Q2 2009 Earnings Call

July 17, 2009 9:00 am ET

Campbell Soup Company (CPB) will further build the Chunky Soups brand with a comprehensive series of enhancements. The soups are expected to feature "better for you" credentials in 24 varieties made with lean meat and 30 items containing a full serving of vegetables.

Further, in the health and wellness category, the company’s iconic Tomato soup will have a significant reduction in sodium by 32% to 480 mg per serving, continuing the same taste. Also, management intends to reposition Healthy Request soups in the heart health space by further reducing the sodium levels to 410 mg per serving and featuring the American Heart Association certification on a redesigned label. Both products are expected to roll out in September.

Hasbro

Guidance

Analysts are looking for a profit of 23c on revenue of $797.08M. The consensus range is 19c-26c for EPS, and revenue of $725M-$825M, according to First Call.

Q2 2009 Earnings Call

July 17, 2009 8:30 am ET

Recall, if you will, that amid much gnashing of teeth, the government prevailed upon the bankruptcy courts to permit GM and Chrysler to unilaterally void hundreds of dealer franchise agreements. The argument in favor of this move, though never so far as I have seen backed up by any solid data, was that this was a vital piece of the plan for the two to emerge from bankruptcy in fighting trim.

The 2009 CIT backup documents showed "retail" at only 7% of the portfolio.

Short sellers may have been on to this trend before the story was out as the short base (as measured by Percent Shares Outstanding on Loan) for both stocks has increased . The short base (as measured by Percent Shares Outstanding on Loan) for RGR hit a new 52 week high of 16.83% on July 10th - up over 830% since mid April. SWHC has seen a sharp jump of 413% to 10.6% since June 19th when the short base was at a 52 week low.

Wal-Mart (WMT) plans to ask all of its more than 100,000 suppliers to show how sustainable they are. Helping them prove it could become a big business.

But, even as we are in the low point of this recession, seemingly making some progress, we see that this is an opportunity to get into a position that will see a light at the end of the dark jobless tunnel.

Q1 sales (April-June): down 7.5% reported and down 14% organic. No guidance given for the year.

Management at the credit card giant said that it is highly likely that the writeoff rate in the next two quarters will be lower than previously forecasted assuming delinquency and bankruptcy trends continue to decline.

Today, it is ‘cheap Chinese knockoffs’ that are the common refrain if one thinks of Chinese products in America. But perception lags reality because this is changing…drastically. In fact, when it comes to patents and copyright, the Chinese are now suing the Americans in order to enforce Chinese companies’ intellectual property. It is the Americans who are selling the knockoffs and the Chinese who own the legal rights they are trying to protect. Wal-Mart (WMT) and Best Buy (BBY) have gotten caught up in the fray.

Whenever it happens, a recovery is likely to be sporadic and uneven. Industries that have held up over the last 18 months, like healthcare, education, pharmaceuticals, energy, telecom, and some high-tech sectors, should remain stable places to work. A few industries that have been battered during the recession may actually be poised for a bit of growth, since failed companies and consolidation have left openings that healthy companies can exploit. Some smaller regional banks, for instance, could nab credit-card business from wounded giants like Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC). And while billions in government bailouts once signaled the fragility of the financial and insurance industries, they've also helped contain the damage, which could bring back some jobs over the next couple of years.

Q2 2009 Earnings Call

July 16, 2009 5:00 pm ET

In my work, I focus on consumer technology (e.g. wireless, computers, printers, handsets, etc.), so in order to “write what I know” I looked at clickstream data from December 2007 and 2008 to gauge the trends in holiday shopping activity online. I then compared June data for 2007-2009 to get a read on where we’re headed so far this year.

US retail and food services sales for June 2009 continued the positive trajectory they began in May, rising 0.6% last month, according to advance estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Retailer Daily reports.

Q2 2009 Earnings Call

July 16, 2009 10:00 am ET

Q2 2009 Earnings Call

July 16, 2009 9:00 am ET

Q1 sales down 4% underlying, up 8% on a reported basis.