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Star Scientific Hunky-Dory with FDA Ruling

April 30th, 2011

Star Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ: CIGX) shared gained 10% on the day after the company announced the receipt of notices from the Food and Drug Administration regarding its pending ARIVA-BDL and STONEWALL-BDL modified risk tobacco product applications. The notices from Lawrence Deyton, MD, MSPH, director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), said, Not all tobacco products are currently subject to Chapter IX of the FDCA [Federal Food Drug & Cosmetic Act]. At this time, only cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco are subject to Chapter IX FDCA Section 901(b). Based upon the information in your submission, [ARIVA-BDL and Stonewall-BDL are] not currently subject to Chapter IX requirements.

The company can now proceed with marketing these products following the FDAs determination that Ariva-BDL and Stonewall-BDL tobacco lozenges are not tobacco products that are currently regulated under Chapter IX of the FDCA.

Paul L. Perito, Stars chairman, president and COO, commented, We are pleased to have received a determination from the FDA on Ariva-BDL and Stonewall-BDL.

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Tags: Scientific, Star Scientific

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Futures Soar on Bin Laden’s Death

April 29th, 2011

We were expecting one last charge by the bulls as we closed out the month of April and the market got it.  The Dow and S&P finished the month of April at 3-year highs while the Nasdaq hit its highest level in a decade.  Not that we are trying to jinx anything, but geopolitical concerns took a backseat to earnings and economic news for once which helped the bulls stage a furious comeback over the past few weeks. A

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(F) Ford Motor Reports Profits Highest in a Decade

April 29th, 2011

Ford Motor Co. (F) flashed its first quarter 2011 earnings with a roaring 48% rise in profit to $2.61 billion from $1.76 billion in the same quarter of 2010. On earnings per share basis, profits rose 35% to 62 cents per share from 46 cents per share a year ago, thereby topping the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12 cents per share.

This is a turnaround performance with respect to the fourth quarter of 2010, when the automaker recorded a 24% fall in profit. However, the company did not deprive their stockholders from enjoying a profit for seven straight quarters after years of losses. In fact, it posted a profit during the quarter that was the best since the same quarter in 1998.

The credit goes undoubtedly to the company’s One Ford plan, which relies on fuel-efficient lineups, continued investment in global assets, efficient management and strengthening of core businesses, which has offset the negative impact from not-so-favorable economic condition as well as earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We have seen Ford to be among the last major automakers to announce production shutdowns due to the natural disaster in Japan.

Total revenue during the quarter escalated 18% to $33.1 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $30.5 billion. T

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Tags: Ford Motor, Profits

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Sector Detector: All Systems Are Go

April 26th, 2011

Reminder: Sabrient is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

Courtesy of Scott Martindale, Senior Managing Director, Sabrient

For the first time in the 98-year history of the Federal Reserve, its chairman held a news conference after its FOMC policy meeting. So, what was the big news? QE2 will end in June as planned, but as I speculated last week, they will keep the balance sheet steady by continuing to reinvest maturing assets into the debt markets. They will also keep the Fed Feds Rate in the 0.00-0.25% range. Both of these are stimulative to the economy.

So, Mr. Bernanke said all the right things, and like clockwork, stocks moved up while the dollar and bonds moved down. Gold and silver hit new highs. All systems are go. Hey, this stuff is getting easy to predict, isn’t it?

I attended the annual Capital Link CEF/ETF Conference today in New York City — always a well-attended and informative event. John Calamos gave the opening address, and his market view seems to represent the prevailing opinion, i.e., short-term bullish but longer-term cautious, with the expectation of higher interest rates down the road along with creeping inflation. One p

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(AAPL) Apple Quarterly Earnings Beat Analysts by Almost 20%

April 25th, 2011

Earnings homerun slugger Apple Inc. (AAPL) went yard once again when it announced earnings results for 2nd quarter 2011 Wednesday after the bell. Earnings of $6.40 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.35 by 19.6%. Quarterly revenues of $24.67 billion easily topped expectations of $23.1 billion.

The after-market cheered the results and sent AAPL shares up nearly $9 after the closing bell, for a gain of over 2.5%. This followed a more tempered 1.35% gain during normal trading hours today.

Sales of iPhones stood out 18.65 million phones were sold in the quarter, up from the 16.3 million expected. Verizon (VZ) now offering iPhones has clearly been a positive, as was AT&Ts (T) report earlier that its iPhone business performed better than expected in the quarter.

Gross margins of 41.4% show continued strength the companys earlier warning about gross margin compression has yet to manifest. Macs sold totaled 3.67 million, which was in line with expectations, but iPad sales of 4.7 million was notably fewer than the 6 million anticipated.

Apple Incs earnings beat is all the more impressive considering that there has been extensive upward pressure on earnings estimates over the past month.

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Tags: Beat, Beat Analysts

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Earnings Review; Netflix Reports Surging Streaming Business

April 25th, 2011

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) announced its financial results for the first quarter of the year, reporting higher revenue and income for the quarter, though its performance wasnt enough to counter negative investor sentiment from the companys disappointing second-quarter outlook.

Netflix reported sluggishness in its DVD business and warned that its growing streaming business is also likely to result in increased costs and will affect the margins.  However, it reported growth in its streaming video segment and reported a 69% increase in its quarterly income. The company’s net income for the quarter stood at $719 million, or  $1.11 per share.

The company expects to earn in the range of $0.93 and $1.15 per share during the current quarter, though analysts had pegged their expectations at $1.18 per share.

Netflix said, “Our competitive strategy relative to other streaming services is simply to grow as fast as we can, so we can afford more content, more marketing, and more R&D than our competitors.”

The company added 3.3 million new subscribers during the first quarter. The com

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Tags: Netflix, Netflix Reports

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