Facebook unveils a new look for its popular “newsfeed”, the latest move by the Web company to revamp key elements of its popular social network. Facebook will showcase the newsfeed makeover at a media event on Thursday at its California headquarters, the second high-profile product event this year, following the rollout of its social search feature in January. With the earnings season behind them, executives begin to travel to conferences to talk about the future with investors and analysts. Health care companies including Cardinal Health, Celgene and Eli Lilly, are expected to speak at the Cowen Health Care Conference, which…
Author: Sean Campbell
On Feb. 28, National Grid announced it has accepted U.K. regulators’ proposal for natural gas distribution and gas and electricity transmission rate structures for 2013-21. Regulators will issue a final ruling in the coming weeks in line with the agreed-to proposal. ADR shares after incorporating the final plan terms. The proposal implies an 80% increase in National Grid’s U. K. regulatory asset base through 2021 to near GBP 40 billion. Combined with its U.S. utilities, this likely would make National Grid one of the largest utilities in the world. Our projections through the first half of the RIIO period are…
TE Connectivity began fiscal 2013 with tepid first quarter sales and profitability that were in line with expectations and company guidance. TE generated $3.18 billion of sales during the first quarter, at the low end of its November outlook of $3.15 billion-$3.25 billion and about a 1% decline from the year-ago quarter. TE began 2013 by shuffling its corporate structure and creating a new reporting segment, consumer solutions, which is made up of the consumer device and appliance products that were pulled from the communications and industrial solutions segment. Each of the other three segments–transportation solutions, industrial solutions, and network…
Accenture reported first-quarter results that were in line with expectations. First-quarter revenue grew 5% year over year on a constant currency basis to $7.22 billion. The outsourcing business had another strong quarter, which helped shore up the firm’s overall performance. The consulting business continued its recent struggle, reporting flat year-over-year growth on a constant currency basis. Over the past three quarters, consulting growth languished at low-single-digit levels, and management’s comments indicate that this trend is likely to persist in the short term. However, given this segment’s strong bookings, we believe growth is likely to bounce back in the second half…
ASM Lithography reported fourth-quarter results that were within analysts range of expectations, but provided a softer-than-expected outlook for the first quarter. For the quarter, revenue was EUR 1.02 billion, down 17% sequentially, and a decline from sales of EUR 1.21 billion in the year-ago quarter. Orders came in at EUR 667 million, down from EUR 831 million in the third quarter. ASM’s order numbers do not consider bookings for next-generation extreme ultra-violet, or EUV, tools, which the firm has been working on to commercialize. The firm has also periodically received some orders for preproduction versions of the tools. Overall, ASM…
BMW continued its winning ways with record volume, consolidated revenue, and consolidated earnings for the third quarter, reporting earnings per share of EUR 1.95, EUR 0.24 higher than the consensus. Given the progress made during the first nine months of the year, the company will likely come in at the top end of its 2012 target of 8%-10% EBIT in the automotive segment. The achievement is even more outstanding considering the economic conditions in Europe and the fact that the 2012 target was set in 2007 with the initiation of the company’s Number ONE strategy. The Street has already recognized…