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Top Performer for Thurs: Big 5 Sporting Goods (BGFV) – Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers

James Giaquinto — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation (BGFV) announced a big third-quarter report earlier this week that has led to increased earnings estimates in the past several days.

The sporting goods retailer also set down a fourth-quarter earnings guidance above the Zacks Consensus Estimate, which has also taken a turn higher lately.

Today, shares of Big 5 are up approximately 10%, making it a top-performing Zacks #1 Rank stock. Volume at around 165,000 shares is above the daily average at 153,000.

As of its quarterly report on Nov 3, Big 5 operated 382 stores in 11 states, providing a product mix that includes athletic shoes, apparel and accessories, outdoor and athletic equipment for team sports, fitness, camping, hunting, fishing, tennis, golf, snowboarding and in-line skating.

Out of 230 stocks on today's Zacks #1 Rank List, Big 5 is one of only 2 companies from the retail-miscellaneous/diversified list. The other name is Steiner Leisure Ltd. (STNR).

Earnings Estimates on the Rise

In the past 7 days, three of the 13 covering analysts for Big 5 have revised their estimates higher for this year. As a result, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has advanced 3.3% in the past week to 94 cents. Going a little further back, that guidance is up 6.8% from 2 months ago.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for next year is at $1.10 per share, which corresponds to year-over-year growth of about 17%. This outlook has increased 1.9% in 7 days and 5.8% in 2 months. The past week has seen 2 of 11 covering analysts offering a boost.

Third-Quarter Report

Big 5 earned 37 cents per share in its third quarter, compared to 21 cents a year earlier. The Zacks Consensus Estimate called for a profit of 33 cents, marking a surprise of more than 12%.

The company has been on a pretty good roll of beating quarterly earnings expectations. It has put together an average surprise of nearly 50% over the past 4 quarters.

Net sales increased 4% to $231.6 million for Big 5, compared to $223.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Same-store sales were up 1.6%.

Contributing factors to the strong report include:

Lowering inventory levels on a per-store basis by about 8% at the end of the quarter
Generating operating cash flow of $47.4 million in the first 9 months of the year
Further reducing debt levels to $60 million of long-term debt at the end of the quarter, compared to $100 million last year.

What About the Fourth Quarter?

"We are encouraged that the positive sales trends we experienced during the third quarter have continued, and actually improved, thus far in the fourth quarter," said Big 5 Chairman/President/CEO Steven G. Miller.

Big 5 expects fourth-quarter earnings per share between 28 cents and 38 cents, which was above the Zacks Consensus Estimate at the time of the report of 25 cents. Much like the annual estimates, that outlook has improved in the past 7 days and now rests at 31 cents, a 24% rise.

Big 5 also expects same-store sales in the positive low to low-mid-single digit range.

Zacks Investment Research

Muscle Flex(R) to Join the Official Latin GRAMMY(R) Awards Talent Gift Lounge November 3-5 in Las Vegas to Showcase Its Muscle Flex VATA Brasil(TM) Sports Active Wear Collection to Coincide With the Release of the BUDDY Tablet CADDY(TM) and Beagle StepFit(TM) Commercial Launches

Stuart T. Smith — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:14:35 +0000

LOS ANGELES, CA — (Marketwire) — 10/06/09 — Muscle Flex Inc. (PINKSHEETS: MFLI) announced today that it will participate in the official Backstage Talent Gift Lounge at the 10th Annual Latin GRAMMY(R) Awards where it will showcase its Muscle Flex VATA Brasil(TM) Sports & Active Wear Collection. The Latin GRAMMYs are being held at the [...]

COV, PWRM, MSFT, CSRH, NKE, CVAT, ABT, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:36:27 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday September 30, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! COV, PWRM, MSFT, CSRH, NKE, CVAT, ABT ************************************************************** COV, Covidien plc COV engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of healthcare products for use in clinical and home settings worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Medical Devices, Imaging Solutions, Pharmaceutical Products, [...]

Andre Agassi Foundation Includes Muscle Flex, Inc.’s (MFLI.PK) VATA Brasil(TM) Sports Active Wear Line in the Distinctive Assets “Andre Agassi’s 14th Annual Grand Slam for Children” Gift Basket

QualityStocks — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:33:25 +0000

Muscle Flex, Inc. announced earlier this morning that its Muscle Flex VATA Brasil Sports & Active Wear Line will be included in the “Andre Agassi’s 14th Annual Grand Slam for Children” Gift Basket by Lash Fary and Distinctive Assets. Hosted by tennis legend and philanthropist Andre Agassi and presented by Genworth Financial, the 2009 Grand [...]

BestOTC.com Announces Daily Stock Watch – CSRH, DKS, ELY

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:41:28 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick.com Report! DrStockPick News Report! BestOTC.com Announces Daily Stock Watch - CSRH, DKS, ELY DrStockPick.com Report! Friday September 11, 2009 ********************************************************** Best OTC Announces Daily Stock Watch - CSRH, DKS, ELY Las Vegas, NV - (WORLD STOCK WIRE via CRWENEWSWIRE) - September 11, 2009 — Best OTC tracks stocks daily and is pleased to offer its hot stock [...]

August 31st CEOcast Weekly Newsletter

QualityStocks — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:26:55 +0000

Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: CVM, ICLK, IMUC, ITUI, IWEB, MBCI, NXOI, OMCM, ONEZ, PHC, SRCO, SVUL, XCR Markets closed moderately higher yet again this week, as mostly better than expected economic data helped stave off profit taking to leave most indices in positive territory on the week. All told, the Dow [...]

August 31st CEOcast Weekly Newsletter

QualityStocks — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:26:55 +0000

Pointing a Finger at the Rich

Bill Bonner — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:30:16 +0000

pPity the poor rich! Pity the poor! Pity us all! /p pHere at the a href="http://www.dailyreckoning.com" class="alinks_links"Daily Reckoning/a, we always take the part of the humble#8230; the despised#8230; the oppressed#8230; and the misbegotten./p pToday, that means the rich#8230;/p pYes, dear reader, the rich are getting beaten up. Maligned. Mistreated./p pTheir governments all have in it for them#8230; taxes on ‘the rich’ are rising. In the US, the strongDemocrats are talking about financing the entire nation’s health care system on the backs of the super-rich/strong./p pAnd their salaries are being targeted by prosecutors and politicians. No more million-dollar paydays#8230; not with the feds looking over their shoulders. Oh#8230; and their investment earnings are down too. The dividend yield on the stock market is scarcely 3% #8212; try living#8230;/p

The Long and the Short of it All

Bullish Bankers — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:34:12 +0000

We are presenting a list of companies which we believe are currently mispriced, based on our estimate of fair value, by the market. We develop our fair value ranges by projected free cash flow out one year and estimating an appropriate FCF multiple based on our assessment of risk and the strength of the balance sheet.

The Feds Keep Spending Alive

Bill Bonner — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:50:18 +0000

pWhat a wonderful time to be alive! Never has it been easier to feel superior to our fellow man! So many dopey ideas…so many preposterous delusions! So many fools…so eager to part ways with their money!/p pWe have to pinch ourselves occasionally…and remind ourselves that it is real./p pYes, after the real estate bubble burst, we thought the fun might be over. But no! In come the feds. As you know, what brought about the housing bubble was a sort of madness that caused people to do the damnedest things with their money. But now, the feds are doing even stranger and crazier things!/p pActually, we were happy to see the bubble blow up. Spending more than you make is hardly a formula#8230;/p

Basketball Stocks: and Why a Warren Buffett Company is Included

Fred Fuld — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 08:27:00 +0000

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SVXq_Wn9ZRI/AAAAAAAAAms/2Hy4p_jyDYw/s1600-h/Basketball.png"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SVXq_Wn9ZRI/AAAAAAAAAms/2Hy4p_jyDYw/s320/Basketball.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284388111914984722" //abr /At last night's Lakers versus the Celtics basketball game, tickets supposedly went for $20,000 each from the scalpers. Basketball, in addition to being a great aerobic sport for participants, a great spectator sport for fans, and is big business. The following companies are involved the sport of basketball in some way, some just a small portion of their business.br /br /Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) Their Madison Square Garden division owns and operates the New York Knickerbockers basketball team; they also own the Madison Square Garden Arena, the New York Rangers hockey team, the New York Liberty women's basketball team, and the Hartford Wolf Pack hockey team. The stock has a PE of 45, a PEG of 5.62, and a yield of 2.7%. br /br /Comcast (CMCSA) The company owns Comcast-Spectacor, which owns the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, along with the the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, and the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League. The stock has a PE of 17, a PEG of 1.49, and a yield of 1.6%. br /br /Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. (DKS) markets basketballs and basketball equipment and apparel, along with all other types of sports equipment and sportswear. The stock has a PE of 11, and a PEG of 0.66. br /br /Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) Warren Buffet's company owns Russell Corporation, which owns Spalding, a leading producer of basketballs, and has been the official ball supplier to the NBA since 1983. The stock has a PE of 18. br /br /Amer Sports Oyj (AGPDY.PK) the largest manufacturer of sporting equipment in the world, owns the Wilson Sporting Goods Company, manufacturer of the official ball of all NCAA postseason tournaments. br /br /Nike (NKE) produces balls for ULEB, including the Euroleague and is used in the NCAA and UAAP in the Philippines. The stock has a PE of 13, a PEG of 1.01, and a yield of 2%. br /br /United States Basketball League Inc. (USBL.OB) is a Connecticut company that manages and franchises a professional basketball league in the United States. This is a very low market cap stock and should therefore be considered very speculative.br /br /American Basketball Association, Inc. (ABKB.PK) operates a professional basketball league in the United States, along with selling league-related merchandise and products. This is a very low market cap stock and should therefore be considered very speculative.br /br /If you like sports stocks, you should also check out a href="http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-invest-in-soccer-stocks.html"Soccer/a, a href="http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/racecar-motorsports-stocks-worth-doing.html"Racecar Motorsports/a, a href="http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/taking-swing-at-golf-stocks.html"Golf/a, a href="http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/hockey-stocks-in-summer.html"Hockey/a, and a href="http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/take-swing-at-tennis-stocks-and-why.html"Tennis/a.br /br /span style="font-style:italic;"Author has owned USBL.OB for a long time. No recommendation expressed or implied./spanbr /br /By a href="http://Stockerblog.com"Stockerblog.com/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"div class='adsense' style='text-align:center; padding: 0px 3px 0.5em 3px;' script type="text/javascript"!-- google_ad_client="ca-pub-2427831169011625"; google_ad_width=300; google_ad_height=250; google_ad_format="300x250_as"; google_ad_type="text"; google_ad_channel ="8681602088"; google_color_border="FFF3DB"; google_color_bg="FFF3DB"; google_color_link="1B0431"; google_color_url="1B0431"; google_color_text="29303B"; //--/script script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" /script /div

Mortgage Manipulation, Bond Market Truth, Are Stocks Cheap? And More!

Contrarian Profits — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:55:32 +0000

pGovernment mulls mortgage price-control plan… who needs the free market anyway? a href="http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/author/dan-denning/" class="alinks_links"Dan Denning/a on the true meaning behind the recent bull market in bonds. Stocks rally on Beige Book release… did the Fed send us the wrong copy? Bill Gross on stock evaluation for the Brave New World of tomorrow. Byron King with anecdotal evidence that oil is well oversold./p p class="BodyCopy" align="left" /pp class="BodyCopy" align="left" The vomit approach continues at the Treasury. This time their throwing up historically low mortgages on the wall… just to see if they stick. strongThe U.S. Treasury is considering a proposal to offer new mortgages at 4.5% through Fannie Mae (NYSE:a href="http://finance.google.com/finance?q=FNM"FNM/a) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:a href="http://finance.google.com/finance?q=FRE"FRE/a). /strong That’s a point and a half lower than the silly “free market” says it should be./p p class="BodyCopy" align="left" strongShould this#8230;/strong/p

Performance Health Technologies, Inc. (PFMH.OB) is a Company on the Rise

QualityStocks — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:11:05 +0000

Performance Health Technologies, Inc. is a New Jersey based company that develops and markets performance evaluation and rehabilitation products that monitor and guide exercise and give real-time motivational feedback. With an array of talented members on the Performance team, the young company’s products have been tested, accepted, and endorsed by leaders in the medical, [...]

The Masquerade is Over

Bill Bonner — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:00:36 +0000

The masks are coming off. It’s the end of the party, now we get to see what people really look like. And it’s not a pretty sight.

You’ll recall that one of the fairest of the Bubble Era’s revelers was the idea that, over the long run, you would make money in stocks. All you had to do was ‘buy and hold.’ Who didn’t like her? She seemed so easy…so willing…so fetching and attractive.

Yesterday, the Dow lost another 203 points. Investors are down 44% so far this year. Worldwide, they’ve lost $10 trillion this month - far worse than the crash of ‘29.

The most successful economy of the 20th century was the United States of America. The second was probably Japan.…

Devil’s Dictionary for Financial Markets

Prieur du Plessis — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:29:21 +0000

There is nothing like a good dose of humor to cheer one up from the otherwise depressing economic situation. The honors go to Norgate Investor Services who compiled the amusing Devil’s Dictionary for Financial Markets, the A to Z of satirical investm...

Finally A Friday

Roger Nusbaum — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:20:00 +0000

I don't know about you but I am enjoying the Olympics, well most of it anyway. I'm not a fan of tennis as an Olympic sport because we can see tennis anytime we want as opposed to something like water polo.

Occasionally I get an email touting some sort of small cap stock or more correctly a micro cap stock. I don't write about these for several reasons and I am not about to start now but I had an interesting observation with an email of this ilk that I received yesterday.

Being as vague as humanly possible, the company in question apparently has access and rights to some sort of as yet untapped oil field in a country that is not known for oil production. The idea being that if the oil discovery pans out the company stands to make a lot of money and so the stock should go up a bazillian percent.

I don't know if any of it is true, that is not the point. If there is oil in this country that could become a bit of a game changer for the country in question down the road when, or more likely if, crude starts to flow.

The point is that while the stock being touted in the email is of no use to me some of the news being used as a catalyst is of use. If the whole thing is bogus, so what, this is something that may happen, I know about it and if it does happen then fine. There is no reason to not read a tout you might learn something. Investing in a tout is a different story and hopefully the distinction made here is clear.

IndexUniverse has an article up about TIPS and the corresponding ETFs that capture the space. The article questioned the utility of TIPS relative to other segments of the bond market and also questioned how CPI is calculated. The calculation of CPI does have real problems and I wouldn't suggest going real heavy in any segment of the bond market but the article overlooked (or at least I did not see this) an important piece of information about TIP's payout.

The article correctly notes that the 30 day SEC yield is 1.36% but there is more to the story.

The table is from ETFconnect. The monthly payout has gone up considerably in the last months. The reason for this is that the fund pays out, as part of the fund's dividend, what would be the par value adjustment for the individual issues. I verified this on the phone with them a couple of weeks ago for a TSCM article.

The average monthly payout over the last three months has been $0.8288. TIP closed yesterday at $105.82 giving the fund a 7.8% yield. Pretty good eh?

Well it is pretty good but thinking 7.8% is exactly the wrong way to look at this. The dividend is never the same two months in a row. It has gone up lately because CPI, flawed and understated though it may be, has been going up.

The yield on just about every bond ETF I have ever looked at is a moving target but I think, I say I think, it can remain on the high side for a while as CPI seems destined to stay elevated for a while. The fund is $7 off of its high and seems like it has correlated fairly closely to iShares Lehman 7-10Yr Treasury Bond Fund (IEF) for most of the last couple of years.

This is not a suggestion that anyone buy TIP, which I own for clients, but to realize that although the fund is not perfect it does have quite a bit of utility. If you are going to use ETFs I think it is important to realize that there are drawbacks with all of these funds, hopefully you weigh both the positives and the negatives before diving in.

China Tech Strikes Olympic Gold!

Tony Sagami — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:57:02 +0000

About 840 million people from around the globe tuned in to watch the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, making it the most watched sporting event in history. I hope you were one of them because it was an amazing $300 million spectacle that condensed 5,000 years of Chinese history into the [...]