General Electric's (GE) Earnings Blow Past Estimates

General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) reported earnings that soared past analysts' estimates, as the company generated an increase in earnings of 77 percent in the first quarter.

GE reported a first-quarter profit of $3.43 billion, or 31 cents a share, up from $1.95 billion, or 17 cents a share, last year in the same quarter. The company's operating earnings, which exclude discontinued operations and other items such as nonoperating pension costs, climbed to 33 cents a share from 20 cents. Revenue jumped 6.2 percent to $38.45 billion.

Analysts had projected earnings of 28 cents a share on $34.64 billion in revenue.

GE Capital, the company's largest segment by revenue, saw its top line rise 3.3 percent while profit more than tripled. GE's energy infrastructure and aviation units saw their revenue rise 9.2 percent and 4.9 percent.

GE raised its quarterly dividend a penney to 15 cents.

General Electric was trading at $19.97, falling $0.43, or 2.13 percent, as of 12:21 PM EDT.

EMC (EMC) Driven by International Markets

EMC (NYSE:EMC) produced record results in the first quarter, driven by expansion of its international markets and demand for data-storage products.

As the cloud computing trend appears sustainable and expected to grow for years, EMC is positioned to take advantage of that as efficient storage is looked for by companies.

EMC reported a first-quarter profit of $477.1 million, or 21 cents a share, up from $372.7 million, or 17 cents a share, last year in the same quarter. Minus items, earnings jumped to 31 cents from 26 cents, meeting expectations from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue climbed 18% to $4.61 billion, beating analysts' projections of $4.51 billion.

Operating margin jumped to 14.6% from 12.9% amid stronger revenue from the company's Europe, Middle East and Africa region as well as its Asia Pacific region.

Revenue from the U.S., still EMC's biggest market, increased 12 percent to $2.4 billion. Sales in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region rose 21 percent, while Asia-Pacific revenues were up 43 percent.

EMC was trading at $27.74, gaining $1.02, or 3.82 percent, as of 12:35 PM EDT.

Wells Fargo (WFC) Can't Overcome Low Mortgage Demand, Revenue Drops

Revenue for Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) in the latest quarter dropped as fees generated from mortgages fell and loan demand faltered. Revenue was down to $20.3 billion, a 5.2 percent decline.

The bank was able to generate a profit though, as its quarterly profit rose to $3.76 billion, or 67 cents a share, up from $2.55 billion, or 45 cents a share, last year in the same quarter.

On average, analysts surveyed by FactSet Research looked for the company to earn 66 cents a share on $21.2 billion of revenue.

Overall loans fell 4 percent to $751.2 billion from last year.

Wells was able to grow deposits for the quarter. On average, Wells Fargo said checking and savings deposit accounts grew 9 percent from 2010’s first quarter.

Chairman and Chief Executive John Stumpf in a statement, “As the economy continued an uneven recovery, our business customers increased borrowing and utilization of credit lines — a hopeful sign that businesses are once again investing for growth.”

Net charge-offs for bad loans in the quarter were $3.21 billion, or 1.73 percent of all loans, compared with $3.84 billion, or 2 percent of loans, at the end of the fourth quarter. Nonperforming real estate and commercial assets were down 5 percent to $30.6 billion from the end of 2010.

Wells Fargo was trading at $28.71, falling $1.36, or 4.52 percents, as of 12:04 PM EDT.

Intel (INTC) Soars as Earnings Exceed Expectations

Intel's (NASDAQ:INTC) earnings beat expectations in the first quarter, driven by increase business demand for business computers, which also generated higher profits.

That was important because of some of Intel's competitors weren't able to make up soft PC sales with stronger business revenue.

Guidance from Intel was also impressive, as shares of the company shot up in after hours trading.

Intel's net income was $3.16 billion, or 56 cents a share, beating the 46 cents a share analysts polled by FactSet were looking for. Last year in the same quarter Intel earned $2.44 billion, or 43 cents a share.

Revenue was $12.8 billion, a 25 percent increase from $10.3 billion a year ago and above the $11.6 billion analysts estimated.

The revenue projection was higher than expected. Intel predicted second quarter revenue of $12.3 billion to $13.3 billion. Analysts expected nearly $11.9 billion, according to FactSet.

Intel closed Tuesday at $19.86, gaining $0.24. or 1.22 percent. After hours it was trading at $20.77, up $0.91, or 4.58 percent.

Texas Instruments (TXN) Misses on Net Income

Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) traded lower in after hours action as the company on average missed analysts' expectations for net income for its latest quarter.

Net income increased during the quarter to $666 million, or 55 cents a share, versus $658 million, or 52 cents a share in the same quarter last year. Analysts had been looking for an average of 57 cents a share for the quarter.

Revenue for the quarter jumped from $3.2 billion to $3.39 billion year-over-year.

Rich Templeton, TI chairman, president and chief executive officer, said, “2011 started strong, with customer demand in January and February tracking our expectations for a first quarter of above-seasonal growth. But the Japan earthquake that’s taken such a heartbreaking human toll in the country also disrupted local demand starting in mid-March and impaired operations at two of our factories there. This impact and substantially weaker demand for Wireless baseband chips resulted in revenue that was below the middle of our expected range. The lower revenue combined with expenses resulting from the earthquake affected earnings per share. New orders, however, were strong through the quarter, indicative of the underlying strength in our markets.”

Texas Instruments closed Monday at $34.79, falling $0.20, or 0.57 percent. After hours it fell to $34.20, down $0.50, or 1.44 percent.

Citigroup (C) Q1 Earnings, Revenue Drop

While first-quarter revenue for Citigroup (NYSE:C) fell as expected, results were better-than-expected.

The giant bank reported first quarter EPS of $0.10 a share, 1 cent better than the consensus of $0.09. Net income was $3.0 billion, compared to $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010 and $4.4 billion in the first quarter last year.

CEO Vikram Pandit said, "After a full year of profitability, we continue to make progress in 2011 by executing our strategy with discipline. Citi Holdings losses continued to decrease; we are investing in our core businesses in Citicorp; our capital strength improved; and the mix of revenues reflects the diversity of our businesses and our depth in both the emerging and developed markets."

Revenue plunged to $19.7 billion, a 22 percent decline, far below consensus of $20.55 billion. From last year the drop was 11 percent. The decline was most the result of negative CVA and lower revenues in Fixed Income Markets and North America Regional Consumer Banking.

For the seventh consecutive quarter Citigroup experienced net credit losses, which fell to $6.3 billion. For the year net credit losses are down 25 percent so far.

Citigroup was trading at $4.47, gaining $0.04, or 1.02 percent.

Halliburton's (HAL) Earnings, Revenue Soar as Oil Prices Surge

Earnings for Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) soared in the first quarter, according to its latest report, as oil prices jumped and drilling in North America increased.

In the first quarter Halliburton generated earnings of $511 million, or 56 cents a share, easily surpassing last year's earnings of $206 million or 23 cents a share.

Dave Lesar, Halliburton chairman, president and CEO, said, "North America delivered strong performance as margins progressed due to increased activity while Eastern Hemisphere operating income was significantly impacted by geopolitical events in North Africa, delays in Iraq, and typical seasonality.”

Revenue for the quarter jumped to $5.28 billion, beating the market consensus of $4.9 billion, a 40 percent increase.

Minus one-time items, Halliburton posted earnings of 61 cents a share, beating analysts' estimates of 58 cents a share.

After unrest in Egypt slowed down production, the company said production levels are returning to former output.

Halliburton was trading at $46.96, up $0.14, or 0.30 percent, as of 11:43 AM EDT.

Wells (WFC) Sees Lennar's (LEN) Earnings as Weak

After the quarterly report from Lennar (NYSE:LEN), Wells Fargo commented that the earnings were weaker than reported, citing the $0.19 a share garnered from a legal settlement and an extinguishment of JV debt, which added another $0.08 to the total.

Wells Fargo said, "with investor attention keenly focused on the spring selling season, LEN's orders may be considered weak, as they missed our estimate and we believe they also missed consensus."

In other words, earnings per share is much weaker than the quarterly reported indicated, and it appears that is going to continue on throughout 2011.

Lennar closed Tuesday at $19.07, falling $0.68, or 3.44 percent.

Lululemon's (LULU) Soaring Nike's (NKE) Boring

Based on comments from economic pundit Jim Cramer, Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) is running circles around competitor Nike (NYSE:NKE), and is a more compelling growth story.

On Friday Cramer mentioned that after looking at both companies following their quarterly earnings reports, Lululemon vastly outperformed analysts' expectation, while Nike underperformed.

For the latest quarter, Lululemon soared over 52 percent in revenue growth, while Nike only rose 7 percent.

Cramer noted that Nike "just isn't growing like we once thought." In comparison, Lululemon is a "high octane" secular growth story which has performed mostly through word of mouth.

Also of importance for performance was the rising margins at Lululemon, which jumped to 58.5 percent in the last quarter, while Nike's stood at 45.8 percent.

Nike was trading at $76.24, falling $0.42, or 0.55 percent, as of 12:05 PM EDT. Lululemon was at $84.21, gaining $5.57, or 7.08 percent.




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Research in Motion (RIMM) Sales 14.9 Million Smartphones in Q4

Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) had a decent quarter but was punished in after-hours trading on disappointing guidance.

Revenue in the fourth quarter came in at $5.56 billion, or $1.78 a share. Analysts had been looking for $5.64 billion in revenue and $1.76 a share.

The good news was the company sold 14.9 million BlackBerry smartphones, toward the top of its projected range. Gross profit beat at 44.2 percent of sales, surpassing the 43.6 percent reported in the fiscal third quarter.

Going forward, guidance was weak, with RIM projecting $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion in revenue and EPS of $1.47 to $1.55. Analysts have been looking for $5.64 billion and EPS of $1.65.

Investors didn't seem to be impressed with full year guidance ending February of 2012, where RIM sees EPS “in excess of” $7.50, well above the average of $6.81, after the guidance offered for the first quarter.

Research in Motion closed at $64.09, gaining $1.97, or 3.17 percent. In after-hours trading, as of 5 PM EDT, the company was getting punished, losing $6.72, or 10.48 percent.

Micron (MU) Led by Agressive Sales

Agressive sales growth by Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) in the latest quarter helped the company overcome the drop in price of its memory chips, pushing up the share price of the company.

Net profit dropped almost 58 percent to $72 million, or 7 cents a share, in its fiscal second quarter ended March 3, compared with $155 million, or 15 cents a share, last year in the same quarter. That surpassed expectations of 2 cents a share.

The top U.S. maker of memory chips for computers and mobile devices said revenue in its fiscal second quarter was $2.3 billion, up from $2.0 billion last year in the same quarter. That also beat the $2.07 billion expected on average by analysts.

DRMA memory chip sales were lower by 6 percent in the quarter, even though there was a plunge of 23 percent in price.

For NAND flash memory, sales were up by 8 percent, as higher volume was able to overcome the drop in prices, which were 4 percent lower.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Kevin Cassidy said, "We'll want to see if they think this trend will continue on pricing. We think that there will still be a tight supply-demand ratio going into the second half of the year."

Also helping the company beat estimates was its lower manufacturing costs, which also helped the company in the case of falling prices.

Micron closed Wednesday at $10.61, gaining $0.26, or 2.51 percent. The company was up almost 5 percent in after hours trading.

Nike (NKE) Shares Plunge on Earnings Miss

Shares of Nike (NYSE:NKE) fell hard in after hours trading as the company missed analysts' estimates on higher costs of cotton and oil.

For its fiscal third quarter, net income increased 5.2 percent to $523 million, or $1.08 a share. That was up from the $497 million, or 1.01 a share generated last year in the same quarter, but down from the $1.12 analysts were looking for.

Revenue climbed to $5.08 billion for the quarter, an increase of 7.3 percent.

Minus currency exchange rates, future orders enjoyed an increase of 9 percent, level with what analysts were expecting.

The major negative was the gross margin numbers, which dropped to 45.8 percent, a decline of 1.1 percentage points.

Nike closed Thursday at $85.41, gaining $0.59, or 0.70 percent, In after hours trading, it fell to $79.98, down $5.36, or 6.28 percent.

Marvell (MRVL), Madison Square Garden (MSG), Cerus (CERS), Kodiak (KOG) Drop on Earnings Misses

Shares of Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL), Madison Square Garden Inc. (NASDAQ:MSG), Cerus Corp. (NASDAQ:CERS), Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (AMEX:KOG) were all plummeting, with all of them being punished for missing analysts' estimates.

Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (KOG) was trading at $6.93, down $0.39, or 5.33 percent, as of 12:51 PM EST. They are being pressured for missing on revenue.

Cerus Corp. (CERS) was trading at $2.95, down $0.41, or 12.20 percent. They are also being pressured from a revenue miss, falling short of estimates by 15 percent for the latest quarter. They were also downgraded from "Outperform" to "Neutral" by Robert W. Baird.

Madison Square Garden Inc. (MSG) was at $27.58, falling $2.13, or 7.17 percent. Profits fell shore of analysts' estimates. They were also downgraded. Miller Tabak cut their rating from "BUY" to "Neutral."

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL) continues to get hammered, trading at $16.42, losing $1.80, or 9.88 percent. They missed on revenue and earnings for the latest quarter.

Sonus Networks (SONS) Rocks on Revenue Growth, Guidance

For the most part guidance has been the story this earnings season, and that's the case with Sonus Networks (Nasdaq:SONS), which is up over 35 percent on the day.

Revenue rose 21 percent to $83 million, from $68.7 million in the same period quarter last year, far more than the $68.6 million analysts were looking for. Net income jumped to $11.4 million from $10.3 million in the same quarter last year. EPS came in at 4 cents a share.

Guidance for 2011 is for revenue to rise to a range of $265 million to $285, above the $242.3 million analysts projecting.

While the product portfolio of the company is slightly profitable, it doesn't justify the huge jump in the share price of the company, which is sure to come crashing back to earth, although possibly at a little higher level than where it started before the earnings report.

Sonus was trading at $4.11, soaring $1.08, or 35.64 percent, as of 2:38 PM EST.

Southern Union (SUG) Profits Surge 10 Percent in 4Q

Natural gas company Southern Union Co. (NYSE:SUG) said Friday its fourth-quarter profit increased nearly 10 percent, fueled by higher revenue at its transportation and storage and distribution segments.

Management said it expects its business segments to produce solid results this year.

The company reported net income of $55.9 million, or 45 cents a share, for the three months ended Dec. 31. That compares with net income of $51 million, or 41 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, Southern Union's earnings amounted to 53 cents a share, the company said.

Revenue jumped to $670.3 million from $603.7 million a year earlier.

For the full year, Southern Union posted net income of $216.2 million, or $1.73 a share, compared with net income of $170.9 million, or $1.37 a share, in 2009. Revenue rose to $2.5 billion from $2.2 billion.





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Petrobras' (PBR) Earnings Soar while Costs Dive

In the most successful quarter in the history of the company, Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) - the state-owned oil giant based in Brazil - generated a 38 percent increase in net income while slashing expenses.

Chief Financial Official Almir Barbassa noted, "Earnings in the fourth quarter were a record high. We invested part of the money raised in the (share offering) ... and we rearranged the international portfolio."

Profit soared to 10.6 billion reais ($6.4 billion) for the quarter, far higher than the 8.84 billion reais analysts were looking for.

Expenses plummeted by $300 million as the company cut back on exploration expenditures.

Petrobras closed Friday in New York at $40.38, gaining $0.64, or 1.61 percent. The company has a market cap of just under $260 billion.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) Says Earnings Best Ever in Mining Industry

Vale (NYSE:VALE) reported what they called the ‘best ever' annual result in the mining industry: $17.3bn in 2010.

Vale CEO Roger Agnelli says - that given the company's project pipeline and the demand for its metals and minerals production-"even better days are ahead for us."

Vale Thursday reported its "best ever annual result, characterized by all-time high figures for operating revenues, operating income, operating margin, cash generation and net earnings."

Vale reported record net earnings of $17.3 billion or $3.25 a share in 2010, which the company claimed were "the largest ever in the mining industry." The company reported net earnings of $5.35 billion or $1 per share in 2009.

During the fourth-quarter 2010, Vale reported net earnings of $5.9 billion, compared to $2.5 billion in net earnings reported during the fourth-quarter 2009.

Vale reported $19.4 billion in investments in 2010, which the company said were "the largest in the world's mining industry." Record capital expenditures-excluding acquisitions-were reported at $1.27 billion last year.




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GM's (NYSE:GM) Latest Quarter Weighed by Rising Costs of Inputs

General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) ended its seven-year losing streak on Thursday, banking a $4.7 billion profit for 2010 on the back of resurgent car sales across the broader auto industry.

The most recent quarter, however, was by far the least profitable of the year as costs to roll out new vehicles climbed. Fear that those costs may continue to rise along with concerns over rising oil and raw materials prices also weighed on the shares early.

GM (GM) shares fell almost 4% to $33.35, touching on a low of $32.75 earlier to mark the lowest point since their debut back in November at $33.

For the fourth quarter, GM reported a profit of $510 million, or 31 cents a share, reversing a loss of $3.5 billion in the final months of 2009.

Revenue came in at $36.9 billion for the quarter, well ahead of Wall Street targets, and at $135.6 billion for the full year.

The latest results included charges of $400 million, or 21 cents a share, as a result of the previously disclosed $700 million loss on the purchase of U.S. Treasury preferred shares.

On average, analysts polled by FactSet Research had expected the company to earn 49 cents a share on revenue of $34.3 billion in the quarter.





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Intrepid Potash (IPI) Soars Past Estimates, Almost Triples Profits

Intrepid Potash (NYSE:IPI) surpassed the already high expectations of analysts in their latest quarter, as profits almost tripled on a 44 percent boost in potash sales.

Intrepid's Executive Chairman Bob Jornayvaz said, "Given the strong commodity-pricing environment and level of grain demand, we expect at least a normal spring season in terms of application rates as farmers look to maximize yield and margin."

Strong crop prices have given farmers more capital and motivation to increase inputs this year, and it appears that should continue during the spring season as well.

Profits for the quarter ending in December rose to $18.2 million, or 24 cents a share, up from $6.7 million, or 9 cents a share from the same quarter last year.

Revenue also surged, rising to $96.2 million, up 32 percent for the quarter.

Analysts had been looking for revenue of $87.2 million, and earnings of 20 cents a share.

Yamana (NYSE:AUY) Profits Surge on Gold Bullion Price

Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) announced its profit jumped sharply, as record gold prices in the fourth-quarter helped results to soar. Net income in the quarter increased to $160.4 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $36.2 million, or 5 cents a share, last year in the same quarter.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were $173.3 million, or
23 cents a share. Quarterly revenue was up by more than 34 percent to $535 million.

The miner, which has assets spread across Latin America, said production in the quarter was 286,682 gold equivalent ounces, falling from 289,456 ounces, a year earlier. The mid-tier gold miner is in the process of developing the Mercedes gold-silver project in Mexico, which is scheduled to start production in 2012. It is also working on the Pilar gold project in Brazil that should come online in 2013.

Production guidance in 2011 is in the range of 1.04 to 1.14 million GEO, as the company mentioned before. Copper production in 2011 is projected to be in the range of 145-160 million pounds. Estimated cash costs for 2011 should come in below $250 per GEO on a by-product basis.

Yamana closed in New York Wednesday at $12.44, gaining $0.20, or 1.63 percent.