Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC) reported third-quarter earnings of $4 million or breakeven per share compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 2 cents. The company earned $120 million or 25 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Net operating revenues for the quarter increased 5.7% to $2.262 billion from $2.140 billion last year. The company exited the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $731 million, which reflected an increase of $224 million since Dec. 31, 2008. Capital expenditures for the quarter were $91 million. Same-Hospital Data Revenues increased 5.2 %to $2.24 billion on a same-hospital basis. Same-hospital data does not include Sierra Providence East Medical Center in El Paso, TX, which opened on May 21, 2008. Currently, there are 48 hospitals in same-hospital operations. Total admissions in the reported quarter recorded a marginal increase of 0.1% as compared to ...

• Toyota (NYSE:TM) reported a June quarter loss of $819 million, reflecting sluggish US sales and a stronger yen, which offset cost-cutting measures and inventory decreases; however, the firm cut its loss forecast on the year by about 18% to $4.7 billion

• Xstrata, the world's fifth largest diversified mining group, reported a 77% fall in six month results to 38 cents a share adjusted from $1.66, although above estimates of 33.6 cents

• UBS (NYSE:UBS) reported a higher-than-expected second quarter loss of $1.32 billion, which was less than the prior quarter loss. The bank's Tier 1 capital ratio rose to 13.2% at quarter's end from 10.5% at the beginning of the quarter

• Vulcan Metals (NYSE:VMC) reported a second quarter earnings of 14 cents, ex-items, versus estimates of 20 cents a share, as revenues fell 29.3% from a year earlier to $721.9 million, off estimates of $759.1 million. The firm said it

...

Goldman is making a gutsy bet on the hospital operator, taking their tgt from $1 to $5.br /br /I'm just wondering if span style="font-weight: bold;"Tenet (NYSE:THC)/span will shape up like span style="font-weight: bold;"Zale (NYSE:ZLC)/span following the Merrill Lynch upgrade last week.br /br /- Distressed (check)br /br /- Sub $5 stock (check)br /br /- Up already 100%+ from lows (check)br /br /- Tier-1 upgrade (check)br /br /span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"Notablecalls: /spanI'm not making an outright call here but THC could hit $3+ on this.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/29297569-7506464642221412267?l=notablecalls.blogspot.com'//div

When You’re Wrong, You’re Wrong

by Investment U Research Team

Look, if the market turns against your position, it turns. The best thing you can do is to be prepared with a systematic exit point with a trailing stop. If a person screams, “it will rain” at the sky long enough, it will eventually come to pass.

But that doesn’t mean they caused it to rain.

Trying to get a handful of stocks to move in the direction you want them too has about the same effect. It’s why we prefer systems and strategy instead of hope. Hope isn’t a plan.

As part of our research, we like to look back to see if a thesis or market opinion was correct. It’s why we’re looking back at a few of our Blackboards from last week and the stocks mentioned in them.

E*Trade Financial (Nasdaq: ETFC) was

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Price Wimps of the S&P 500

by Investment U Research Team

Some of our members have asked us about penny stocks, and as a rule we stay clear of them. Most stocks trading below a dollar are there for a reason. But it certain situations, there are opportunities to take advantage of “Mr. Market’s” pricing confusion.

So with that perspective, we thought it might be beneficial to look at some serious value plays. These “Wimps” are the cheapest stocks in the S&P 500 (.INX).

Barring companies over a buck, we are presented by a number of “deep value” companies that would make Bill Miller shiver – That is if he wasn’t still curled up in a corner from his beating at the hands of the market last year.

Amongst those listed companies below a dollar, American International (NYSE: AIG) at  .35 may not surprise, but

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Hospitals Hoping for Increased Insurance Coverage The combination of a bad economy and rising unemployment is contributing to unpaid bills and operating losses at U.S hospital companies such as Tenet Healthcare (THC), which missed analyst estimates last week by 3-cents with an adjusted 6-cent per share loss and lowered its full-year and 2009 guidance for EBITDA. Tenet's allowance for doubtful accounts increased 5.8% to $163M at hospitals run by the Company for over a year. With Tenet trading at all-time lows, several insiders were buying a combined 160,000 shares on the open market last week at prices ranging from $2.49-$2.71, while the stock closed the week at $2.26 ($1.1B market cap) with a loss of about 48% in ...

The following article is a reprint of my 26 August 2008 RealMoney column.

Since 2001, hospital stocks have been looking green around the gills. Shares of LifePoint (LPNT) , Universal Health Services (UHS) and Community Health (CYH) have pretty much gone nowhere. Tenet Healthcare (THC) and Health Management Associates (HMA) look even worse, having lost more than 50% of their value.

That may be about to change. As I have noted before, employment statistics show hospitals as being one of the few industries reporting significant hiring. Unfortunately, I believe the lean years have left analysts who are covering the stocks too shell-shocked to notice improving fundamentals.

Evidence of the high degree of skepticism can be found in a Forbes article published on Aug. 8, when LifePoint issued a positive earnings report and raised guidance. The article focused on declining admissions and fears that a sinking

...

The following article is a reprint of my 26 August 2008 RealMoney column.

Since 2001, hospital stocks have been looking green around the gills. Shares of LifePoint (LPNT) , Universal Health Services (UHS) and Community Health (CYH) have pretty much gone nowhere. Tenet Healthcare (THC) and Health Management Associates (HMA) look even worse, having lost more than 50% of their value.

That may be about to change. As I have noted before, employment statistics show hospitals as being one of the few industries reporting significant hiring. Unfortunately, I believe the lean years have left analysts who are covering the stocks too shell-shocked to notice improving fundamentals.

Evidence of the high degree of skepticism can be found in a Forbes article published on Aug. 8, when LifePoint issued a positive earnings report and raised guidance. The article focused on declining admissions and fears that a sinking

...