Month: August 2012

Department store giant Macy’s (NYSE: M) has reported some positive second quarter earnings results. The company reported a profit for the quarter ending on July 28 of $279 million up 16% from last year. The department store chain said it had an EPS of $0.67, above estimates of $0.65, and well above last year’s $0.55 per share. Revenue grew to $6.12 billion, just beating estimates of a flat $6.1 billion. Macy’s success can be attributed to its exclusive products and the flocking of customers from suffering retailers like JC Penney. Recently, Macy’s has bought a minority stake in a Chinese online retailer, VIPStore Co., through which it will sell it’s products to Chinese consumers.

CVS Caremark (CVS) was upgraded by BMO (BMO) to outperform from market perform with a price target of $53 due to the expectation of higher earnings and improved margins during the next several quarters. Shares are higher by about 3.2 percent.

Sapient (SAPE) was downgraded by Wells Fargo (WFC) to market perform from outperform, as the company’s Nitro segment has been experiencing slower growth. Shares are lower by about 2.7 percent.

As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy — they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

The Daily Ticker interviews Austan Goolsbee.

As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy — they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

In trading on Wednesday, advertising shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.7%. Leading the group were shares of Lamar Advertising (LAMR), up about 10.9% and shares of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings (CCO) up about 2.8% on the day.

Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) reported that second quarter profit fell, and also cut its forecast forL the full year. Net income was $4.6 million, or 4 cents per share, versus $8.9 million, or 8 cents per share in the same period last year.

Watch out Siri, there’s a new virtual assistant in town. From Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) comes Nina, a speech based assistant that uses voice recognition and text-to speech software to help the everyday mobile user.The new app will be far superior than its competitors, such as Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Siri, according to Nuance. The company says it is the first virtual assistant app to incorporate both speech recognition and voice biometrics. So Nina can not only understand what is being said, but can also identify who is saying it. Nuance also claims Nina has a high level of interactive dialogue and language understanding and allows for personalization, including her visual appearance. The app open software development kit, the first virtual assistant to offer such a program, is available today in the US, United Kingdom and Australia with more languages to come later this year.

CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) reporting their second quarter earnings this morning, posting an EPS of 81 cents, higher than the 80 cents analysts were expecting. Revenue also rose 16.3% to $30.71 billion, but just came below analyst estimates of $30.98 billion. The company said the rise in earnings was due to a contract dispute between Walgreens and Express Scripts. CVS’s main competitor stopped filling prescriptions for Express Scripts patients at the beginning of 2012, allowing CVS to gain some more customers. However, the dispute has been settled and Walgreens will start filling prescriptions again on September 15. CVS also raised its full year forecast on EPS, saying it expects $3.32 to $3.38 a share for the fiscal year. Analysts are expecting earnings to be $3.33.