Arch Coal Inc. (ACI) and Great Northern Properties Limited Partnership (GNP) have entered into a coal lease agreement for all of GNP’s coal resources in the Otter Creek Tracts located in southeastern Montana. Following the agreement, Arch will own the right to mine about 9,600 acres (731 million tons) of GNP-owned minerals for a consideration of 10 cents per ton or $73.1 million, payable in equal annual installments over a period of five years. The 731 million tons of high-quality, low-cost, sub-bituminous coal reserves, which are low in sulfur dioxide content, are located in the Ashland coalfield southeast of Billings, Montana.   The coal lease provides a future growth opportunity for Arch to build a significant position in the Northern Powder River Basin coal region. We believe investment in these low-ratio reserves would support the future development of a large-scale, dragline-operated surface coal mine. It will also give Arch

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PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

PennyOmega.com Hot Stock News & Alerts!

 

Thursday August 27, 2009

PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

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G. Willi-Food International Ltd. (NASDAQ: WILC), one of Israel’s largest food importers and a single-source supplier of one of the world’s most extensive range of quality kosher food products, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter and for first six months ended June 30, 2009.

CPI Corp. (NYSE: CPY) today announced it will release fiscal 2009 second-quarter results before the market opens on Tuesday, September 1, 2009. The news release will be followed by a conference call at 10 a.m. CT with management. To participate in the call, please dial 800-706-7745 or 617-614-3472 and reference passcode 43794844

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div style="text-align: justify;"My favourite call today comes from Keybanc Capital Markets.br /br /They are upgrading span style="font-weight: bold;"Ashland (NYSE:ASH) /spanto Buy from Hold and are establishing a $53 price target given improved confidence that Valvoline can keep rolling on higher profitability, cost savings initiatives are ahead of schedule and the Hercules franchises have good room for earnings growth. While the stock has had a strong run since March 2009, they believe it is still attractive trading at an estimated FY10 EV/EBITDA multiple of 4.5x. Firm's price target is based on an estimated FY10 EV/EBITDA multiple of 6.0x.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"- 2010 EPS Estimate Increased: /spanKeybanc is raising their FY10 EPS estimate by $0.85 to $3.25 vs. their estimate of $3.00 for FY09. The year-over-year improvement looks for very modest volume growth, improved costs and flattish earnings for Valvoline.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"- Valvoline – Sustainable:/span The majority of the ...

• Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) reported second quarter earnings of 68 cents a share, a nickel above projections, on in-line revenues of $5.53 billion, off 18.1%

• Black and Decker (NYSE:BDK) posted second quarter earnings of 63 cents a share, which beat estimates by 26 cents, on in-line revenues of $1.19 billion, off 27.4%

• Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE:IR) reported second quarter earnings of 50 cents a share, 11 cents better than expected, as revenues increased 12.8% to $3.47 billion.  The company said it sees third-quarter earnings of 55 cents to 70 cents a share, versus estimates of 52 cents; full-year guidance of $1.50-$1.80 exceeded Street estimates of $1.32

• Dover (NYSE:DOV) reported second quarter earnings of 54 cents a share, 8 cents above estimates, on in-line revenues of $1.4 billion, off 30%

• Ashland (NYSE:ASH) reported fiscal third quarter earnings of $1.10 a share, 9 cents higher than projected, on in-line revenues of $2.04 billion, off 7.5%

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Ashland Inc. (...

div style="text-align: justify;"JP Morgan is out with a nice upgrade on span style="font-weight: bold;"Ashland (NYSE:ASH) /spantaking their rating to Overweight from Neutral with a $17 tgt for Dec 2009.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Firm notes Ashland's recent monthly volume and margin data probably point to meaningful improvements in cash flow, free cash flow and earnings./span The gross margin is widening considerably at Valvoline due to resilient product prices and sharply lower raw material costs stemming from base oil price decreases. The gross margin appears to be moving up in Water Treatment, and Aqualon sales are only decreasing at a low-double-digit rate. They believe the sum of these improvements point to decreased financial risk. Firm expects Ashland to generate free cash flow of close to $4.00 per share for F2009 (ends September). The valuation of Ashland remains distressed, in their view, selling at 3.6x F2009 EBITDA. Each EBITDA multiple point turn is ...

Ashland Inc. (ASH) shares have surged double digits today after receiving an upgrade from a major brokerage analyst. According to news reports, the analyst believes that the diversified chemicals maker is showing improved margins.

< ?DART(15);?> Its gain of approximately 14% on Wednesday easily makes it a top-performing Zacks #1 Rank company.

ASH's price has dropped significantly over the past year in the tough economic environment. With today's gain, the company is hovering around $11.75 a share, compared to its 52-week high of more than $58. However, if this analyst is correct, then the company may be past the worst of it and poised for a better performance ahead.

The past 30 days has brought some upward earnings estimate momentum for ASH. Expectations for this fiscal year, ending September 2009, are up 1.3% in that time, while estimates for next fiscal year, ending September 2010,

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Harbinger CapitalHarbinger Capital | 13F Hedge Fund HoldingsThis post is being written as part of HedgeFundBlogger.com’s Investment Securities Tool which analyzes the holdings of hedge fund managers.Harbinger Capital is a $13.8 Billion firm ran by Philip Falcone. Taken from StreetInsider, Harbinger is “a disciplined, value investor with an emphasis on intensive credit research. Its focus is on middle market companies that tend to be misunderstood or under-researched by the market. Investment approaches include:Restructuring/Bankruptcy, Turnaround, Liquidation, Event Driven, Capital Structure Arbitrage, Short Sale and Special Situations.” At one point during this year, they were up as much as 42% (more on that below).So, now that we’ve got a background on Harbinger Capital, let’s …

Harbinger Special Situation Fund, run by Philip Falcone, made the following significant buys and sells during the second quarter…

track these buys and those of other pros at:

http://trackthepros.com/

New Positions:

Yahoo

Sprint Nextel

Southern Union

RTI Metals

Peabody Energy

Nisource

Nicor

Media General

Cablevision

Added to Positions

Williams Sonoma

Owens Corning

Cleveland Cliffs

Ashland

Corn Products

Sell Positons

Wachovia Bank (PUTS)

Solutia