its stock price and hence its market cap – are now history. In fact, the quarterly revenue growth is nearing a high single-digit number. The music is certainly slowing down, but for its rival Samsung (OTCMKTS: SSNLF) the party isn’t over yet.

Turnaround of Asia’s Largest Refiner

From The Motley Fool dated May 3, 2013

Asia’s refining giant China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (NYSE: SNP), more commonly known as Sinopec, has recently released its quarterly results in which its profits increased by 24% due to a significant and much awaited turnaround of its refining business. The Chinese authorities have been keeping a lid on oil prices to curtail inflation, but they have been moving towards more market friendly fuel pricing policies, which will change the fortunes of Chinese refiners.

Stock jump makes Tesla more valuable than Fiat

Stock jump makes Tesla more valuable than Fiat (via AFP)

The rocketing stock price of electric sports car maker Tesla made it more valuable than Fiat Tuesday -- even though the Italian auto giant produces 200 times more cars than the American upstart. After a more than 50 percent gain in the past week, Tesla's market value topped $10 billion, compared to…

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Greece enters sixth year of recession

Greece enters sixth year of recession (via AFP)

Data released last week showed Greece entered its sixth straight year of recession, but there is now cautious optimism about the economy's prospects although unemployment is still hitting record highs and consumers are squeezed by pay cuts and tax hikes. On Tuesday, Greece's battered debt ratings received…

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LinkedIn: Expensive And Unattractive?

Since the beginning of 2012 till the end of April this year, the shares of the leading professional social networking site LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) soared rising by nearly 200% as its price-earnings ratio, or P/E, climbed to nearly 1,000. Then it released its results for the first quarter of 2013 which showed strong profit growth but gave lackluster guidance which caused a 13% drop in its stock on Friday, 3rd May. The business has delivered several strong quarters in the past; therefore the markets were expecting greater things from them in the future.