BUSINESS
By Russel Kinnel and Russel Kinnel,MORNINGSTAR.COM | October 7, 2001
In financial crises, the old ways are the best. Managers who know a company's balance sheet, understand management and have good contacts at their companies can be confident enough to step in and buy oversold companies. Those focused on whether a company will meet next quarter's expectations, though, may be at a loss. Quantitative funds can also run into trouble. The reason is that markets and investors are processing the latest news faster than a computer. Some quantitative funds look for companies that analysts are predicting will grow their earnings at a faster rate than the previous quarter.
BUSINESS
December 15, 2007
Citigroup Inc. Shares fell 31 cents, or 0.99 percent, to $30.70 as the financial giant agreed to place troubled "structured" investments with a face value of more than $60 billion on its balance sheet.
BUSINESS
By Bloomberg News | September 30, 2006
NORWALK, Conn. -- U.S. accounting rule makers adopted a standard yesterday that will force companies to disclose the future costs of retirement benefits on their balance sheets, wiping out billions of dollars in net worth. The Financial Accounting Standards Board's rule will increase balance-sheet liabilities of the largest U.S. companies by $466 billion, reducing their net worth by 7 percent, according to estimates by Howard Silverblatt, an analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York. "This standard will substantially improve the clarity, completeness, timeliness and usefulness of financial reporting for investors and all others who rely on this information in financial statements to make financial decisions," said Rebecca McEnally, director of capital markets at the CFA Centre for Financial Market Integrity, an advocacy group affiliated with the CFA Institute in Charlottesville, Va. CFA is the designation for certified financial analyst.
BUSINESS
By Opions on stocks offered by investment experts.Compiled by Steve halpern for Knight Ridder | June 5, 1991
Abbott Labs"Abbott Labs (ABT, NYSE, around $50) derives 60 percent of operating profits from pharmaceutical and nutritional products, with the remainder coming from hospital and laboratory supplies.Both divisions have double-digit sales and earnings momentum," says Dow Theory Forecasts of Hammond, Ind., "but the March-quarter performance in pharmaceuticals was outstanding."Drug sales jumped about 40 percent . . . Earnings growth should accelerate over the next three years."Jan Bell Marketing"Jan Bell Marketing (JMB, AMEX, around $12)
NEWS
September 13, 2011
It's become rather in vogue these days to throw 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes under the bus for "cluelessly" suggesting that fiscal stimulus is a good countermeasure to recessions and depressions. Problem is, we're blaming Keynes for stimulus not working on our current balance sheet recession - where previously high levels of borrowing to buy "malinvestments" that will never pay for themselves has left us somewhat broke - when all Keynes ever claimed was that stimulus was appropriate during a business cycle recession.
BUSINESS
By Gus G. Sentementes, The Baltimore Sun | September 17, 2012
KEYW Corp., a Hanover-based defense contractor that offers cybersecurity and counterterrorism solutions to government agencies, said Monday that it will sell 6.5 million shares of stock in a new public offering to raise money to pay down debt and complete a recently announced company acquisition. The publicly traded company said last week that it intended to acquire Poole & Associates Inc., of Annapolis Junction, for $126 million in cash and stock. The company last week also announced the acquisition of Sensage Inc., of Redwood City, Calif., for nearly $35 million in cash and stock.