BloggingStocks

Chesapeake Energy (CHK): Shares cycle in bullish 'flag' consolidation pattern

Larry Schutts — 2008-06-25T13:41:00+00:00

Filed under: Good news, Chesapeake Energy (CHK), BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Technical Analysis, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Stocks to Buy

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and development of properties for the production of natural gas and crude oil. The firm is the second-largest independent producer and third-largest overall producer of natural gas in the United States. Company properties are located in the US midcontinent region, along the Gulf Coast, in the Permian Basin, and in the Ark-La-Tex region. It owns interests in nearly 39,000 producing wells and has nearly eleven trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved reserves.

Chesapeake pleased investors last week, when it announced that it had formed a joint venture with Goodrich Petroleum (NYSE: GDP) that would give it working interests in deep strata of the Haynesville Shale of East Texas and Louisiana. The move is expected to make Chesapeake the largest U.S. natural-gas producer, pushing it past BP (NYSE: BP) and Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC).

The CHK share price popped on the news and then moved into a bullish "flag" consolidation pattern. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Brokers recommend the issue with ten "strong buys," eight "buys" and nine "holds." The CHK Price to Book ratio (3.32), EPS Growth rate (25.29%), Operating Margin (26.31%) and Net Profit Margin (13.55%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions hold about 79% of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 500 Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $31.38 and $68.10. A stop-loss of $54.50 looks good here. Note that the firm is next expected to report quarterly results in late July.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com. He does not hold positions in any of the stocks mentioned above.

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Cramer on BloggingStocks: Nat gas stocks outshine integrateds

Jim Cramer — 2008-06-17T09:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Exxon Mobil (XOM), Market matters, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Oil, Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says these stocks rise because they're doubly blessed. Integrateds fall because they aren't.

So many people have been puzzled why the major integrateds have not moved with the last $30 rally in oil's spot price. The answer?

They can't take advantage of it.

They either didn't believe, and therefore didn't drill, or they have been so in the crosshairs of sovereign lunacy that they haven't been able to. They didn't have the rigs or they judged that the rigs were so expensive that, like 1980, they would look like dopes when oil came back to $40-$50, where many thought it would. (Go back and check even last year's research for price targets, most of which were from the oil companies' themselves.)

Or maybe it didn't matter anyway. So many of the contracts these companies have signed with governments around the world are either being abrogated or just outright confiscated that you have to ask yourself "Who can invest under those scenarios?" Exxon (NYSE: XOM) (Cramer's Take) in Venezuela. Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) (Cramer's Take) and now BP (NYSE: BP) (Cramer's Take) in Russia. You can't continually invest billions and then write it off because the contracts you wrote don't mean anything.

I think it is more important to focus on which stocks have gone up and that's an easy one: the natural gas stocks. These companies, which include XTO (NYSE: XTO) (Cramer's Take), Ultra (NYSE: UPL) (Cramer's Take), Anadarko (NYSE: APC) (Cramer's Take), Devon (NYSE: DVN) (Cramer's Take), Apache (NYSE: APA) (Cramer's Take), Southwest (NYSE: SWN) (Cramer's Take), El Paso (NYSE: EP) (Cramer's Take) and many of the wildcatters I have been programming on "Mad Money", are all about acquiring acres and drilling. These companies do so voraciously, they are constantly on the move and they have the excess rig capacity to do something about it.

(Remember the domestic glut, which is part of Nabors' old problems, allows for drilling to be much less expensive, not to mention shallow. The thing that's costing is that the farmers have figured out the game but it is still a small price to pay.)

These stocks fluctuate with the oil futures as they did yesterday. But if you wait a few days they stabilize and start their ramp up again because they are levered to asset growth of a rising commodity. Unlike the integrateds they are twice blessed.

There is a sense that the integrated are signaling that there is an oil top. That's so wrong. It is signaling their inability to capitalize off of it. That's why there is such a disparity with the gas wildcatters and acquirers. I remain bullish on the group despite endless carping about how they are topping. This group has been topping for two years for heaven's sake.

Sorry, I am still a believer.

Random musings: I don't trust Lehman (NYSE: LEH) (Cramer's Take) as far as I can throw 'em. These real estate portfolios -- not the Archstones, but the real junk they took back from customers -- are totally unhedgeable and in many ways worthless because of underlying fraud and because of attached HELOC that we don't even know about. The stuff's a joke and I want to emphasize that even JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) is shocked at how bad the stuff was from Bear. You can't hedge fraudulent securities. They had some really bad paper. More on that later. ... First Solar's (NASDAQ: FSLR) (Cramer's Take) CEO has answered a lot of questions about his selling and his program and I feel slightly better about it, but I do believe that the credibility is an issue here given all the negatives, although I also believe that the negatives are all well known, and oil is not going to plummet here, in my opinion. ...Can you believe the momentum buying in Decker's (NASDAQ: DECK) (Cramer's Take)? Sometimes the market's just pulling our legs, isn't it? The notion of valuation is out the window for some of these names ...

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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer was long EP, XTO and SWN.

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Serious Money: What's up today? Food & drillers!

Sheldon Liber — 2008-06-11T13:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Major movement, International markets, Rants and raves, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Oil, Agriculture, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008, Bunge Ltd. (BG), Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT), Loews Corporation (LTR), Precision Drilling TR (PDS)

The stock market is in turmoil today and the reasons can be found elsewhere (including in some peoples' imaginations). But if you are a bottom line investor, then here is where you should be looking. Food and energy exploration are the places to be.

Things can change rapidly, but as of right now food related stocks like Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG), the largest company involved with soy based products, and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT), the largest fertilizer company, are up.

In the exploration sector, Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC), the oil, gas and exploration company, Loews Corporation (NYSE: LTR), which is the majority shareholder in Diamond Offshore Drilling and is separating from its tobacco interests, and Precision Drilling TR (NYSE: PDS), the Canadian contract driller that is expanding into the lower 48 states, are all up.

All five stocks have out performed the market this year and that trend does not seem to be in jeopardy yet.

I will update this post with final results after the market close to see how the story ends.

UPDATE: four of the five closed in positive territory when all the major indices were in the red.

APC finished down to $77.69, -0.54 (-0.69%)
BG finished up to $122.40, +0.47 (+0.39%)
LTR finished up to $48.95, +0.45 (+0.93%)
PDS finished up to $26.95, +0.49 (+1.85%)
POT finished up to $223.10 +2.54 (+1.15%)

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of APC and PDS.

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Cramer on BloggingStocks: Oil's rise is fueling the wind plays

Jim Cramer — 2008-05-21T09:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Market matters, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Oil, Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says as crude goes higher, it makes more and more sense to go for other energy options.

Every day that oil goes up, there is a new set of technologies that had formerly been priced out of the market that comes back to life. Let's take wind. Wind, in itself, just seems so stupid. It needs, well, wind. Much of our country doesn't have enough wind to make this economic. There are only certain regions that can really benefit.

But when oil is at $130, SO WHAT! The parts of the country that have a lot of wind are nuts not to do wind. Wind, when properly integrated into the grid, costs 4 cents a kilowatt. The issue has been shortage of everything that goes into a windmill, because nobody in the chain thought it was worthwhile to mass-produce them. So even though the cost is low, no companies felt it was worth it because the market seemed so niche.

In other words, it was the wind supply chain that was the problem, because we only thought in terms of gigantic plants that created energy. But with nuclear not an option -- never will be in this country, if you ask me -- natural gas falling out of favor post-Katrina as being unreliable, and coal simply intolerable because of the climate problems, wind has become the most natural fuel of all.

But think about all of the things that had to go right before the investment: The technology had to be refined to be sure that the blades were big enough to matter, the turbines and steel towers had to be mass-manufactured, the transmission into the grid had to be refined, and the companies that got into it had to be sure that oil was high enough to sink the cost into the manufacturing of turbines.

All of this had to happen. Anything goes at $130 a barrel. Suddenly little companies like Broadwind (NASDAQ: BWEN) (Cramer's Take) are worth twice what they were when oil was lower.

Of course that kind of move is not sustainable. But what it does speak to is that we are now in the marginal incremental moment where one energy alternative after another kicks in and makes sense.

Suddenly side businesses in wind for Thomas & Betts (NYSE: TNB) (Cramer's Take) and Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) (Cramer's Take) and Trinity (NYSE: TRN) (Cramer's Take) are making more money than their real businesses, which then allows more money to be brought in to further reduce the costs of turbines, which then takes them from being peak-load alternatives to base-load alternatives.

Things that didn't make sense now make sense. And stocks you wouldn't touch are now reasonable investments.

This process is leaving a lot of people behind. They can't figure how natural gas stocks got this high, but that's totally a function of the old 6-to-1 rule. Natural gas almost always trades as a ratio of 6-to-1 -- divide oil by 6 bucks -- so how can you not own Apache (NYSE: APA) (Cramer's Take), Southwestern (NYSE: SWN) (Cramer's Take), XTO (NYSE: XTO) (Cramer's Take), Devon (NYSE: DVN) (Cramer's Take), Ultra Pete (NYSE: UPL) (Cramer's Take), El Paso (NYSE: EP) (Cramer's Take), Anadarko (NYSE: APC) (Cramer's Take) and so many other little companies.

Same with wind.

Each new dollar in the price of crude is theoretically some amount per share for a wind company. That's why they are so worth focusing on.

Notice I didn't mention solar, in part because solar is not -- other than First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) (Cramer's Take) -- part of the grid equation. You need to either be attached to the grid to become useful or attached directly to a car engine to become useful.

Everything else is a little too one-off for investment and too boutique, so they'll need subsidies to see them through; no government other than Germany will provide those subsidies.

So, every dollar up, wind rides higher.

It's just that simple.

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Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer was long El Paso and XTO.

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Apple, Oil, & Steel were rays of light on gloomy market day

Sheldon Liber — 2008-05-20T20:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Major movement, International markets, Other issues, Bad news, Rants and raves, Apple Inc (AAPL), Market matters, Halliburton (HAL), Reliance Steel and Aluminum (RS), Valero Energy (VLO), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Politics, Commodities, Oil, Headline news, Precision Drilling TR (PDS)

Today was a very gloomy day in the stock market with Oil reaching new highs and everything else losing -- almost. Among the few winners, and I mean very few, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), oil, and specialty steel were up. I went through my watch list and found this very short list of winners:

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) $78.49, up +$0.95 or 1.23%

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) $185.90, up +$2.30 or 1.25%

Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) $49.92, +$0.85 up +$1.73%

Precision Drilling TR (NYSE: PDS) $27.90, up $1.13, or 4.22%

Reliance Steel and Aluminum (NYSE: RS) $67.37, +0.$52, or 0.78%

Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO) $50.12, up +$0.43 or 0.87%

Every day people are asking how high oil prices will go and every day someone guesses much higher. Those folks will continue to be correct until they are wrong so I will stay out of the prediction business. Of course the "guess" is my choice of words, for there are plenty of people who would like you to believe they actually "know" something.

I was wondering lately why oil prices have shot up 500% for a barrel during a period of time when demand has not even doubled. The best I can figure is the collapsing dollar is a third of the increase, demand is a third of the increase and speculation is the last third.

When things like this happen the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork, and they join ranks with the politicians to bad mouth "big oil" and all kinds of taxes and penalties and new regulations are threatened. How about, conservation, alternative energy, and allowing carefully planned off-shore oil exploration. Here's a BIG idea -- how about having any kind of cohesive energy policy at all.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of APC, PDS & VLO.

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Cramer on BloggingStocks: Oil's not the widespread tax it used to be

Jim Cramer — 2008-05-19T09:22:00+00:00

Filed under: General Electric (GE), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Market matters, Halliburton (HAL), Schlumberger Limited (SLB), Alcoa Inc (AA), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing Co (BA), Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Chevron Corp (CVX), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Office Depot (ODP), Deere and Co (DE), Honeywell Intl (HON), United Technologies (UTX), Eaton Corp (ETN), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Oil, Stocks to Buy, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC), Union Pacific Corporation (UNP), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT)

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says lots of companies now thrive with crude up here.

Oil's not a tax on everything -- it's a tax on the consumer. That's what I come down to when I see the charts this weekend and ponder what's happening in so much of industrial America.

Company after company that I examine -- the new techs, as I call them -- actually benefit from higher oil prices. Or they can pass them on with ease, because of the worldwide demand being so strong.

Take all of the companies involved with making a Boeing (NYSE: BA) (Cramer's Take): Boeing itself, Alcoa (NYSE: AA) (Cramer's Take), Honeywell (NYSE: HON) (Cramer's Take) and Precision Castparts (NYSE: PCP) (Cramer's Take) being good examples. Each of these is necessary because the new Dreamliner burns lots less fuel, and with fuel the biggest airline cost, it stands to reason that higher energy prices make the plane more desirable even at a higher price point.

Or how about all of the companies involved with process and flow control and efficient motors: Parker-Hannifin (NYSE: PH) (Cramer's Take), Emerson (NYSE: EMR) (Cramer's Take), Eaton (NYSE: ETN) (Cramer's Take) and Flowserve (NYSE: FLS) (Cramer's Take). Those work higher with higher energy prices. CSX (NYSE: CSX) (Cramer's Take), Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) (Cramer's Take), Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) (Cramer's Take), Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) (Cramer's Take) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) (Cramer's Take) are smaller energy users than trucks, and they ship plenty of ethanol and fertilizer.

Of course everything farming: Deere (NYSE: DE) (Cramer's Take), Monsanto (NYSE: MON) (Cramer's Take), Du Pont (NYSE: DD) (Cramer's Take), AGCO (NYSE: AG) (Cramer's Take), Potash (NYSE: POT) (Cramer's Take), Agrium (NYSE: AGU) (Cramer's Take), Mosaic (NYSE: MOS) (Cramer's Take) and Archer Daniels (NYSE: ADM) (Cramer's Take) (these are big companies in market cap now, powers of the S&P or companies just waiting to get into the S&P but stalled by a lack of mergers). And everything that drills, ships and transports oil and gas: Rowan (NYSE: RDC) (Cramer's Take), Parker (NYSE: PKD) (Cramer's Take), Weatherford (NYSE: WFT) (Cramer's Take), Cameron (NYSE: CAM) (Cramer's Take), Noble (NYSE: NE) (Cramer's Take), Transocean (NYSE: RIG) (Cramer's Take), FMC Tech (NYSE: FTI) (Cramer's Take), Oceaneering (NYSE: OII) (Cramer's Take) and so many others -- and of course, Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) (Cramer's Take) and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) (Cramer's Take).

And then there is oil and gas itself, ever a larger portion of the S&P. Look at the charts during last week's run: Apache (NYSE: APA) (Cramer's Take), Anadarko (NYSE: APC) (Cramer's Take), Nabors (NYSE: NBR) (Cramer's Take), Exxon (NYSE: XOM) (Cramer's Take), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) (Cramer's Take), Occidental (NYSE: OXY) (Cramer's Take), XTO (NYSE: XTO) (Cramer's Take), Southwestern (NYSE: SWN) (Cramer's Take), Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) (Cramer's Take), Ultra (NYSE: UPL) (Cramer's Take): these all count.

Coal, of course, is a huge beneficiary. Infrastructure works because these companies get the benefits of the oil companies' largesse by being able to build energy-related production centers.

Even the autos can be viewed as benefitting, as the newer cars use less gas than the old ones, making them viable alternatives in multiyear paybacks. Along those lines, energy-efficient appliances get a boost.

Then there are the myriad energy-alternative plays that are always dominating the headlines but haven't yet made it into the S&P or are very small parts of the S&P: the wind plays -- Trinity (NYSE: TRN) (Cramer's Take), Woodward Governor (NASDAQ: WGOV) (Cramer's Take), Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) (Cramer's Take) (also insulation); solar -- First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) (Cramer's Take) ($24 billion market cap), SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) (Cramer's Take), and all the Chinese plays that people love so much.

Pipelines galore: Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMP) (Cramer's Take), Enterprise (NYSE: EPD) (Cramer's Take), Boardwalk (NYSE: BWP) (Cramer's Take), so many others.

Many companies are neutral -- financial, telco, utilities -- although some benefit from the price umbrella of higher oil costs and can pass on costs they don't have. Tech's been fairly neutral. The weaknesses we have seen in tech are related to consumer slowdown (customers such as Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) (Cramer's Take)) or financial. Media's neutral, too. Health care can't be considered a negative either when it comes to energy consumption.

Most of the conglomerates say they are energy-positive: United Tech (NYSE: UTX) (Cramer's Take) and, famously, GE (NYSE: GE) (Cramer's Take), which has said that its fortunes should improve as oil goes higher, although we haven't seen that yet.

We know there are plenty that don't. Anything that is sold in the supermarket. Anything retail. Anything that uses oil or natural gas and can't really pass it on: Minerals and mining (although global demand really helps), glass (although recycling really helps, as in the case of Owens-Illinois (NYSE: OI) (Cramer's Take)), and chemicals and the paper producers.

But those companies aren't that important anymore, even though they dominate the consciousness of the marketplace, despite the encroachment of energy as a part of the S&P 500.

In fact, if finance could turn itself around -- something that seems increasingly possible, although it has sucked up a huge amount of capital and done nothing -- you could argue that we are on the cusp of a major move as it dawns on people that energy isn't the tax it used to be.

There are plenty of 30,000-foot flaws to this. We have seen time and again that our own growth in this country is heavily consumer-related. But the industrial growth owes itself not to the U.S. consumer, but the worldwide consumer.

All of these facts can go far toward explaining how higher oil prices have not been able to block the advance of the S&P or the Dow Jones averages. In fact, if the latter were more responsive to energy -- the Chevron nod was accompanied by ne'er-do-well Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take) instead of a Deere or another oil play like an Occidental or a Schlumberger -- we would be taking out 13,000 with ease.

All of this is worth thinking about when you are gloomy, because it doesn't add up to a decline, it explains the advance.

Keep it in mind during the next downturn. It explains a lot why they've been fairly shallow.

And I don't expect anything deeper now that finance seems to have stabilized.

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Sunday Funnies: Analysts must have a great sense of humor

Sheldon Liber — 2008-05-18T20:10:00+00:00

Filed under: Analyst reports, Forecasts, Other issues, Rants and raves, Scandals, Top Picks 2007, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Sunday Funnies, Oil, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008

Do stock market analysts take creative writing or are they the ultimate bandwagon guys? The lame information provided by stock market analysts keep providing more fodder for my rants. Last Friday -- Lehman raised Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) to Overweight from Equal Weight citing relative valuation and strong U.S. gas exposure....well duh!

I have ranted and raved about the poor performance of most analysts for almost the entire time I have been writing for BloggingStocks but the wonders never cease. The stock is at a 52 week high and now they take notice. I don't have their "training" yet I was pushing APC at $40, its low. It closed at $78.15 near its all time high and now Lehman makes the call. To quote a 90 year old Wall Streeter when asked to share what he had learned from his 70 years in the market "Nobody knows nuttin". The following is the two year chart for APC.

The Motley Fool ranted in a similar vain when they discussed a study by Patrick Cusatis and J. Randall Woolridge of Pennsylvania State University that studied 20 years' worth of published earnings estimates made by Wall Street industry analysts. They discovered that analysts were consistently overly optimitsic and that practically speaking, you should ratchet them down to the tune of around 40%; or you'll be sorry.

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Analyst upgrades: FISV, ARB and APC

Eric Buscemi — 2008-05-16T11:33:00+00:00

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Wal-Mart (WMT), Kroger Co (KR), Anadarko Petroleum (APC)

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Fiserv, Arbitron and Anadarko Petroleum were today's noteworthy upgrades:

JMP Securities upgraded Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV) to Outperform from Market Perform citing a reversal of the Bank of America in-house risk, potential re-branding initiatives, and relative pricing stability.
Bear upgraded Arbitron (NYSE: ARB) to Outperform from Peer Perform citing PPM earnings growth potential, strong industry position, defensive nature of shares, and it views the company as an acquisition target.
Lehman raised Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) to Overweight from Equal Weight citing relative valuation and strong U.S. gas exposure.

OTHER UPGRADES:

Goldman added Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) to its Conviction Buy List.
Morgan Stanley lifted Kroger (NYSE: KR) and British American Tobacco (ASE: BTI) to Overweight from Equal Weight.

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Earnings highlights: Anadarko, Disney, Coors, Unilever, Activision, Marvel and others

Trey Thoelcke — 2008-05-10T09:40:00+00:00

Filed under: Earnings reports, Walt Disney (DIS), Activision Inc (ATVI), Symantec Corp (SYMC), Goldcorp Inc (GG), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Unilever ADR (UL), Marvel Entertainment (MVL)

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Activision Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) posted stellar results on the popularity of Guitar Hero and Transformers.
Airgas Inc. (NYSE: ARG) beat Q4 estimtates with record earnings and raised its guidance.
Amkor Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: AMKR) beat Q1 expectations on strong demand for wireless.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) reported strong Q1 results that beat Wall Street estimates.
Barnes Group Inc. (NYSE: B) beat Q1 expectations on its "global reach" and raised its 2008 guidance.
Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) beat Q1 expectations and raised its full-year guidance.
DirecTV Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DTV) posted better-than-expected results and announced share buybacks.
Double-Take Software (NASDAQ: DBTK) beat Q1 expectations and raised its Q2 and 2008 guidance.
Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) profits surged in the first quarter on record high gold prices.
ICON plc (NASDAQ: ICLR) beat Q1 expectations and raised its full-year guidance.
Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL) easily beat Q1 estimates and raised its full-year guidance.
Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) reported a surge in Q1 profits that beat Wall Street estimates.
Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) beat Q1 expectations and lifted its Q2 and 2008 forecasts.
Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) beat Q4 expectations and raised its Q1 outlook.
Transocean Inc. (NYSE: RIG) Q1 profits more than doubled due to soaring oil prices.
Unilever (NYSE: UL) posted strong results, with revenues beating estimates for the first time in six years.
UTStarcom Inc. (NASDAQ: UTSI) released a preliminary guidance well above expectations.
Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) posted better-than-expected results on success of its theme parks.

Also, Jim Cramer is pleased with Anadarko and other, similar energy players; Anadarko hit an all-time high on Thursday. A lack of earnings guidance from Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS) had investors skittish as the company began trading this week. And Steven Mallas takes issue with Disney's dividends in light of the good earnings report.

Upcoming results to watch for include Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), XM Satellite Radio Holdings (NASDAQ: XMSR), Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI), Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE), Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), JC Penney (NYSE: JCP), Macy's (NYSE: M), Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

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Chasing Value: Anadarko hits all-time HIGH!

Sheldon Liber — 2008-05-08T21:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Major movement, Top Picks 2007, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Chasing Value, Oil, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008

During Thursday's trading, Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) hit an all-time high of $78.75 and closed at $77.62. Anadarko was one of my first recommendations after I started writing for BloggingStocks, and is nearing 100% appreciation from the $40 price tag it had when we acquired it.

The 10-year chart below indicates the strong long-term performance of Anadarko, rising about 500% and paying dividends to boot. I cannot say the stock is a bargain at recent highs, but I can emphatically state that this company belongs on your watch list.

It was only a few days ago that I posted Chasing Value: Anadarko Petroleum up on earnings & outlook and discussed many of the favorable attributes of the company going forward. Most casual observers may be looking at the sky-high oil prices we're all paying and thinking that this is driving the stock price up, but there are other factors too.

One is that APC is also a major player in natural gas. I think there is another factor that is overlooked sometimes which has been a part of my argument in support of this stock pick all along: half of its proven oil and gas reserves are in North America.

Given all the sabotage and frequent turmoil in world markets, I believe all barrels of oil are not created equal. Anything in our backyard is worth some premium above oil and gas from anywhere else.

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Cramer on BloggingStocks: Anadarko shines in good company

Jim Cramer — 2008-05-07T09:05:00+00:00

Filed under: Cisco Systems (CSCO), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Market matters, Walt Disney (DIS), Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says natural gas producers are having a great year, and Anadarko may be the best of the bunch.

Marcellus Shale. Ghana. Brazil. Wherever the oil and gas is. Wherever the chances to boost output.

That's Anadarko (NYSE: APC) (Cramer's Take).

Fifteen percent growth or higher for many years. That's Anadarko.

Creating value for shareholders. That's Anadarko.

IPO of Western Gas. That's Anadarko.

And more important, it is not ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) (Cramer's Take).

Anadarko is one of six companies, including Apache (NYSE: APA) (Cramer's Take), Southwestern (NYSE: SWN) (Cramer's Take), XTO Energy (NYSE: XTO) (Cramer's Take), Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) (Cramer's Take) and Devon (NYSE: DVN) (Cramer's Take) (El Paso (NYSE: EP) (Cramer's Take) is threatening to join them!) that are believers.

These companies recognize that natural gas is the fuel of the future, the cleanest of the logical baseline (non-peak, everyday worker energy) fuels -- coal, oil and natural gas. These companies know what a joke ethanol is. They know that the politicians are more focused on clean renewables that use more energy than they make.

I am adamant that this is the year of natural gas. And I simply won't stop. These producers, and those who drill for natural gas, are electric.

They are the best place to be.

Random musings: Disney (NYSE: DIS) (Cramer's Take) and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) (Cramer's Take) are clean, although later against lowered expectations. ... Oh, and Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL) (Cramer's Take) after the close -- beautiful number. Beautiful.

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Chasing Value: Anadarko Petroleum up on earnings & outlook

Sheldon Liber — 2008-05-06T15:58:00+00:00

Filed under: Major movement, International markets, Earnings reports, Forecasts, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Chasing Value, Oil, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2008

After yesterday's closing bell Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) reported strong earnings. Excluding nonrecurring items, Anadarko's earnings totaled $1.44 per share for the quarter. On average, analysts were expecting just $1.22 per share. When compared with last year, Anadarko's quarterly profit per share surged more than 40%.

Shares ended Monday at up $1.04 to $68.14, and rose over 10% today to $75.04 as oils prices continue to surge. It was only last week I posted Chasing Value: Anadarko (APC) up 75% -- hits new 52-week high but I guess it will move higher still.

The other good news is that it has more than halved its debt since acquiring Kerr-McGee IN 2006.

It still has a low P/E under 9, a high net margin and RoE of about 25%, pays a small dividend yield of 0.53% and in case a bigger company has an interest. remember the old adage, "the cheapest place to buy oil is often on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange".

Anadarko must be on the watch list of "big oil" and it should should definitely be on your watch list too.

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Pre-market movers (DHI) (UBS)

Douglas McIntyre — 2008-05-06T07:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Before the bell, D.R.Horton (DHI), Anadarko Petroleum (APC)

Divx (NADSAQ:DIVX) is up15% on stronger-than-expected earnings.

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) is up over 8% on good numbers.

DH Horton (NYSE:DHI) is down 6% due to a quarterly loss.

UBS (NYSE:UBS) is down over 2% after announcing lay-offs of 5,500 bankers.

Stocks may trade differently in the pre-market than they do in the regular session.

Douglas A. Mcntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.

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Market highlights for next week: April sales results coming out

Eric Buscemi — 2008-05-02T15:01:00+00:00

Filed under: Earnings reports, Conventions and conferences, Annual meetings, Wal-Mart (WMT), Walt Disney (DIS), Target Corp. (TGT), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF), Sotheby's (BID), Anadarko Petroleum (APC)

Monday, May 5

Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Day one of the two-day FDA Anesthetic/Life Support Drugs & Drug Safety/Risk Management Advisory Committees meeting: Purdue Pharma's NDA for Oxycontin.
Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) to report Q1 earnings; conference call Tuesday at 10:00am.

Tuesday, May 6

Day two of the two-day FDA Anesthetic/Life Support Drugs & Drug Safety/Risk Mgmt Advisory Committees meeting: Cephalon's (NASDAQ:CEPH) sNDA for Fentora.
Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 12:00pm.
Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.

Wednesday, May 7

Marsh & McLennan (NYSE:MMC) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
Transocean (NYSE:RIG) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:00am.
Hot Topic (NASDAQ:HOTT) and Zumiez (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) to report April sales at 4:00pm.

Thursday, May 8

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) to report April sales at 8:00am. Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) to report sales at 8:15am. Target (NYSE:TGT) to report sales at 8:30am.
NVidia (NADAQ:NVDA) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.

Friday, May 9

PDUFA date for Adolor Corp (NYSE:ADLR) and GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE:GSK) Entereg for management of Post-operative Ileus.
American International Group (NYSE:AIG) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
Sotheby's (NYSE:BID) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.

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