Month: August 2012

A year ago on this day, Tim Cook took over Apple from the legendary Steve Jobs. A year later, Apple’s stock price rose 44% and became the largest company in the world. Within his first year as the CEO, Apple released the Retina Display MacBook Pro, the iPhone 4S, the 3rd generation iPad and the new Mac operating system. The expectation for Cook was enormously high considering many believed Steve Jobs was irreplaceable. That’s hard to argue with, which also means given there’s no major complaints about Cook in the past year, he was doing a great job. A little personal background about Cook, he was born and raised in Alabama. His father was a shipyard worker and his mother was a homemaker. He graduated from Auburn University in AL in 1982 and later earned his MBA from Duke in 1988. Ten years later in 1998, Cook joined Apple as the SVP of World Operations, and you know the rest. Share with us where you think Apple is going from here, you can send in your comments to our show or you can tweet us @FNNOnline. I’m Julia Sun for the Financial News Network, see you next week.

Looks like people want good, organic food. The Hain Celestial Group Inc, posted strong 4th-quarter results today. Its adjusted EPS for the quarter came in at 47 cents, a 30.6% increase from the 36 cents per share earned a year ago. Including one-time items, EPS was 50 cents, up from 28 cents per share a year ago. Consumption in the US grew 14%, and revenue for the quarter rose 22.3% year over year, coming in at $350.7 million.This good news on earnings combined with an announcement that the company will buy some packaged food lines from Premier Foods, a U.K-based company, for $318 million. This deal should add around 25 cents per share to Hain’s earnings for fiscal 2013.On the news, Hain stock leapt 16% to $66.11 in early trading today. It’s up 80% from where it was at the beginning of the year, and up 24% from last month.

This thirty fourth trading week of 2012 comes to a close with investors sending stocks higher on Friday after Ben Bernanke’s comments that there was still room for the Fed to act. Hi.

From Fnno.com, This is the financial news network. Here’s what’s in the news for Thursday August 23, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports the Fed sent a strong signal that it’s preparing new steps to bolster the economic recovery, saying measures would be needed fairly soon unless growth substantially and convincingly picks up, according to minutes form the July 31-August 1 policy meeting. The Wall Street Journal also reports SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro called off a highly anticipated vote on rules for the money-market mutual-fund industry after losing a swing vote she needed to push through the rules. Reuters reports Sharp Corp.’s (PINK:SHCAY) main creditors, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU), are considering extending about $2.52B in new loans to the struggling TV maker. Bloomberg reports the New York Fed’s role in the $182.3B rescue of AIG (NYSE:AIG) is ending on a high note today as the bank plans to sell $3.4B in toxic mortgage debt inherited four years ago when it bailed out AIG. The assets are the last batch from its Maiden Lane III LLC portfolio. Finally, Bloomberg also reports Target (NYSE:TGT) won the latest round in its pricing battle with Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT), as it had lower prices than Wal-Mart this month for the first time since October, according to research conducted by Bloomberg Industries, which showed it led by its widest margin since the monthly study began two years ago. For more financial news and analysis follow us on Twitter @FNNOnline or check out our website at fnno.com.

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 Friday, biotechnology shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.6%. Leading the group were shares of Oncothyreon (ONTY), up about 10.8% and shares of Hemispherx Biopharma (HEB) up about 10.5% on the day.

The Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task talks to Jim Bianco.

Autodesk (ADSK) announced that it earned 48 cents per share on revenue of $568.7 million, below estimates of 49 cents per share and revenue of $593.5 million. The company expects a profit of 40-45 cents per share in the current quarter, and revenue in the range of $550 to $570 million, well below estimates of 50 cents per share and revenue of $601.3 million.

From FNNO.com, This is the financial news network. I’m Kimberly Odom. H&M moves forward with plans to open its largest store in the world, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The new location will be a six-level, 57,000-square-foot site, at 589 Fifth Avenue. The store is set to open in 2013. Currently, H&M’s largest store in the world operates in The Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas and exceeds 50,000 square feet. H&M made its grand entrance into the U.S. in 2000 by opening the first location on Fifth Avenue and 51st Street, only three blocks away from the new store. Since then, H&M has been taking over both Manhattan and the U.S. with store openings. There are 10 Manhattan locations and 247 across the United States. By the end of this year, H&M’s 11th Manhattan store will open in The Shops at Columbus Circle, making the 589 Fifth Avenue location number 12. For more financial news and analysis follow us on Twitter @FNNOnline or check out our website at fnno.com.

American Eagle (AEO) had its numbers raised by UBS (UBS) due to improved execution of the business strategy by the company. A neutral rating was issued with a $23 price target.