Stock Market News & Stocks to Watch from StraightStocks » Insight

Affinity Mediaworks Corp. (AFFW.OB) Enters Agreement to Co-Produce 12 Feature Films

QualityStocks — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:57:56 +0000

Affinity Mediaworks Corp., a provider of visual and production services and solutions to independent and small film producers, recently announced that the company has entered into an agreement to produce 12 feature films with Insight Film Studios/Odyssey Film Studios of Vancouver, British Columbia. Each of the 12 films will have budgets in the range of [...]

Nissan Keeps Losses Lower – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:22:05 +0000

Nissan losses lower than expected

The world’s third largest carmaker, Nissan Motor Company (NSANY), posted a modest net loss of 9 cents (¥4.06) per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2009.

The loss was largely driven by the slump in global car demand, negative impact of a stronger yen, sharp decline in consumer confidence in all the major markets and product mix deterioration. Reported losses were significantly lower than the Zacks consensus forecast of 80 cents.

Cost-cutting efforts, coupled with the government stimulus, helped Nissan curb losses in the quarter. The government of US, Germany, Japan and China are offering consumers credits, tax breaks and subsidies for trading in old cars for new fuel-efficient models. However, we remain concerned about Nissan’s prospects as these government incentives will not be available for much longer.

Operating costs shrunk 37% year over year to $25.2 billion (¥2.4 trillion). Nissan, under its recovery plan, announced in fiscal 2008 intended to reduce labor costs by 20% to $6.8 billion (¥700 billion) in fiscal 2009 and reduce salaries of the Board of Directors as well as corporate officers by 10%, managers by 5%, and eliminate bonus payments to the Board of Directors.

Global sales in the quarter were 723,000 vehicles, down 22.8% from the previous year. Lower volumes drove a 35.5% decline in the top line to $15.55 billion. Revenues in the Automobile segment declined 37% to $14.7 billion (¥1.4 trillion) while that in the Sales Financing segment declined 17% to $15.7 billion (¥1.5 trillion).

On a regional basis, sales were down 31.6% in North America to 225,000 units, 21.6% in Japan to 116,000 units and 24.6% in Europe to 118,000 units while it increased 29.8% in other foreign countries to 119,000 units.

Like its peers, Nissan is also eyeing emerging markets such as China, Brazil and Russia. Sales were strong in China, surging 9.3% during the first quarter to 145,000 vehicles.

Nissan's Chinese partner, Dongfeng Motor Co. Ltd., plans to expand the Huadu passenger vehicle plant in Guangzhou City, which will an another assembly line, set to start running in 2012. Total investment will be $730 million. Dongfeng Nissan's current annual production capacity in China at plants in Huadu and Xiangfan is 360,000 units. The expansions will ramp up capacities to 600,000 vehicles.

Outlook

For fiscal 2009, Nissan has kept its forecasts unchanged. It expects net revenues of $73 billion (¥6.95 trillion), down 17.6% year over year. The company expects operating loss of $1.05 billion (¥100 billion) and net loss is expected at $1.79 billion (¥41.74) per share.

Given worsening market conditions, the company expects global sales to decline 9.7% year over year to 3.08 million units. Global production is forecasted at 2.95 million vehicles. The company plans to reduce global headcount by 20,000 to 215,000 and cut back dealer inventories by 20% year over year to 480,000 through fiscal 2009.

New products

Nissan has launched three models out of the eight it plans in fiscal 2009. Nissan aims to take a lead in zero-emission cars and will unveil its first model in Japan on August 2.

However, Nissan has been slower than rivals Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) and Honda Motor Company (HMC) in its foray into fuel-efficient petrol-electric hybrids. Sales of Toyota 's Prius and Honda’s Insight are already booming in Japan.
Read the full analyst report on "NSANY"
Read the full analyst report on "TM"
Read the full analyst report on "HMC"
Zacks Investment Research

Honda to Roll Out More Hybrids – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:22:13 +0000

Recently, Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Co. (HMC) revealed its plan to introduce two new gas-electric hybrid vehicles in 2010 in Japan. The company will offer the CR-Z hybrid sports car in February next year, followed by a hybrid version of its Fit compact by the end of next year.

The CR-Z has also been set for an international roll-out, but this has not yet been confirmed for the Fit.

The new hybrid lineup by Honda is expected to deliver a serious blow to its rival Toyota Motors (TM) in low-emission vehicles. The hybrid version of Fit will be cheaper than the Toyota Prius, on the back of its low-cost single-motor hybrid drive used in Honda’s Insight hybrid.

Previously, Honda Insight had lost its luster to Toyota’s third generation Prius in terms of fuel efficiency. Prius 2010 clocks 51 mpg in the city and 48 mpg on the highway, while Insight logs 40 mpg city and 43 mpg highway.

Honda plans to utilize more local resources for the cars it sells in emerging markets such as China and India, and reduce the number of domestic-only models it sells in Japan in order to lower cost and brace itself for competition.

Honda aims to tap the huge potential offered by the global market for hybrids. Despite being costlier than the non-hybrid vehicles, hybrids are likely to become a smart choice for consumers in the future.

A recent study showed that, taking into account several factors such as maintenance, repairs and retained value, hybrid vehicles generate savings that more than offset the price difference with the non-hybrid ones.

Honda intends to increase hybrid sales to 500,000 vehicles per year early in the next decade; this is equivalent to 15% of its current sales volume. The company has several projects in its hybrid line-up including clean diesel systems, hydrogen fuel-cell cars and a powerful hybrid drive for larger vehicles run on two electric motors alongside the petrol engine.

All these would surely help Honda to perform better amidst the slowing automotive sales. In fiscal 2009, Honda’s profit declined by 77% to $1.4 billion.

We continue to recommend HMC as Hold with a six-month target price of $27.00.
Read the full analyst report on "HMC"
Read the full analyst report on "TM"
Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Honda and General Motors – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:06:19 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 8, 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: Toyota (TM), Ford (F), Nissan (NSANY), Honda (HMC) and General Motors (GMGMQ).
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:

Patents: Toyota's Nest Egg

Ford (F) and Nissan (NSANY) have already sought licensing from the company to manufacture their hybrids, Escape and Altima, respectively.

A recent study of intellectual property for hybrid vehicles has revealed that Toyota has more than 2,000 patents. About half of these are occupied by the company’s best-selling hybrid, Prius. Toyota plans to incorporate its hybrid system in all of its vehicles by 2020.

Nevertheless, however hard Toyota tries to evade competition, its rivals have already sought out alternatives that could deal a blow to the company. Honda (HMC) built a hybrid vehicle, Insight – akin to Prius – which the company stated will not conflict with Toyota’s patents.

Prius 2010 clocks 51 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 48 mpg on the highway, while Insight logs 40 mpg city and 43 mpg highway. Nissan, on the other hand, is concentrating on developing an electric car debuting in 2010.

U.S. automakers are focusing on plug-in hybrids to meet the fuel economy standard of 35 mpg for vehicles by 2016. For example, Ford is building its battery-powered commercial van for introduction in 2010 and General Motors (GMGMQ) is gunning its Volt for 2012.

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Patents: Toyota’s Nest Egg – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:34:09 +0000

It has recently come to light that Toyota (TM) is building up a number of patents protecting its fuel-saving technologies that would ultimately help it in evading competition. This would also double up as a revenue-making channel for the company by licensing the patents to other automakers.

Ford (F) and Nissan (NSANY) have already sought licensing from the company to manufacture their hybrids, Escape and Altima, respectively.

A recent study of intellectual property for hybrid vehicles has revealed that Toyota has more than 2,000 patents. About half of these are occupied by the company’s best-selling hybrid, Prius. Toyota plans to incorporate its hybrid system in all of its vehicles by 2020.

Nevertheless, however hard Toyota tries to evade competition, its rivals have already sought out alternatives that could deal a blow to the company. Honda (HMC) built a hybrid vehicle, Insight – akin to Prius – which the company stated will not conflict with Toyota’s patents.

Prius 2010 clocks 51 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 48 mpg on the highway, while Insight logs 40 mpg city and 43 mpg highway. Nissan, on the other hand, is concentrating on developing an electric car debuting in 2010.

U.S. automakers are focusing on plug-in hybrids to meet the fuel economy standard of 35 mpg for vehicles by 2016. For example, Ford is building its battery-powered commercial van for introduction in 2010 and General Motors (GMGMQ) is gunning its Volt for 2012.

Moreover, President Obama announced its goal to have 1 million plug-in hybrids on the roads by 2015. He has already asked Congress to increase spending for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 34% to take care of the implementation process.

The U.S. automakers are now strengthening ties with electric utilities in order to supply electric powered vehicles to the U.S. consumers. However, utility companies are required to upgrade their infrastructure including power grid development to cater to the new technologies demanded by plug-ins.

We continue to recommend F, TM, HMC, and NSANY as Holds.
Read the full analyst report on "TM"
Read the full analyst report on "F"
Read the full analyst report on "NSANY"
Read the full analyst report on "GMGMQ"
Read the full analyst report on "HMC"
Zacks Investment Research

A Seven-Decade Low for GM

Bill Bonner — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:07:54 +0000

pUSA, General Motors and the state of California all to go Bankrupt/p pAs GM goes#8230; so goes America#8230;/p pUh oh#8230;/p pStocks rose yesterday; the Dow went up 50 points. The bear market rally is still on. Oil touched the $60 mark#8230; a sure sign, say analysts, that the global economy is picking up. And the dollar fell further#8230; to $1.36 per euro. Gold held steady, at $912 an ounce./p pWhile most stocks advanced yesterday, General Motors (NYSE:a href="http://www.dailyreckoning.co.uk/economic-forecasts/usa-general-motors-bankruptcy-54564.html"GM/a) backed up./p pThe experts say the company is going broke. “Chapter 11 looms,” says a Bloomberg report. Investors sold the stock down to $1.15 – a price GM hasn’t seen in more than 70 years. At that price you can buy the whole company for $700 million. Peanuts.#8230;/p

President Obama Urges Greener Vehicles

ETF Innovators — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:07:00 +0000

President Obama Urges Greener Vehicles The accompanying table (click to enlarge) includes 38 companies which are equal-weight components in the ETF Innovators Global Personal Transportation Index, which includes companies with market caps of at least $150M. The index declined by over 51% in the past year compared to declines of about [...]

Empirical Evidence Suggests Going Long Japan May Be Timely (EWJ)

Steven Towns — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:41:20 +0000

In “Hollowing Out, Tokyo Style,” FT Alphaville’s Gwen Robinson does a fine job of capturing an ongoing, and now accelerating human resources conundrum. While it seems like there’s no shortage lately of fake Japundits (not to be confused with the real Japundit, who is simply trying to keep it real on the cultural front) [...]

Why I love New Oriental Education

Tony Sagami — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:14:18 +0000

Here is a very interesting story about a Hong Kong-based English language school and its very wealthy founder. This article isn't specifically about New Oriental Education, but it gives you some accurate insight on how lucrative the English tutorial business is in Asia.

Gas Tax “Vacation” is Absurd

Jeffrey Miller — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:03:04 +0000

As Jeff Miller on A Dash of Insight notes, Hillary and McCain are in favor of a plan that would make gas taxes go away for a while - just to help out the little people. How nice of them. Right? Not really. Barack Obama along with every reachable economic authority on the vast expanse of [...]