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Saint Louis based Monsanto (MON), a leading seed company, announced a strong second quarter profit. In fact, the earnings release showed profit more than doubled from the previous year’s second quarter. The news was inspiring to stock trading and many investors added the company to their trading portfolio. Some analysts noted the company’s 2008 earnings forecast in their lists of stock warning signs.

Monsanto earned $1.13 billion during the quarter which ended February 29, or $2.02 per share. This was up from $543 million or 98 cents per share from the previous year’s second quarter. A strong 45% surge in revenue, from $2.6 billion to $3.8 billion was a big contributor to the company’s growth. Corn seed, one of the company’s leading products, saw $1.7 billion in quarter revenue, up from $1.2 billion the year before. [more…]

Houston based Atwood Oceanics (ATW) announced a strong gain in second quarter profit and revenue. The offshore oil field service provider said its profits jumped 32 percent during the quarter ending March 31, while its revenue spiked 20 percent.

Net income for the quarter was $41.8 million, or $1.30 per share. During the same quarter in 2007, the company earned $31.8 million, or $1.01 per share. Revenue rose to $113.5 million, from $94.3 million during the second quarter last year. These are all strong numbers that are certainly please to investors holding the company in their trading portfolio or personal stock portfolio. [more…]

You may have come across the term FRO recently while visiting your brokerage account or reading any recent financial newsletters. FRO’s are ‘Fixed Return Options’, a new form of derivative trading vehicle that share various similarities to standard stock options, but also have distinctive differences. [more…]

MasterCard (MA) reported a huge boost in profits and revenue during its first quarter earnings announcement. The company seemingly scoffed at the notion of a credit crunch. Net income for the quarter ended March 31 was $446.9, or $3.38 per share. The incredible earnings report was a big driver of stock trading shortly following the announcement.

During the same quarter last year, MasterCard earned $214.9 million, or $1.57 per share. Revenue grew an incredible 29.2 percent for the quarter showing a strong increase in business demand for the company’s credit products. Revenue for the 2008 first quarter was $1.18 billion. Last year’s first quarter saw revenue of $915.1 million. [more…]

Gartner Incorporated (IT), a Connecticut based information technology research company, said its first quarter profit more than doubled. The company communicated that its impressive earnings growth was due largely to greater contract revenue. This is likely to motivate stock trading as the growth is attributed directly to the company’s business operations.

The company said its net income reached $21.5 million, or 21 cents per share, for its quarter, which ended on March 31. During last year’s first quarter, the company netted $8.2 million, or 8 cents per share. This means that the company increased its profit more the double, which definitely emboldens investors maintain Gartner in the trading portfolio as part of a long-term stock trading strategy. [more…]

Kaiser Aluminum (KALU) announced that its first quarter profit more than doubled. For the first quarter, which ended March 31, the company said its net earnings were $39.1 million, which amounts to $1.92 per share. During the same quarter a year ago, the company earned $17.1 million, or $0.85 per share. This was huge growth for the company and likely appeals to long-term stock trading strategies.

The note that should have really inspired stock trading, however, was the fact that analysts had only expected $1.06 in earnings per share for the company. Kaiser said it soundly beat estimates because of gains from hedging of investments. Revenue for the company climbed to $399 million, from $392.2 million. Analysts had expected revenue to come in at $378.6 million. [more…]

A common stock trading technique is to buy a stock or call option when a stock is at a support position and/or to short a stock or buy a put option when a stock is at a resistance point and exiting the position based on some criteria like percent profit, etc. Generally for this trading strategy, it is desirable to find a stock that is in a trading range or channeling, i.e. transitioning or oscillating between the stock’s support and resistance points.

One way to find or search for channeling stocks is to use Bollinger Bands. A Bollinger Band is a statistical calculation representing a number of standard deviations away from the mean or average stock price. A typical Bollinger Band is calculated using an average stock price based on a 20 day moving average and upper and lower Bollinger Bands calculated based on two standard deviations away from the mean. [more…]

Exxon Mobil (XOM) announced a first quarter profit growth of 17 percent in spite of the fact the company said it was not aided by higher gas prices. The world’s second largest publicly traded oil company earned $10.9 billion during its first quarter. This is the second largest quarterly profit ever reported by a US company, which obviously attracts attention from the stock trading markets. The all-time high was Exxon’s $11.7 billion earnings from the fourth quarter of 2007.

Exxon and other major oil companies have been targeted by government officials and consumer watch groups who say it is not fair for oil companies to experience record profits while consumers are seeing record prices at the pump. Exxon said it has not really benefited from high consumer prices because the company itself relies on purchasing highly priced crude oil from other markets. [more…]

Verizon Communications (VZ) announced a first quarter profit rise of 9.8 percent during its first quarter of 2008, compared to the same quarter last year. This amounted to earnings of $1.64 billion for the period that ended March 31. The company credited a gain of 1.5 million new wireless subscribers with much of the impact on profit. The strong earnings gave the company’s stock help.

The company’s earnings amounted to 57 cents per share. Last year’s first quarter saw earnings of $1.5 billion, or 51 cents per share. After excluding items, earnings per share were 61 cents, which equaled analyst expectations. Some long-term stock trading strategies rely on meeting or exceeding analysts estimates in order for the trader to feel secure with the stock in their trading portfolio. [more…]

Fast food giant McDonald’s (MCD) announced a 24% jump in first quarter profits for its January through March quarter. The company is one of several international businesses that have benefited from geographic diversity and the weak dollar, in light of US economic challenges.

The company, based on Oakbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, said it earned $946.1 million during the quarter, which amounts to 81 cents per share. This was a sharp jump from last year’s first quarter that saw $762.4 million, or 62 cents per share. It really inspired stock trading, however, by increasing revenues to $5.6 billion. This six percent revenue growth easily topped analyst estimates, which always leads to traders grabbing a stock for their trading portfolio. [more…]