Imax Earnings

Fourth Quarter 2009 Results were issued today by Imax corporation.
The results were positive.

-Operating Income was $2 million (vs. loss of $5.6 million last year)
-A loss of .06 per share (was loss of .25 last year)
-Theater network (Commercial) grows by 40%


The CEO still says that they will return to profitability in 2009.

Watchmen made an average of $92,000 per IMAX screen.
Monsters vs. Aliens made an average of $125,000 pe IMAX screen.

As of March 31, 2009 the backlog of IMAX is 190 theater systems.

Star Trek opens today and it is sold out for two locations by me already. Then it's Night at the Museum 2 opening after two weeks of Star Trek.
This company is going to make some money.

Shares are at $7.05 and are looking like they might break past the 52 week of $8.28. Buy Now.

Modern Warfare 2 Shaping up to be biggest anticipated game of year.

Activision, a company which I own stock in, is releasing Modern Warfare 2 on November 10, 2009. The game will be the sequel to the widely sold Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare. That game sold over 12 million copies. Those numbers made Modern Warfare 1 the most sold first person action game of all time.

MPEL Update

I haven't been updating on this blog very much lately and thought I should update some of my top ten stocks.

Today MPEL is trading at $4.45 while I write this. When I mentioned it in my Top Ten Stocks for 2009 at the start of the year, it was trading at $3.17. That makes the stock up 40% currently.

There is still plenty of room to run. City of Dreams, the company's newest casino opens in June. The company is aiming at families with a new Hard Rock themed casino which will feature dealers dressed as rock stars. There also will be a dome theater that will feature chinese animated shows. City of Dremas will be the only new casino in Macau in the next two to three years so it should generate lots of buzz and lots of new visitors.

The stock traded around $15 in May of 2008. Look for the stock to retun to that level after the new casino opens. That would be over a double on this nice foreign stock play.

Bought More Shares of Imax Today.

I upped my position in IMAX today before the weekend. Shows of Watchmen are sold out in my area and throughout the nation. The 12:01 am friday morning shows were all sold out throughout America. Watchmen will play on more screens than 300 did. The toal number is 124 screens domestically, and 29 screens internationally. Advance sales of Imax tickets for the movie were over $2 million before the first show took place this morning.

Imax.com has experienced increased traffic. You can watch several trailers on the site and buy tickets. Movietickets.com announced on Wednesday that one third of all Watchmen tickets sold were for Imax screens.

I bought today going into the weekend as I expect numbers to come out on Sunday. Look for this stock to move on Monday morning. Look for any pullbacks in the week and buy under $5. This stock has more great movies coming.

*Disclaimer-I own shares of IMAX in real life in my Sogotrade account.

Wal Mart Raises Dividend

Wal Mart today announced they would be raising their dividend. The company will now pay out $1.09 annually. This is up from $0.95 for the past year. Sales were up at Wal Mart stores and Sams Club stores for the most recent month reported. International sales were down slightly due to currency exchanges. If not for the currency international sales would have also been up.

Wal Mart (WMT) is one of only two stocks in the Dow to have posted a positive gain in 2008. The stock is also one of only two Dow stocks to rise today.

The company looks great right now as it is saving Americans money and providing everything they need in one supercenter.

Look at Wal Mart shares to climb once again in 2009. My target $60 by 12/31/09.

The Worlds Cheapest Car

Tata Motors (TTM) announced a date today for the release of the Nano. The Nano which will be the world's cheapest car, will be available in India on March 23rd. The car will cost 100,000 rupee, which translates currently to just over $2000 American dollars.

This is a great time to release the car and in a growing middle class market too. The car will sell well for a long time until a competitor comes along that can beat the price.

I own shares of Tata Motors. I bought them because of the Nano. I recommend you to buy shares of Tata Motors since it has been beaten.

Coca Cola raises dividend, shift brands, and remains strong through tough times.

Coca Cola (KO) raised their dividend this week from thirty eight cents to forty one cents each quarter. The most recent dividend will be paid April first to shareholders as record of March 15. Coca Cola has raised dividends thirty seven consecutive years. This shows the strength of the brand and company as many recent companies have cut or eliminated thier dividend payments to focus on restructuring and raising additional capital.

In related Coca Cola news, Pepsi announed a deal to distribute Rockstar energy drinks. This brand was previously distributed by Coca Cola. The details are sketchy and just announced at this point. I read into this as Coke's decision to let one brand go (Rockstar which most recently lost market share) and bring in one (Monster which is gaining market share). The company recently announced a deal to distribute Hansen Naturals Monster energy drink. The drink is number two in the world behind Red Bull (Privately held). Monster is not even available in some European markets and will be distributed by Coca Cola in those new countries. Letting Rockstar go as I'm assuming is what happened with the new Pepsi deal furthers my belief that Coca Cola will buy Hansen Natural within the next three years. Their exclusive agreement was signed as a long term deal but I think really is just a preview to see what they will be buying.

Vitamin Water continues to sell well as consumers shift from carbonated drinks to helathier options. The company has great athletes promoting this brand. The company has room to expand with new flavors and new sizes of the drink.

I recommend buying shares of Coca Cola below $45 with a target of $60 by 03/01/10
Also recommend buying shares of Hansen (HANS) below $35 with a long term target of $50 (by a buyout of Coca Cola)

Bill Gates a fan of Crocs Shoes?

It was recenlty announced that billionaire Bill Gates has purchased shares of Crocs Inc (CROX) through his investment arm Cascade. This is the third purchase of CROX shares by Cascade. This one was placed for three million shares in the fourth quarter. Through Cascade he now owns over two percent of the once hot company.


Crocs beat earnings estimates recently. They still posted a loss but a smaller one then the street expected. Sales were down fourty four percent in the quarter.

Under the Sea off to a nice start on IMAX screens.

Under the Sea, a documentary narrated by Jim Carrey, opened on 49 screens this past weekend. The movie made $857,000, which averages out to $17,490 per theater. This is a nice average and a nice first showing for a documentary on the big screen. This movie will stay in Imax for a little while but will lose screenings to Watchmen in two weeks. Watchmen will make millions of dollars on IMAX. Look for any dip in shares this week. The slate is strong for 2009.

*Disclaimer-I own shares of IMAX in real life.

Mead Johnson looks sharp in IPO

Mead Johnson shares traded up today in its inital day on the open exchange.
Shares sit at around $27.
The company was spun off of Bristol Myers Squibb. They gained $720 million by seeling about 15% of the company. They will retain at least 80% of the company for the near future.

A dividend plan has already been announced for .30 a quarter providing $1.20 a year.

The company makes Enfamil, a leader in baby formula. Baby formula seems to be pretty recession proof as babies kept being born and most mothers don't decide on breast feeding or bottle feeding based on cost but personal choices.

I plan on buying shares sometime next week at anything under $30.

Check back for an update next week as this one is going to move next week.

Underr the Sea in Imax 3D

The following link I found which gives a preview of a minute of footage from the new documentary Under the Sea which is showing on IMAX screens now.

Click Here


*Disclaimer-I own shares of Imax in my Sogotrade account in real life.

My stocks today

Soon, I will be posting the earnings reports and my interpretations for two of the stocks I own, ATVI and BWLD.

In the meantime a quick update.

ATVI shares are down as they reported a loss with GAAP (a profit without)
BWLD shares were up over 30% after their blowout quarter
AAV shares (my Canadian oil trust that pays a monthly dividend) cut their montly dividend from .08 to .04 a share.

Netflix passes 10 million subscribers

Netflix announced that it has passed the 10 million subscriber mark. The news comes a little early as this was thought to hit at the end of the quarter that they are half way through. Shares traded up on the news. Shares have moved nicely this year and are getting close to a $41 fifty two week high. I am a netflix subscriber and would of loved to have been a shareholder at the same time I started subscribing. I have also been a blockbuster subscriber as I gave their Total Access a try with a neighboring Blockbuster being a convenience.

Blockbuster recently announced it will be renting games through the mail. This is not a suprising move but suprising that they beat Netflix to it. For a couple of years it has been made as a note that Netflix should buy Gamefly, the already dominating video game rental through mail service. I think they should buy Gamefly or at least join in to take away from Blockbuster. The video game market is growing and the only potential problem is the sports game that are reprodcued annually. The games could be resold to game stores or consumers. Gamestop has had no problem reselling used games.

Look for shares to fall back closer to $30 before you pull the trigger. Shares should trade at $50 at some point in 2010.

Dow Chemical has first dividend cut in copmany's history.

Since 1912, Dow Chemical has paid a dividend every quarter. The dividend had increased every year until today. The dividend is being cut however and not eliminated. The dividend goes from $0.42 to $0.15. The $0.60 still represents a 6% yield on $10 shares. The company has battled with the struggling economy. Shares have traded as high as $43.43 in the past fifty two weeks. Shares have tumbled straight down with no real bounce backs.

The company had previously had an agreement to acquire Rohm & Haas in a $15 billion deal. The financing that Dow was going to receive fell through.

The 64% dividend cut will save the company $1 billion annually. This is a much needed move. The dividend will still be 6% for those who hold onto it. Shares should be trading closer to $15 which would drop the yield down to 4-5%.

I would hold the stock and look for any drops to $9 and buy aggressively.

Jonas Brothers added to IMAX lineup

Imax recently announced that the new Jonas Brothers 3D Concert film will be shown on IMAX theaters February 27th, 2009. The concert will be in select theaters for a brief one week period but should provide a nice uptick for IMAX sales.

As an IMAX shareholder this further excites me about their amazing 2009 lineup which I wrote about before here:

http://stockworldpicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/imax-lineup.html

*Disclaimer-I own shares of IMAX in my real life Sogotrade account.

Wyeth Deal by Pfizer will add to cash flow and pipeline.

For fiscal 2008 the following were Wyeths top products by Revenue:

Effexor $3.9 billion
Prevnar $2.7 billion
Enbrel (outside US and Canada) $2.6 billion
Enbrel (in US and Canada) $1.2 billion
Nutritionals $1.6 billion
Zosyn/Tazocin $1.3 billion
Premarin $1.1 billion
Protonix $806 million
Centrum $728 million
Advil $673 million

All of these were increases from fiscal 2007 except Protonix, as it lost about half its revenue to generic competition, and Advil, which had a small two percent decrease. Enbrel increased twenty seven percent outside of the United States and twenty percent within North America.

A couple years ago Pfizer sold its consumer goods business to Johnson and Johnson and now with a new CEO they appear to be getting back into the cash flow created by consumer healthcare brands. With the deal they gain the following consumer brands:

Advil, Centrum, Chap-Stick, Dimetapp, Premarin, Preparation H, Robitussin

The deal also adds a nice animal health product line that will make Pfizers one of the leading animal healthcare companies.

In the pipeline for Wyeth, the biggest is an alzheimers drug in Phase III that could turn out to be a blockbuster. The combination of Pfizers pipeline and research being applied to Wyeths pipeline could find a couple blockbusters.

I am a Pfizer stockholder in my real life Sogotrade account. I like the stock a lot right now under $15. There will be pressure on the company to find a blockbuster to replace Lipitor for a couple of years. This deal creates much needed cash flow from consumer products to help reincrease the recently cut dividend.

Buy Pfizer at under $17. The stock will be hitting $20 after this deal goes through.

Procter and Gamble selling pharmaceutical business.

Today, a source announced Procter and Gamble is selling its pharmeceutical unit. They have hired Goldman Sachs to help with the sale. This unit of Procter and Gamble is responsible for $2 billion in sales. The sale is part of creating shareholder value for the company.

Shares of Procter and Gamble fell to a 52 week low recently after earnings were announced. I will write about those earnings soon. I just wanted to pass along this news and my take on it. Speculations will begin as to who will be bidding on the unit that includes Pepto Bismol and Prilosec.

I would say that Johnson and Johnson would be one likely suitor as they are the leader in consumer drugs. Johnson and Johnson bought the consumer drug unit from Pfizer a few years back. Recently Pfizer announced it would be buying Wyeth, which would give it more consumer drugs. Another outside pick is Chattem, the owner of Gold Bond, Icy Hot, and Flexall. The company has recently bought out of favor units from companies and turned them into market leaders. The drugs they would gain are already market leaders.

The exit is a smart move for Procter and Gamble to raise some cash. They recently sold Folgers and gained half of Smuckers as a result.

Visa Earnings

Visa's net income rose 35% over last year. Revenue rose 17% over last year. The earnings were a bit of a suprise as financial companies have struggled in this economy.

Debit transactions increased 18% and credit transactions increased 10%.

International presence continues to help the company. Volume rose 4% in Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Volume was up 27% in Latin America nd the Caribbean. Volume also rose in the Africa region by 20%. In America volume was up only 7.1%.

Visa doesn't actually issue credit it is done through the banks. The company doesn't have as much risk as a bank. But with banks giving out less credit, transactions were expected down a bit.

2009 earnings are expected at $2.62 per share. This is about 19 to 20 times earnings for this next year.

The stock is a decent buy right now since the company is calling for 20% growth through at least 2010. I had previously put a price target of $80 by February of 2009. I back that guidance with late February or early March as a goal.

Shares today trade at: $53.60
Target price 03/09: $80

Wal Mart at 52 Week Low

Today, Wal Mart was trading at a new fifty two week low of $46.25. The price is around thirteen times this years earnings. Share have dropped significantly from $63 last September. The shares have been hit just like all others with worries of a recession and less consumer spending.

Wal Mart is a defensive stock in my opinion rather than a retail stock. The company will not be phased by the economic worries as much as any other retailer. Customers who cut back on spending may even shop at Wal Mart more than they had in the past.

The company continues to raise its dividend every year. The shares below $50 is a gift. Shares will bounce back and will be trading around $65 by September 2009.

New Poll Question

I have closed the January poll. The question was which of my top ten stocks for 2009 will have the best 2009. Dendreon was the overwhelming winner with 50% of all votes cast.

A new poll is up for the month of February asking viewers what there favorite financial magazine is. The poll can be found on the left hand column of this blog. Also anyone who does not subscribe to any of the magazines in the poll can find links to buy the magazines at reasonable prices along the left hand column.

Please vote so I can share results with everyone in March.

Thanks.

Dendreon is viewers Top Stock for 2009

Starting in January I had a poll for viewers to pick which of my top ten stocks for 2009 they thought would perform the best. The ten to pick from were IMAX, JNJ, HANS, MO, ATVI, DNDN, DE, MPEL, and RIG.

Only 14 people voted.

The results were:

DNDN: 7 votes 50%
JNJ: 2 votes 14%
RIG: 2 votes 14%
DE: 2 votes 14%
ATVI: 1 vote 7%

Noone selected IMAX, HANS, MO, or MPEL.

Imax and Altria are both stocks that I own and have recently bought more shares of for my real life portfolio.

Dendreon is a speculative stock waiting on results of a FDA approval or rejection. Shares are below $5 right now. The copmany makes Provenge, a possible blockbuster drug to help patients with lung cancer. I had picked out the stock since I think the drug will be approved when results come out in April. The viewers of this site stand behind this pick. We will wait and see what happens.

Altria Earnings 1/29/09

Altria, owner of Phillip Morris USA, reported earnings in line with the street today. The company said the higher cigarette tax could impact volume for 2009. The company thinks earnings growth will be 8-10% for 2009. Altria will likely raise the prices on some brands to offset the higher tax imposed by the United States government. Profit for the fourth quarter was .37 cents, excluding one time items.

Altria recently aquired UST, leader in the smokeless tobacco market, for $10.4 billion. This acquistion will add to earnings in 2010 or possibly 2009. In my opinion this was a great move with the cash that Altria was sitting on.

The company suspended its share buyback program. Almost three billion was left on the current share repurchase agreement. This is fine as the company has said they will use the flexibility to help with the UST deal.

The company is expecting $1.70 to $1.75 earnings per share in 2009. Shares trade at just under $17 currently. This puts the stock in very cheap less than ten times 2009 earnings. I own shares of Altria and Phillip Morris, as a result of the spinoff. I bought some more shares of Altria today after the earnings. The stock is worth north of $20 easily. The UST deal will impact earnings in late 2009 or 2010. The company also owns part of SABmiller.

The yield is over eight percent and the dividend is currently .32 per quarter. The company has a history of raising its dividend and probably will since the share buyback was suspended. This is a very shareholder friendly company.

I have a price estimate of $25 by 05/05/10.

*Disclaimer-I own shares of Altria in real life.

Buy shares of Altria for $3.00 per trade.

Accuray reports earnings.

Today, Accuray reported earnings for the second quarter of 2009. Total revenue was $57.6 million, which was about an 11% increase over second quarter of 2008. This was also an increase on the first quarter of 2009.

Like other companies, Accuray announced it will be cutting 13% of its workforce.

Backlog for 2009 now sits at $598 million.

The company sits on $155 million in cash and remains debt free.

Accuray expects 2009 earnings to be $230 to $250 million.

I continue to hold this stock in my real life account and think the Cyberknife that they market continues to bring in recurring revenue and add to the backlog.

*Disclaimer-I own shares of Accuray in my real life Sogotrade account.

Newell Rubbermaid Earnings

Newell Rubbermaid reported earnings today for the fourth quarter and for fiscal year 2008. The company had a loss on the year and a loss on the quarter. For the quarter the company reported earnings per share of -.11 versus a profit of .36 per share last year. The company is calling for earnings per share for 2009 in the range of $1.20 to $1.25. Analysts are expecting $1.10 somewhere towards the lower end.

The company is focusing on reorganizing products into more fitting categories. The company also is trying to improve on gross margin and cash flow. The company continues to do well in gaining markets in Latin America and Asia. Thirty percent of revenue now outside of the United States.

The worst news probably to hurt the stock was the dividend cut. The dividend as many companies are doing was cut in half. The yield still stays at around 5% at todays price. The company has paid a dividend of .21 per quarter since 2000 with no raises. One citigroup analyst said the dividend cut was imminent in order to help with credit and debts, and still rates the stock a buy.

Newell Rubbermaid has a market cap of 2.42 billion and an enterprise value of 5.2 billion. This means the company is value at less than half the price of its cash and assets. The book value on Yahoo Finance is just over $8 a share, which is just short of where the stock ended today.

I continue to rate the stock a buy. I have had shares since around $14 and still think shares are worth $20 with the brands that this company makes.

*Disclaimer-I own shares of Newell Rubbermaid in my real life Sogotrade account.

Financial Magazines

I currently subscribe to the following magazines to gain insight to the market and to read others opinions on stocks and mutual funds:



Kiplingers

Forbes

Fortune

Smart Money

Money

I highly recommend these inexpensive magazines to anyone visiting this site. Kiplingers was the first financial magazine I started receiving and I fell in love.