Priceline.com Trades Higher on Q1 Earnings Results (PCLN)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 5:10 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Shares of Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN) are trading higher in the after-hours following the release of its Q1 earnings results. Currently, shares are up 2.74%, trading at $548.60; they closed the regular session down 0.67 %, at $533.97.
The company said that its Q1 EPS came in at $2.66 on revenues of $809.3 million; this compares to the Street’s estimate of $2.46 per share on revenues of $779.5 million. Revenues rose 38.6% year over year.
“In the 1st quarter, the Group benefited from strong growth in our global hotel business, particularly at Booking.com and Agoda,” said Jeffery H. Boyd, Priceline President and Chief Executive Officer.
He added, “Room nights booked grew by 55.8% and our international gross bookings grew by 79% compared to prior year first quarter. The Group’s hotel business continues to benefit from improving ADRs, a continuing shift from offline to online bookings, increased penetration of core European and North American markets and outstanding growth in new markets throughout the Asia-Pacific region and South America.”
Priceline.com Incorporated is a global online travel company that offers its customers a range of travel services, including the opportunity to purchase hotel room reservations, car rentals, airline tickets, vacation packages, cruises and destination services in a price-disclosed manner.
It also offers its Name Your Own Price service that helps its customers to use the Internet to save money by allowing them to make offers for travel services at prices they set, while enabling sellers, which include many of the domestic hotel, airline and rental car companies, to generate revenue. It offers its customers hotel room reservations at over 150,000 hotels worldwide through the Booking.com, priceline.com and Agoda brands.
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Visa Trades Lower on Q2 Earnings Results (V)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:47 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) are trading lower in the after-hours following the release of its Q2 earnings results. Currently, shares are off 0.86%, trading at $78.02; they closed the regular session down 1.34%, at $78.70.
The company said that its Q2 EPS came in at $1.23 on revenues of $2.25 billion; this compares to the Street’s estimate of $1.20 per share on revenues of $2.23 billion. Revenues rose 14.6% year over year.
Visa management also reaffirmed its FY 2011 outlook, at net revenue growth of 11-15% (cons: +13.3%); EPS growth of +20% (cons: +21.2%) and Free cash flow of +$3 billion.
The company also authorized a $1 billion stock buyback.
The company “delivered a solid financial performance in our fiscal second quarter, with double-digit growth in payments volume, cross border volume and Visa-processed transactions from across the globe,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Joseph Saunders.
Visa Inc., incorporated in May 2007, is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, banks and governments in more than 200 countries and territories, enabling them to use digital currency instead of cash and checks.
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Demand For Demand Media As Company Blows Out Expectations (DMD)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:41 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Demand Media Inc (NYSE: DMD) shares are soaring in after-hours trading, up more than 10% after the company reported better than expected earnings.
The company reported revenues of $79.5 million, up 48% from last year. Wall Street had been expecting $69.49 million in revenues. The company reported a loss of 13 cents per share.
“We reported better-than-expected results in Q1 2011, driven primarily by continued momentum from our owned and operated sites,” said Richard Rosenblatt, Chairman and CEO of Demand Media. “We also continued to invest in Demand Media’s long-term success, enhancing our consumer offerings through new partnerships with Rachael Ray, Tyra Banks and Getty Images. We believe our publishing platform is the most comprehensive and effective of any online publisher and our focus on delivering relevant, valuable content that makes consumers’ lives better will continue to drive our success.”
The company said it expects to have revenues in the second quarter of $73.5-$77.5 million, and full year revenues are projected to come in at $320-$330 million.
At last check, shares of Demand Media were up 12.8% in after-hours, a gain of $2.09 to $18.40.
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Ecolab Announces Plans to Repurchase 15 Million Shares (ECL)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:32 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) Announces Plans to Repurchase 15 Million Shares.
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California Pizza Kitchen Guides Full-Service Same-Store Sales +1% (CPKI)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:22 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
California Pizza Kitchen (NASDAQ: CPKI) Guides Full-Service Same-Store Sales +1%.
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Visa Beats Estimates, Shares Down In After Hours (V)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:14 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Visa (NYSE: V) reported earnings of $1.23 per share on revenues of $2.25 billion, versus Wall Street estimates of $1.20 per share on $2.23 billion in revenues.
The company guided full year earnings of EPS growth of 21% versus estimates of 21.2%, and revenues grew 11-15%, versus estimates of 13%.
The company also announce a new $1 billion buyback program.
“Visa delivered a solid financial performance in our fiscal second quarter with double-digit growth in payments volume, cross border volume and Visa-processed transactions from across the globe,” said Joseph Saunders, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visa Inc. “With a strong first half of our fiscal 2011 year behind us, we remain focused on driving continued transaction growth, maintaining strong financial performance and expense control discipline, and delivering value to our shareholders through share repurchase programs and dividend payments.”
“In addition to working with our financial institutions and merchant clients to expand card issuance and acceptance for our core products, we are investing in new platforms, channels and technologies that will deliver value to our clients and consumers for years to come,” continued Saunders. “The global adoption of mobile and internet technology presents an enormous opportunity for Visa to leverage our network and proven track record of delivering electronic payments worldwide.”
Shares of Visa lost $1.07 today to close at $78.70, a loss of 0.9%.
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Pricelne Blows Out Estimates (PCLN)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:07 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN) just reported first quarter earnings, and the online travel company blew out estimates.
It reported earnings of $2.66 per share on revenues of $809.3 million. Wall Street had been expecting earnings of $2.45 per share on $779.45 million.
The company said it expects second quarter earnings of $4.70 to $4.90 per share, versus Wall Street estimates of $4.40 per share.
“In the 1st quarter, the Group benefitted from strong growth in our global hotel business, particularly at Booking.com and Agoda,” said Jeffery H. Boyd, Priceline President and Chief Executive Officer. “Room nights booked grew by 55.8% and our international gross bookings grew by 79% compared to prior year first quarter. The Group’s hotel business continues to benefit from improving ADRs, a continuing shift from offline to online bookings, increased penetration of core European and North American markets and outstanding growth in new markets throughout the Asia-Pacific region and South America.”
Mr. Boyd continued, “The Group’s global rental car operations grew rental car days booked by 64.7% in the 1st quarter 2011 as compared to the prior year. A significant portion of this growth can be attributed to the Group’s acquisition of TravelJigsaw and its international car hire operations, which continues to grow at impressive rates. Priceline.com’s airline ticketing business returned to positive growth in the 1st quarter, with a 2.1% gain in ticket sales and improving growth in opaque ticket sales.”
Looking forward, Mr. Boyd said, “Globally, we intend to retain our focus on extending our reach in established and new geographic markets and providing an outstanding consumer experience to build the strength of our brands.”
Shares are down 2% in extended hours trading.
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Visa Guides FY 2011 EPS +21% vs. +21.2%; Net Revenues +11-15% vs. +13% (V)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:07 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Visa Guides FY 2011 EPS +21% vs. +21.2%; Net Revenues +11-15% vs. +13% (NYSE: V)
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Priceline Guides Q2 EPS $4.70-4.90 vs. $4.45 Est. (PCLN)
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:06 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) Guides Q2 EPS $4.70-4.90 vs. $4.45 Est.
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Summer Sequel Season Starts Early With Fears of ‘Flash Crash II’
by Insider Zone - May 5th, 2011 4:00 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga
Stocks and commodity markets are down huge today, one year after the so-called “flash crash” saw the Dow drop 900 points in a manner of minutes. The sell-off began in the commodity markets, with oil prices steadily dropping throughout the day. Oil prices closed below $100, a significant drop on the day.
Across the board, silver and gold values are melting before traders eyes, with gold closing down from $1516.40 to $1470.20 and silver down from $39.41 to $34.45 on the day.
The downturn comes nearly one year to the day of the massive, May 6 market crash, where investors suffered through the largest one-day decline in the history of the Dow Jones. The market quickly regained a large portion of its losses, but for a moment, the temporarily loss in market cap stood at roughly $1 trillion.
A series of changes came about after the market crash, designed to stop similar events from taking place in the future. These include everything from stock market circuit breakers — temporary halts to trading when stocks move rapidly in price — along with new rules marking erroneous or clearly damaging trades.
The question investors must ask themselves is whether or not the regulations, or even the regulators themselves, are performing their duties as intended. Are the limits on trades enough to reign in the so-called algorithmic traders who allegedly drove the market to the brink and back last year?
Some have suggested that the problem did not begin with last year’s flash crash, but rather, with the introduction of technology into the trading floor. While the academic community has not coalesced around one answer, it has been suggested that the precursors to these technologies either exacerbated or were the cause of the 1987 market crash, if not both.
It may well be worth watching after hours trading tonight and seeing how commodities and the Dow fare. If they rebound, this could be a small blip on the map. If they continue to sink and steamroll into tremendous losses, we may see the need for Congress and regulators to step up and come up with a new paradigm to limit the ability of computer traders to auto-trade the markets into oblivion.

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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
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