Month: April 2012

Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) announced that its international rig count for March of 2012 was down 12 from the 1,204 figure it announced in February, but up 45 from the 1,147 announced in February.Meanwhile, the company’s total global rig count for March 2012 was 3,663, down 237 from the 3,900 counted in February of 2012 and up 229 from the 3,434 counted in March 2011.SmarTrend alerted subscribers to take profits in Baker Hughes on March 06, 2012 at $47.02, since then the stock fell 13.1%. We are now watching for any positive developments that could result in a new uptrend signal.

Shares of Network Engines (NYSE:NEI) are trading 26% lower after the company said its largest customer, EMC (NYSE:EMC), intends to transition from its products which represents about $21 million of its quarterly revenue stream.The change is expected to take place at the end of this year.

A JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) analyst weighed in on the likelihood of a Safeway (NYSE:SWY) leveraged buyout saying the company’s pension and recently added debt make it less likely.The stock has pared opening gains after Ken Goldman’s comments circulated.Safeway’s recent moves may indicate a higher likelihood of Reverses Morris Trust (RHT) than a LBO, but wasn’t certain RHT was even likely.Earlier, Safeway was trading almost 5% higher. The company has a market cap of $5.74 billion.JP Morgan had previously thought the company could be considering corporate action such as an LBO or RMT.

Compensations for top Wall Street executives are all out before the tax deadline and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon came on top in 2011 by taking home $23M. Next one in line, Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup took home $14.9M. And yes I hear you, Citigroup usually doesn’t pay the best. Morgan Stanley Chairman and CEO James Gorman was also in the 8-figure club with $10.5M in all.There is a name you might be looking for that did not come on top this year. Goldman Sach’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s pay was $12M in 2011, a down tick from $18M in 2010. Out the $12M Blankfein received, $5M was in cash, and $3M of that $5M was classified as bonus. Goldman stock had a one-way downward ride in 2011 and finished the year at 54% where it started. Earnings fell 47% and was directly responsible for the 2,400 job cuts.For more news and updates, keep it right here at the Financial New Network, I’m Julia Sun.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) acquired Varicent Software, which is an analytics software maker, for an undisclosed amount.IBM said the acquisition of the private firm will improve its existing software products arsenal that is delivered to clients through on-premise or cloud computing models.

AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) CEO David Brennan deflected reports that some shareholders are looking for a change in management in the firm.The CEO has received heavy criticism for his plans to pursue smaller deals and avoid large mergers in the face of potentially declining sales on major drugs with patent protection due to expire.

Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG) shares are up 4.7% premarket on reports it is set to hold a near-monopoly on US exports of liquid natural gas if a Louisiana plant gets approved.The US government may decide as early as next week on LNG’s request to build the $10 billion plant which would rank the largest in the US to liquefy gas and load it onto tanks.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) could be inflating the size of its streaming library by counting each episode of a TV series as a separate show.The 17,000 mark the company is boasting on its ads only represents about 1,745 movies and 150 TV shows.Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is reported to count individual episodes in its total as well. However, it doesn’t advertise the inflated figure actively.

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) reported Q1 EPS of $0.34, inline with consensus estimates. Revenues in the quarter rose 20% year-over-year to $768.9 million, inline with consensus estimates. Shares of the company slipped 2.68% to $48.30 in premarket trading.Fastenal is currently below its 50-day moving average (MA) of $51.67 and should find support at its 200-day MA of $40.99.

This fifteenth trading week of 2012 comes to a close with investors selling stocks due to concerns about the pace of global growth. Hi.