PowerOptions WeBlog

Blue Coat Systems (BCSI), WAN optimization software supplier based in Sunnyvale announced huge profits and revenue for its fiscal third quarter, ended December 31, 2007. The company’s sales jumped an incredible 73%, from $47.1 million during last year’s third quarter, to $81.4 million in this year’s third quarter.
The remarkably strong sales performance helped take the [...]

Plano, Texas based JC Penney (JCP) announced a fourth quarter profit drop of 10% from the previous year’s fourth quarter, largely based on lower spending from its predominantly middle-class customer base. In addition to the fourth quarter loss, the company, like many retailers, said it’s cautious about earnings possibilities for 2008.
During its late ending fiscal [...]

Counter to recent developments in the retail environment, Framingham, Massachusetts based off-price retailer TJX (TJX) saw a huge spike in its fourth quarter profits. The company, which operates such retail brands as TJ Maxx and Marshalls, says improvements in inventory management, cost controls, and marketing helped lead to the strong showing.
The surprisingly strong report gave [...]

SanDisk Corporation (SNDK), a Milpitas, California based company saw a huge fourth quarter profit boost. The company reported an income of $105.81 million for the fourth quarter, which amounts to 45 cents per share. The news was especially good for SanDisk who experienced a $35.14 million, 17 cents per share, loss during the fourth quarter [...]

The US Government and Central Bank are doing everything they can to help reduce the economic impact of a pending recession. Congress recently passed a $168 economic stimulus package consistently mostly of tax rebates to millions of Americans. The Fed has been cutting interest rates at lightening speed.
In spite of recession concerns, floundering consumer confidence, [...]

Occidental Petroleum (OXY) reported a very strong fourth quarter showing thanks in large part to $1.2 billion gain in gas and oil profit. Fourth quarter profit climbed 56% overall for the huge Los Angeles based oil company sparking some volatile stock trading recently.
A leading contributor to the company’s success is its Dolphin project. The project [...]

It was a mixed bag for EMC Corporation (EMC) during its fourth quarter earnings announcement. The company boasted a 35% jump in fourth quarter profit from the previous year, thanks to widespread revenue growth. The company did warn that 2008 earnings would likely be below current analyst targets.
EMC is a leading data storage vendor. Net [...]

As the US nears a potential recession, many consumer markets have seen dwindling demand. Leading printer maker Lexmark International (LXK) has certainly not been unaffected by the market struggles. The Kentucky based company saw sales decline during the fourth quarter. Despite the sales drop. The company did manage to post a 10% growth in profits, [...]

Specialty materials maker, Rohm & Haas Company (ROH) inspired stock buyers with surprisingly positive fourth quarter earnings news. The Philadelphia based chemicals company credited much of its earnings successes to impressive performances by their electronic materials and chemical businesses.
Analysts had widely anticipated 78 cents per share earnings during the fourth quarter. Rohm & Haas easily [...]

Prowling bear:
A pesky bearish market has been prowling around as of late, and generally, covered call investing positions don’t fair too well in a bearish market. A method of covered call investing in bearish markets is to take a defensive strategy, i.e. selecting covered call positions for defensive stocks.