Continucare Corp. yesterday reported its first quarter fiscal year 2010 financial results. The company reported a 113% increase in net income and continued strength in the business with higher quarter-ending cash and working capital balances.

Richard C. Pfenniger, Jr., Continucare’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer commented, “We are extremely pleased with our first quarter results,” “Record revenues, improved utilization outcomes and operating efficiencies resulted in a 113% increase in net income. Also, during the quarter we added an important new dimension to our business with the launch of Seredor Corporation and the acquisition of our first sleep diagnostic centers.”

First Quarter Highlights Include:

Revenues increased 17% compared to $65.1 million for the same period last year, with total revenue of $76.0 million Income from operations increased 116% to $8.6 million, compared to $4.0 million for the same period last year Launch of Seredor Corporation, a new sleep diagnostic center subsidiary to

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While there have been some signs of recovery in real estate and the stock market it seems that the job market is still declining. Online advertised vacancies declined by 83,200 to 3,280,000 in October, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series (HWOL)(TM) released November 2. Of course those jobs are only representative of the national job market and don’t include every available job.

The job market varies by region. The south showed job losses in both September and October. However, Texas and Florida were basically flat. The smallest decline was in the Northeast. In the West, California fell by only 3,700 about the same as Arizona with a much smaller population. In the Midwest most of the states declined but Michigan showed a small gain and Wisconsin had no change.

Don’t let a layoff take you by surprise. Keep your eyes and

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Opinio Juris, one of the treasure troves of the internet and a blog that I read frequently and have great respect for, acknowledged a very important case the other day in which a federal court in Florida decided to refuse to enforce a $97 million judgment in the case of Osorio v. Dole Food Company.

The case is of particular importance for lawyers like me who work in countries where rule of law is more a wish than a reality.

Highly recommended reading here.

Home Shopping Latino Inc., doing business as Viva Telecompras, is an all Spanish language TV channel and online shopping website. The company will broadcast from Miami, Florida and expand its market via airtime and website broadcasts. The network will sell products provided by third-party wholesalers such as beauty care, vitamins, and in particular gemstones and jewelry.

Initially, the company is most interested in marketing high-quality, high-margin gemstones from the nation of Madagascar and has already developed a relationship to do so with MadAmerican Exports. Viva Telecompras will later subtract with jewelry manufacturers in Florida to make jewelry using these fine gemstones.

Home Shopping Latino is attempting to fill a very profitable niche in the home shopping industry with its Hispanic shopping channel. The Hispanic population is the fastest growing demographic – 9.3 million households with a population of over 35 million

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Everest Re Group’s (RE) third-quarter earnings of $3.43 per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.47. Last year, the company had reported earnings of 20 cents per share. Strong property reinsurance rates coupled with the low catastrophe activity had resulted in favorable earnings.   The net income was $228.6 million, compared to a loss of $233.1 million in the prior year period.   Gross written premiums increased 13% to $1.1 billion for the quarter compared to $999.2 million for the same period in 2008. This growth was driven by a strong U.S. reinsurance property market, particularly for catastrophe exposed regions, the continued expansion of business in various international reinsurance markets and new program development on the insurance book.   Net investment income was $165.4 million, flat compared to the third quarter of 2008. Despite a higher invested asset base, the net investment income remained flat because of ...

Energy company FPL Group Inc. (FPL) today reported adjusted net earnings of $1.38 per share for the third quarter of 2009, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.39 and above $1.25 reported last year. The improvement from last year’s results was due to positive contributions from FPL’s NextEra Energy Resources subsidiary, offset by a decline in customer base at the Florida Power & Light subsidiary.  Total revenue during the quarter declined to $4,473 million from $5,387 million a year ago. Revenue at Florida Power & Light Company declined 3.6% year-over-year to $3,301 million, primarily due to the economic challenges faced at Florida. NextEra Energy Resources’ revenue in the quarter was down 40.7% from last year at $1,136 million, due to unfavorable market conditions for the company’s fossil power plants in Texas and below normal wind resource across the fleet.  At Florida Power & Light ...

Clear-Lite Holdings, Inc. is a leading innovator of eco-friendly Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs), lamps, and commercial lighting products. ClearLite’s newest offering, ArmorLite™ SAFETY ECO CFL™, helps capture broken glass and mercury. The Company has strategic partnerships with major global manufacturers as well as cost-effective sales and logistics channels with offices in Florida, Illinois, California, and Canada.

The Company’s current line of CFLs is Energy Star® qualified and designed to meet RoHS standards (Reduction of Hazardous Substances). They are also UL approved in the United States and Canada. Clear-Lite Holdings, Inc.’s products are for the retail and industrial/commercial markets in the United States and Canada. ClearLite sells their products under the ClearLite® brand and private label names. In addition to CFL bulbs and lamps, ClearLite will soon introduce a line of Dimmable CFL, CCFL, Fluorescent, Energy Saver Halogen and LEDs.

Earlier this month, Clear-Lite Holdings, Inc. announced that their Full Spectrum Compact

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Dolan Media Company (DM) is making big profits from its counter cyclical mortgage default processing services. The company has surprised on estimates the last 3 quarters by an average of 36.30%. Dolan Media trades with a PEG ratio of 0.87.

Company Description

Dolan Media provides professional services and business information to the legal, financial and real estate industries. It has two segments: Professional Services and Business Information Division.

Professional Services consists of two subsidiaries, NDeX and Counsel Press. NDex provides mortgage default processing services in states with large numbers of distressed home owners such as California and Michigan. Counsel Press provides appellate services to the legal community.

The Business Information Division publishes journals and operates media web sites targeted to the business and legal communities in 21 geographic markets.

Dolan Media Expands Into Florida Market

On Oct 5, the company announced its subsidiary NDeX had entered into a

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Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) has reported a third quarter loss of 20 cents per share. Results are worse than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 18 cents. The company incurred a loss of 14 cents a year earlier.   Results reflected higher credit costs driven by the continued stress in the commercial, commercial real estate, residential real estate and consumer loan portfolios.   Quarterly results included a pre-tax net benefit of $288 million from the sale of its Visa Inc. (V) Class B common shares and the release of additional Visa litigation reserves due to Visa's supplemental funding of its litigation escrow account. This reduced non-interest expense by $29 million. Earnings were benefited by $317 million or 26 cents by these items.   Credit metrics continued to deteriorate in the quarter. Net charge-offs were 375 basis points (bps) of average loans outstanding, up 67 bps ...

There’s a fine line between personal care (your health and well being) and what could be considered personal pampering. That $100 luxury massage could be viewed as a much needed muscle relaxing exercise to help your back. And, if looks are important to your career, you might be able to write off that anti-aging skin cream as a business expense, even though there are some that cost $400 per ounce. The fact is that people will go to remarkable lengths to take care of themselves, even if what they are trying does more for their mind than for the rest of their body.

Beauty and youth are concepts that have always been closely tied to the personal care industry. With a market in the hundreds of billions of dollars, nobody doubts the demand; although the question of whether the market has

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