Month: May 2012

Macy’s (M) announced that first quarter profit increased by 38 percent, beating expectations. Net income increased to $181 million, or 43 cents per share, up from $131 million, or 30 cents per share, in the same period last year.

Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) today had its estimates increased by Jefferies (JEF) after the company beat earnings estimates. A buy rating was issued with a price target of $63.

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 Tuesday, education & training services shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.2%. Leading the group were shares of Grand Canyon Education (LOPE), up about 16.7% and shares of Corinthian Colleges (COCO) up about 3.8% on the day.

Wendy’s announced that it earned a profit during the first quarter due to a gain on an investment sale. However, the company missed analyst estimates and cut its 2012 forecast.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) announced plans to purchase KAI Pharmaceuticals.KAI’s main product, KAI-4169 is currently in its mid-stage development for treatment of patients with hyperparathyroidism with kidney failure.Amgen wil purchase Kai for $315 million in cash.Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) has potential upside of 6.6% based on a current price of $67.02 and an average consensus analyst price target of $71.47.Amgen is currently above its 200-day moving average (MA) of $60.03 and should find resistance at its 50-day MA of $67.85.In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has remained constant while the 200-day MA has risen 0.16%.

Shares of Computer Sciences (NYSE:CSC) are trading 2.4% lower after it preannounced expectations for FQ4 revenues of $4.1 billion and EPS of $0.19 – $0.21.Analysts, on average were expecting EPS of $0.97 on sales of $4.11 billion.The company cited the detrimental impact of CSC’s still unresolved services deal with the UK’s National Health Service.Free cash flow is expected to total about $225 million – $275 million.

Dr. Pepper Snapple (DPS) was upgraded today by Morgan Stanley (MS) to equal weight from underweight due to an improving business environment in the United States.

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.

Dish Network (DISH) today announced that it earned 80 cents per share for the quarter, beating estimates of 70 cents per share. Revenue was $3.58 billion, 11% higher than the same period last year, but below expectations of $3.62 billion.