• Aetna (NYSE:AET) reported third quarter earnings of 69 cents a share, 3 cents better than Zacks estimates, on revenues of $8.72 billion, up 14.4%.  The company sees full year earnings of $2.75 a share

• OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX) posted third quarter earnings of 8 cents, 6 cents below Zacks estimates on inline revenues of $1.83 billion, down 12.6%. The firm issued cautious guidance, anticipating macro employment trends will not turn positive well into 2010

• Nintendo (NASDAQ:NTDOY) posted first half profits off 52% to $768 million, while sales dropped 34.5%. The company slashed its dividend for the first half by 37%

• Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) reported third quarter earnings of 79 cents a share, 24 cents above Zacks estimates, as revenues of $2.05 billion, up 49.5%, bested Zacks estimates of $1.78 billion

• Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) reported a 73% drop in net profit, with earnings ex-items of $2.62 billion slightly ahead of estimates

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A post from a href="http://www.thestockadvisors.com/content/view/4067/33/"TheStockAdvisors/a last Friday suggested seven stocks which have paying dividends for over 100 years, raised their dividend on an annual basis for the last 25 years and can be directly purchased. Given their potential for accumulative returns how have the stocks performed from a price perspective? Quotes directly from the articlebr /br /[1] a href="http://www.zignals.com/main/quicknav/MenuCharts.aspx?param=VlcxODYz?end"Coca-Cola (KO)/abr /br /blockquote...its strong overseas business should get a lift from the weak dollar and presence in emerging markets. The yield of well over 3% enhances total-return appeal. /blockquotebr /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WWGUfU1tOjI/SqfPONQ7pmI/AAAAAAAAA_w/OxebMXGEOuc/s1600-h/Stock+Chart+a15.png"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 176px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WWGUfU1tOjI/SqfPONQ7pmI/AAAAAAAAA_w/OxebMXGEOuc/s320/Stock+Chart+a15.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379496122903144034" //abr /span class="fullpost"[2] a href="http://www.zignals.com/main/quicknav/MenuCharts.aspx?param=VlcxODY0?end"Colgate-Palmolive (CL)/abr /br /blockquote...takes a back seat to no company when it comes to consistency and growth of its dividend. The firm has been paying a dividend since 1895, with the dividend increased annually for the last 46 years. /blockquotebr /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WWGUfU1tOjI/SqfRFeg7NpI/AAAAAAAAA_4/SNAEzK4B4Xc/s1600-h/Stock+Chart+CL.png"img style="display:block; margin:0px ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 14, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Procter & Gamble (PG), Southwest Air (LUV) and Marriott (MAR).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Wal-Mart Beats But Narrows

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) reported strong second quarter results with earnings of 88 cents per share, which exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 85 cents. Earnings were up 2.3% year-over-year and were at the high-end of management’s guidance of 83 cents to

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Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 4,000 this week to 558,000. The four week average rose by 8,500 to 565,000. As the graph below shows (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/), we are well past the peak, in both time and level. The peak of the four-week average was 18 weeks ago and 93,750 higher than we are today. Historically, claims have peaked right near the end of a recession. Unless the NBER surprises us when they get around to dating the end of this recession, that does not appear to be the case this time. The rise in the four-week average could be the start of a pattern like we saw in the last two downturns, where initial claims started coming down sharply but then plateaued and remained elevated for an extended period of time. The current levels are still consistent with the economy losing jobs. We will need to see the number ...

In the second quarter, the economy was hemorrhaging jobs, losing a total of 1,265 million. While that was not as bad as in the first quarter when it lost 2.074 million jobs, it was still pretty awful. However, in the first quarter the economy as a whole shrank by 6.3% (annual rate) while in the second quarter the contraction slowed to just a 1.0% rate. Well, GDP measures output, and output is a function of two things: the number of hours worked and the output per hour. Output per hour is also known as productivity, and today’s productivity report shows the reason for the greatly improved (less bad) performance of the economy. Non-farm business productivity surged 6.4% in the second quarter, well above the 5.5% rate the Street was expecting. This was the biggest increase in productivity since the third quarter of 2003. That is a fairly interesting date, ...

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) raised General Electric (NYSE:GE) to "buy" and upped its price target on the firm to $15 from $13

• American Express (NYSE:AXP) joined the ranks of banks buying back TARP-issued warrants, as it paid the Treasury $340 million, providing the government a 26% return on its investment.  Other firms include Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), US Bancorp (NYSE:USB), and State Street (NYSE:STT)

• Sumitomo Trust announced plans to acquire Citigroup's (NYSE:C) entire stake in Nikko Asset Management for $1.2 billion

• Sanofi-Aventis announced it agreed to acquire a 50% stake in Merck's (NYSE:MRK) animal health venture for $4 billion

• Visa (NYSE:V) reported earnings, ex-items, of 67 cents a share, ahead of Street projections of 64 cents on revenues of $1.6 billion, versus estimates of $1.64 billion

• Motorola (NYSE:MOT) topped estimates for the second quarter with adjusted results of a one cent loss versus estimates of a 4 cent loss.  The company

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 17, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: McDonald's (MCD), Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Procter & Gamble (PG) and Colgate-Palmolive (CL).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

BRIC Nations Discuss the Dollar

China and India have sizable labor resources, while Russia and Brazil are rich in natural resources. China is the main importer of natural resources, while Russia and Brazil are the main exporters. While China and India benefit from lower oil prices, Russia and Brazil

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The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) are meeting today in Russia to discuss issues ranging from the financial crisis to climate change. The US Dollar's role in their foreign exchange reserves and cross-border trade is also on the agenda of the meeting.Recently Russia, China and Brazil have expressed the need for having an alternative to US Dollar -- in view of the soaring US debt -- and have decided to invest in IMF bonds, a move to diversify their dollar-heavy currency reserves. IMF bonds are denominated in Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs. India has so far been non-committal on this issue.BRIC nations hold a total of $2.8 trillion in international reserve assets (excluding gold) -- about 42% percent of the world's total. Further, these countries comprise about 15% of the world economy, 40% of the world's population and output (in purchasing power ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - May 22, 2009 - Zacks Equity Research highlights ENSCO (ESV) as the Bull of the Day and Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. (OSG) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on T.J. Maxx (TJX), Saks (SKS) and Colgate-Palmolive (CL).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

The recent strength in crude oil prices has improved the outlook for a cyclical recovery. Historically, jackup drillers like ENSCO (ESV) have enjoyed strong early-cycle leverage, a trend that we believe will play out this time as well.

While the near-term situation is expected to remain weak, with rig oversupply and soft demand weighing on dayrates, the medium to long-term outlook

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* Visa (NYSE:V) reported first quarter earnings of 73 cents a share, ex-items, beating estimates of 64 cents versus 52 cents a year ago, as revenues increased 13% to $1.65 billion, which beat Street estimates of $1.61 billion. The firm reiterated its earnings view and reduced revenue forecast for 2009 and 2010

* Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) reported fiscal second quarter earnings of 16 cents ex-items versus 15 cents, beating estimates of 15 cents a share, as revenues fell 7.6% to $2.33 billion, missing estimates of $2.36 billion

* Motorola (NYSE:MOT) reported a first quarter loss of 10 cents a share, topping estimates by one cent, versus a 5 cent loss a year ago, as revenues fell 27.9% year-over-year to $5.4 billion

* Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK) reported a loss of $1.34 per share in the quarter, a $1.01 miss versus a 39 cent loss a year earlier, as revenues fell 29.4% year-over-year to $1.5 billion

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