Goodrich Corporation (GR) has signed an agreement to acquire AIS Global Holdings LLC for approximately $375 million. AIS Global also known as Atlantic Inertial Systems is a leading provider of mission-critical guidance, stabilization and navigation products and systems for the military and defense market. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2009, subject to customary government approvals.  Goodrich expects the company to be accretive to earnings in fiscal 2010. The acquired company mainly caters to defense prime contractors as well as U.S. and allied military forces around the world. Primary products include inertial sensors, inertial measurement units (IMUs), integrated systems, stability systems and terrain avoidance systems for missiles, military aircraft and land systems.  AIS will become part of Goodrich's Sensors and Integrated Systems business within its Electronic Systems segment. The acquisition will boost the Electronic Systems segment, where operating income fell 11% due ...

Sonic Automotive (SAH) has reported a profit of 21 cents per share (excluding special items) for the third quarter of the year compared to 15 cents per share in the year-ago period. The profit was attributed to increased customer traffic due to the U.S. Government’s "Cash for Clunkers" cash incentive fuel-efficient vehicle exchange program and the continued execution of the company’s e-commerce strategies. The earnings were almost at par with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 22 cents per share. Total revenue for the quarter slipped 6% to $1.5 billion. Of this, revenue from vehicle trade declined 7% to $1.2 billion. Meanwhile, revenue from parts, service and collision repair remained flat at $255 million and from finance, insurance and other services decreased 5% to $41 million. New Vehicle Retail Revenue from new vehicles retail (including fleet vehicles) fell 12% to $825 million. New vehicle retail units ...

Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) will install four solar panels in North Carolina in the first phase of its $50 million rooftop solar project. The four projects with a combined 4.6MW of annual capacity are expected to be completed by March 2010.   Duke Energy is focusing on green energy in the light of recent progress in the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The act stipulates stringent caps against carbon dioxide emissions. Also North Carolina 's renewable energy standard stipulates each public electric utility to generate a minimum of 12.5% of its North Carolina retail customers' electricity needs through new renewable energy sources or energy efficiency measures by fiscal 2021.  Duke Energy also has 634MW of land-based wind energy in Pennsylvania , Texas and Wyoming , another 99MW under construction and an additional 251MW of wind projects scheduled to begin operations in 2010. According to a report ...

Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) recently signed a contract with the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill to place up to three demonstration wind turbines in Pamlico Sound (North Carolina). Duke will pay for the turbines and their installation. The turbines will harness the power of ocean breezes along North Carolina’s coast. 

Duke Energy’s pilot project is based on a nine-month study completed in June 2009 by the UNC for the North Carolina General Assembly. The pilot turbine installation will facilitate utility-scale wind energy development by enabling studies to optimize measuring and predicting the wind resource, quantifying ecological impacts and demonstrating turbine performance in tropical storm conditions. 

Duke Energy has 634MW of land-based wind energy in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming, another 99MW under construction and an additional 251MW of wind projects scheduled to begin operations in 2010. The company is focusing on green energy in …

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts!

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DrStockPick.com Watch List!

My Picks for Wednesday September 23, 2009, are:

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FIG, Fortress Investment Group LLC

FIG is a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $31.0 billion in assets under management (fee paying) as of June 30, 2009. FIG is headquartered in New York and has affiliates with offices in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New Canaan, Rome, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo.

**FIG’s Board of Directors elected not to pay a dividend in the third quarter of 2009, to retain capital for potential future investment opportunities and for working

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Real estate investment trust Cousins Properties Inc. (CUZ) recently said it would record an impairment charge of $39 million, or 74 cents per share, in the third quarter relating to its joint venture interest in Terminus 200. This 565,000 square feet office building in Atlanta, in which Cousins holds a 50% stake, was completed last month.

The company said the impairment charge would not impact its ownership interest in the project and it would continue to be the property manager and leasing agent of the asset.

In a separate development, Cousins announced a public offering of 32 million common shares and an underwriter option to purchase an additional 4.8 million shares. The company plans to use the proceeds to repay its debt under the revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes. J. P. Morgan of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp. (BAC)

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Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) recently raised the size of its senior notes offering to $1 billion from the originally planned $800 million. Investors lapped up the notes due to their higher yield over US Treasury bonds. The company will use proceeds from the sale to retire commercial paper and for financing its capital expenditure.

Duke Energy issued senior notes totaling $500 million due in 2014 with a 3.95% coupon rate semi-annually and another $500 million due in 2019 with 5.05% coupon rate annually.

The company needs funds for its ongoing capital expenditures. Duke Energy is currently expanding its Cliffside Steam Plant on the border of Cleveland and Rutherford counties and a new plant at Edwardsport gasified-coal facility in Indiana. The company is also investing to control carbon dioxide emissions from its coal-based plants. This is vital in the light of recent progress in the American Clean Energy

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The Case-Schiller composite index of housing prices in 20 major metropolitan areas rose 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis in June, following an essentially unchanged reading in May. The not-seasonally-adjusted numbers were even better (and what most of the press coverage were initially focused on). However, there is a distinct seasonal pattern to housing prices, so it is better to focus on the seasonally adjusted numbers. The increase in prices was widespread, with 15 of the 20 areas seeing an increase -- better than expected, and extremely good news. In May, nine of the 20 cities were up. The news is still tentative, with much of the good news coming from a reduction in supply as banks have been letting the foreclosure pipeline build, and an increase in demand from the first-time homebuyer tax credit, which expires at the end of November. On a year-over-year basis, the composite 20 ...

Yesterday, Charlotte-based Goodrich Corp. (GR) agreed to form two joint venture companies with China’s Xi’an Aircraft International Corp. (XAIC).   According to the agreement, XAIC will form a joint venture with each of Goodrich Landing Gear and Goodrich Aerostructures. The joint ventures will bring together Goodrich's leading market positions on landing gear and nacelles for large commercial aircraft with XAIC’s expertise in high quality aerospace manufacturing.   The new companies are expected to compete for market space for the COMAC C919 single aisle Chinese commercial aircraft. Also, these companies will manufacture various landing gear and nacelle components and subassemblies for other aircraft.   Recently, Goodrich opened a new facility in China's Tianjin Airport Industrial Park to support nacelle and thrust reverser original equipment, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul activities. This coupled with the above will help Goodrich extend its footprint in China, the world’s fastest growing ...

Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: CBAI, ICLK, ITUI, IWEB, MBCI, OMCM, SIHI, SRCO

Markets continued their torrid pace this week on the strength of encouraging reports from two of the most beleaguered economic sectors, which led to gains in all of the major indices following the week’s activities. All told, the Dow ended the week up 2.2%, gaining 198 to close at 9370, bringing its YTD gains to 6.8%. The Nasdaq gained 1.1% on the week, bringing its yearly gains to 26.8% while the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 posted gains of 2.3% and 2.28 % respectively, bringing their yearly gains to 11.9% and 14.6%.

Economic news stole the spotlight this week as earnings season wound down, leaving investors with a more definitive picture of the overall state of recovery than in many weeks prior. The good news started early in the week, as the ISM

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