• Kraft (NYSE:KFT) is due to formalize its Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) bid for about $16.7 billion as the deadline for an offer hits

• Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) announced it is selling its TASC consulting operations to two private equity firms for $1.65 billion

• About $30 billion was the agreed-to valuation which General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) placed on the joint venture between NBC Universal and Comcast

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) upgraded Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) to "buy," and lifted its price target to $42

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) added Lexmark (NYSE:LXK) to its Conviction Sell list

• KBW upgraded Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) shares to "outperform" with a price target of $18.50

• Windstream (NYSE:WIN) reported third-quarter earnings of 24 cents a share, two cents over Zacks estimates, on revenues of $734 million, below Zacks estimates of $747 million

• DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH) reported third-quarter earnings of 18 cents, 25 cents under Zacks estimates, on revenues of $2.89

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Los Angeles-based leading shipbuilder and the second largest U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC) reported impressive third quarter results, with EPS of $1.52 crossing both the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.18 and the year-ago result of $1.50. The upsurge came through higher revenue and share repurchases. Sales for the reported quarter increased 4% to $8.73 billion from $8.38 billion in the year-ago quarter. In the quarter, Shipbuilding sales grew by double digits (14%), with impressive growth from the Aerospace systems (5%), Information Systems (4%) and Technical Services (4%), while Electronic Systems grew marginally (2%). Shipbuilding sales surged primarily due to higher volume for the LPD, Virginia-class submarines and DDG programs. Aerospace Systems sales increased principally due to higher volume for unmanned aircraft programs such as Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aerial System (BAMS UAS), Global Hawk and Navy Unmanned Combat Air System (N-UCAS); restricted programs ...

Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: CHIP, ENZ, GERS, IWEB, OMCM, ONEZ, XSNX

Markets hit fresh highs for ‘09 yet again last week, as the first round of earnings helped to assuage investor concerns that operating results would underpin robust gains in equities this year. All told, the Dow gained 130 points to end the week at 9995 after briefly cracking the 10,000 mark, gaining 1.3% on the week and extending its gains to 13.9% on the year. The Nasdaq gained 0.8% on the week to close at 2156, up 36.8% on the year, while the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 gained 1.5% and 0.2% respectively, bringing their YTD totals to 20.4% and 23.4%.

Earnings stole the spotlight last week as things got off to a strong start early with JP Morgan handily beating expectations calling for $0.51 per share, reporting earnings of $0.82 per share. Citigroup

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AAR Corp. (AIR) has been selected to provide maintenance and operations for the U.S. Air Force as part of a Northrop Grumman team. The contract is worth $600 million for nine years. The announcement was made following U.S. Air Force's selection of Northrop Grumman as the prime contractor for comprehensive depot maintenance and logistics for the U.S. Air Force's fleet of 59 KC-10 air refueling aircraft.   The Northrop Grumman team will provide supply chain services and logistics support for the KC-10 extender, a tanker and cargo aircraft. AAR will provide a supply chain program to support maintenance and operations of the KC-10 program from facilities and air bases in the U.S. and overseas.   Management believes that a strategic partnership with Northrop Grumman will further increase its cash flow from operations.   During the first quarter of fiscal 2010, the company generated $34 million of cash flow ...

Kaman Corp. produces and/or markets widely-used products for various commercial firms and the military. The company announced today that the helicopter division of its subsidiary, Kaman Aerospace, has been awarded a five-year contract with a potential value of $53 million to build composite helicopter blade skins and skin core assemblies for Bell Helicopters.

President and CEO of Kaman Corporation, Neal J. Keating, spoke about the contract award, “We are delighted by this opportunity to work with Bell Helicopter in producing world-class rotorcraft. This is further evidence of our ability to leverage our OEM (original equipment manufacturer) capabilities in support of other helicopter manufacturers.”

Mary Simmerman, Senior VP of supply chain management at Bell, said, “Kaman has the skills and competitiveness we require in the composite blade-manufacturing arena. We expect this to be a positive agreement for both companies.”

All work will be performed at the Kaman HeliworX full-service aerospace innovation and

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• Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares shed 1.2% on rumors that the introduction of its touchscreen "iPad" netbook may be put off from a September event. However, reports suggest China’s Unicom is expected to announce a deal to start selling the iPhone in China as soon as Friday

• AIG (NYSE:AIG) shares jumped 11% yesterday. In an interview, new CEO Benmosche calmed fears of a fire sale of the firm's assets, instead pointing to a measured approach to retaining the company's diversified base, noting that in a year the company will be said to be performing well

• Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced a $71 cut on its highest-priced Xbox 360 in Europe and US markets after Sony (NYSE:SNE) cut price of its PlayStation 3 last week

• General Electric (NYSE:GE) is reportedly seeking bids for its security business, with interest said to be forthcoming from United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) and Tyco (NYSE:TYC). The firm hopes for bids

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On Monday, Northrop Grumman Corp.’s (NOC) cyber security team bagged a follow-on $430 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract from the US Army. In lieu of the deal, the company will continue providing a wide array of information operations (IO) and computer network operations (CNO) to the 1st Information Operations Command (Land), Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and its regional Computer Emergency Response Teams.

The contract had originally been awarded to Northrop by the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, Fort Belvoir in 1997. Through this follow-on contract, valid for five years, Northrop will coordinate multiple battlefield functions such as electronic warfare, military deception, psychological warfare, operations security and computer-network operations to disrupt enemy decision-making while protecting information necessary for the US troops.

The deal will boost Northrop’s dwindling backlog subsequent to termination of the $5.1 billion Kinetic Energy Interceptor program by the US Government. The company’s total backlog fell to

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PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

PennyOmega.com Hot Stock News & Alerts!

 

Thursday July 30, 2009

PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

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Southern Company (NYSE: SO) was the center of some heavy options trading on Wednesday, as more than 96,500 contracts crossed the tape. This surge in volume is more than 41 times the stock’s average daily trading volume of 2,310 contracts, according to data from WhatsTrading.com. What’s more, roughly 97% of the volume changed hands on the call side.

Arabian American Development Co. (Nasdaq: ARSD) today announced that it will be reporting 2009 second quarter financial results on August 6, 2009 after market close.

Lexington Realty Trust (NYSE: LXP), a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on single-tenant real estate

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Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT), the nation's largest defense contractor, unveiled yesterday the carrier variant of the F-35 fighter plane. The F-35 variant, known as F-35C Lightning II, is the first-ever stealth fighter added the U.S. Navy's arsenal.

Lockheed Martin is focusing on F-35 as its primary growth driver in the Aeronautics segment to offset the loss of F-22. The Senate recently voted to stop production of the F-22 plane, putting it as too advanced for the recent trend of low-intensity warfare.

Subsequent to the end of the second quarter of 2009, Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics segmental order backlog was $27.9 billion. The F-35 is slated to replace the F-16 and A-10 fleets. As per media reports, the Pentagon will have to procure about 3,000 F-35 variants over the coming decade for the purpose. The F-35 has three variants, of which two of them are land based differing on the take-off and

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Microsemi Corporation’s (MSCC) fiscal third quarter revenue missed the consensus by a sliver, but EPS beat by 3 cents. Revenue was at the high-end of the guided range, while the EPS exceeded the guidance by $0.01. Revenue The company reported revenue of $107.0 million, which was up 1.2% sequentially and down 17.2% year over year. Microsemi’s Analog/Mixed Signal products cater to three end markets -- mobile/connectivity, industrial/semicap and notebooks/LCD TVs/display. The mobile/connectivity business (9% of revenue) grew 4.5% sequentially and declined 53.1% from the year-ago quarter. The business is currently being driven by the WLAN product line, as the high capital requirement of POE installations limit adoption in the current environment. The industrial/semicap business remains weak, generating just 6% of revenue in the last quarter. Segment revenue declined 17.6% sequentially and 30.1% year over year. Notebooks/LCD TVs/displays generated 5% of revenue, representing ...