Sunday, January 17, 2010

1/17/10 Sun. IBM (Tues), BofA (Wed) & GE (Fri) Report Earnings; Kraft has until Tues to Raise Cad Offer

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Post #247 The following is brought to you by Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. Towards the end of this Blog is a list of the Dow 30 current CEOs, a ranking of the Dow 30 components by market capitalization as of 1/13/10 and an update of the Dow 30component's most recent SEC filings as of 1/13/10.

A read of Sunday's print editions of: The New York Times, & Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1/18/10 issues of Barron's, 1/25/10 issue of Bloomberg Business Week yielded the following stories about Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 component companies and the Dow with stories about the Dow aggregated first and then items about Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 companies presented alphabetically, followed by symbol and Friday's closing price and related data.

Dow: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Friday at 10,609.65 down 100.9 or 0.94% from Thursday's close of 10,710.55. For the year the Dow is up 1.74%. For the week the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 8.54 or .8% from last Friday's close of 10,618.19. Of the 30 Dow Companies: 3 gained and 27 declined. The biggest gainer dollar-wise and percentage-wise was Kraft KFT $29.58 +0.46 1.58% 25,823,517 NYSE. The biggest decliner dollar-wise and percentage-wise was Caterpillar CAT $60.12 -1.86 3% 9,335,536 NYSE.

Barron's p14 "Last Week" says equity markets reached 15 month highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average backsliding down 0.1% for the week.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses. The rotser of Dow Dogs for '10 looks quite strong, even if some of the names, GE and Pfizer for example, have struggled to recover their former magic. ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the list as is WalMart, Procter Gamble and Verizon and AT&T who appear to be navigating the transition form land lines to mobile telephony and other digital delivery systems. The fact that Warren Buffett holds 9% of Kraft is an indication of Kraft's undervaluation. Rounding out the Dow portfolio is McDonald's, a pre-eminent global brand.

(Sat.) WSJ pB1 "Blue Chips Fall 100.9, In the Worst Skid of '10" by Peter A. McKay says US stocks had their worst decline of the year on Fri. as the first week of earnings season failed to live up to investors' lofty expectations. J.P. Morgan Chase's results showed the firm's retail bank was still struggling, adding to evidence that the US consumer is still far from recovery. Chip maker Intel also failed to inspire investors with earnings and a forecast that exceeded forecasts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.0%, its biggest decline since Dec. 31 and down 0.8% for the week. JP Morgan's revenue disappointed and news of a loss at tis retail bank worried investors,. JPM dropped 2.3% leading a decline in financial stocks. Bank of America fell 3.3%. Next week brings a wave of reports as IBM, Citigroup and CSX release results Tues, while BofA, Morgan Stanley and Starbucks follow on Wed.

(Sat) WSJ pB3 "Intel, J.P.Morgan Turn Week Red" by Donna Kardos Yesalavich says stocks fell broadly despite earnings from Intel and J.P.Morgan Chase coming in above analysts' estimates, as weaker than expected re from J.P.Morgan weighed on fin'ls, while troubles on the consumer side of its business raised concerns across other sectors. Fri's drop put stocks in negative territory for the week, marking the second week of declines in the past 3. Bank of America was the Dow's worst performer on Fri. or 3.3% after J.P. Morgan's 4Q earnings quadrupled, exceeding forecasts, but its rev came in below analysts' estimates and the bank posted losses in its card services, consumer lending and retail financial services segments. Side bar charts J.P. Morgan Chase, Alcoa saying it plunged 11% Tues after kicking off the week with results that proved disappointing and Chevron saying Chevron gained one day after a broker lifted its rating to buy and then fell the next when its outlook fell short of expectations.

(Sat.) NYT pB7 "Dow Plunges 100 Points On JPMorgan's News" by Javier C. Hernandez says stock prices fell sharply on Fri., the worst day of trading this eyar, as worries over the strength of the American consumer eclipsed a round of mostly positive earnings reports.

(Sat.) Fin Times p14 "Financials keep gains in check despite Intel relief" by Samantha Pearson says disappointing results from JPMorgan Chase dragged Wall St. lower yesterday, renewing concerns about the remainder of the fourth quarter earnings season.

As of the close of the market Friday, the current divisor for the Dow found at page B4 of today's Wall St. Jrnl is .132319125 unchanged, the trailing P/E ratio is 17.79 down from Friday morning's 18.8 (year ago it was 18.54) the P/E estimate is 13.65 down from Friday's 13.75 (year ago it was 10.00) and the current dividend yield is 2.58 up from Friday's 2.55 (it was 3.80 a year ago).

Friday's Dow Jones Industrial Average closing numerator was 1,403.86 down 13.35 from Thursday's closing Dow numerator of 1417.21. This is the sum of all 30 closing prices. A short cut to the Dow numerator is to multiply the closing Dow by the Divisor. Now, if you divide the Dow numerator decrease of 13.35 for Friday by the divisor you get the decrease in Friday's Dow close of 100.9.

The average closing price (the closing numerator divided by 30) of Friday's Dow Jones Industrial Average was 46.80 down 0.44 from Thursday's Dow Jones Industrial Average closing price of $47.24. The median closing price of Friday's Dow Jones Industrial Average was 43.04 down 0.65 from Thursday's $43.69. The lowest volume again was 3M MMM $83.37 -0.13 0.16% 3,922,173 NYSE and the highest volume again was Bank of Am BAC $16.26 -0.56 3.33% 193,418,987 NYSE.

If Friday morning before the market opened you had purchased 100 shares of each of the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 shares (assuming you could buy fractional shares and assuming no transaction costs) and sold at the close you would have lost $1,410 ($141,810 - $140,400).

AT&T T $25.79 -0.40 1.53% 63,727,888 NYSE: Barron's pM3 "The Trader" by Vito J. Racanelli says stock prices feel 1% last week much of that coming Fri as the market revered course on the significance of Intel's 4Q profits. Meanwhile JPMorgan released 4Q profits that rose sharply but investors chose to fret about still rising loan losses and its stock dropped 2.3% on Fri.In just the past few weeks, shares of Verizon Communications have fallen 10%, most of that due to a couple of news items. In the first week of '10, CEO Ivan Seidenberg surprised markets when he said that '09's earnings per share would be down 13 to 15 cents from '0's 2.54 number, mostly on higher than expected pension costs. Then Fri, Verizon, not typically an industry price cut initiator, said it reduce prices of its Verizon Wireless unit, in which its owns a 55% stake with Vodaphone Group owning the rest. Verizon Wireless has shown good subscriber growth even without Apple's wildly popular iPhone, which is currently available only with AT&T service. When Verizon does get the iPhone if AT&T's exclusivity deal runs out later this year, Verizon's stock could rise.

Alcoa AA $15.63 -0.18 1.14% 33,221,996 NYSE: Barron's p14 "Last Week" says Intel posted a bank p quarter, with gross margins at a record while JPMorgan Chase's profits quadrupled. Alcoa tumbled, after it had a narrow loss.

Barron's pM16 charts Alcoa says kicking off the earnings season, Alcoa posted lower sales in the construction, aerospace, commercial bulding and gas turbine areas.

American Express AXP $42.39 -0.29 0.68% 13,560,460 NYSE: NYT p1 NYT Bus. p1 "Credit Cards And Reluctant Regulators" says the Fed. Reserve Board published its final rules on credit card practices last week, requiring new disclosures and banning some abusive practices that have been immensely lucrative for the banking industry. Article says firms such as Alliance Data Systems' whose yield comes from penalty fees will be more impacted by the Credit Card Act than an American Express that caters to higher end customers.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses.

Bank of America BAC
$16.26 -0.56 3.33% 193,418,987 NYSE: Barron's p15 "Preview" says on Wed. 1/20 Bank of America report quarterly reports.

Bus Wk p9 & P18 says on Jan 13 the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission held its first hearing with 4 bank CEO's being questioned including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Brian Moynihan of Bofa.

Barron's '09 Roundtable Report Card says Abby Joseph Cohen's corporate bond picks are: BofA 5.65% due '18, JPMorgan 6% due '18 & Travelers 5.75% due '17 and stock picks include BofA. Marc Faber under Tech sector picks stocks of Intel, Cisco and Microsoft as well as Yahoo and Oracle while Fred hickey picks Microsoft's common.

Barron's p14 "Last Week" says Pres. Obama proposed a tax on 50 large financial firms to recover bailout money. The levy could start 6/30 if approved by Congress and would hit BofA and JPMorgan Chase. Barron's p44 "Pick Another Pocket" by Andrew Bary says BofA wold pay annually 1.98 bil, JPM 1.92 bil and GECcapital .87 bil.

Boeing BA $60.82 -0.74 1.2% 5,037,420 NYSE: No mentions found.

Caterpillar CAT $60.12 -1.86 3% 9,335,536 NYSE: No mentions found

Chevron CVX
$79.23 -0.32 0.4% 13,420,954 NYSE: Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses. The roster of Dow Dogs for '10 looks quite strong, even if some of the names, GE and Pfizer for example, have struggled to recover their former magic. ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the list as is WalMart, Procter Gamble and Verizon and AT&T who appear to be navigating the transition form land lines to mobile telephony and other digital delivery systems. The fact that Warren Buffett holds 9% of Kraft is an indication of Kraft's undervaluation. Rounding out the Dow portfolio is McDonald's, a pre-eminent global brand.

Cisco CSCO $24.4 -0.55 2.2% 51,014,974 NASDAQ-GS: Barron's '09 Roundtable Report Card says Abby Joseph Cohen's corporate bond picks are: BofA 5.65% due '18, JPMorgan 6% due '18 & Travelers 5.75% due '17 and stock picks include BofA. Marc Faber under Tech sector picks stocks of Intel, Cisco and Microsoft as well as Yahoo and Oracle while Fred hickey picks Microsoft's common.

Coca-Cola KO $56.29 -0.84 1.47% 13,660,231 NYSE: Bus Wk p50 "Pepsi Brings in the Health Police" by Nanette Byrnes says Pepsi has hired a team of idealistic scientists to find healthy alternatives to Doritos. Ckoming off a tough '09, during which once high flying brands such as Gatorade slipped, Pepsi trades at a signficant discount to its rival, Coca-Cola.

AJC pD1 "Sampling smiles in 206 nations, 1 year" by Jeremiah McWilliams discusses Coke's year old global marketing campaign tagged "Open Happiness" that dispatches teams of Happiness Ambassadors to countries around the world.

The well known S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats are a group of firms that have enriched their payouts for at least 25 years in a row, 13 of them have Strong Buy or Buy recommendations including Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and Walmart.

Disney DIS $30.6 -0.42 1.35% 13,890,448 NYSE: No mentions found

DuPont DD $34.01 -0.08 0.23% 6,596,530 NYSE: No mentions found

ExxonMobil XOM $69.11 -0.57 0.82% 29,157,813 NYSE: The well known S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats are a group of firms that have enriched their payouts for at least 25 years in a row, 13 of them have Strong Buy or Buy recommendations including Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and Walmart.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses.

GE $16.44 -0.26 1.56% 73,768,507 NYSE: Barron's p15 "Preview" says on Fri 1/22 GE will post quarterly results before the market opens.

Barron's p14 "Last Week" says Pres. Obama proposed a tax on 50 large financial firms to recover bailout money. The levy could start 6/30 if approved by Congress and would hit BofA and JPMorgan Chase. Barron's p44 "Pick Another Pocket" by Andrew Bary says BofA wold pay annually 1.98 bil, JPM 1.92 bil and GECcapital .87 bil.

NYT Bus p1 "Buying Landmarks? Easy. Keeping Them? Maybe Not." by Charles V. Bagli discusses property owners trying to work out defaulted loans and their ties to the Fed Reserve Bank of NY. There is a chart of the current director of the Fed. Reserve Bank of NY that includes Jeffrey R. Immelt who is CEO of GE which bought seven Chicago area buildings from Blackstone and is struggling with debt on its properties.

NYT p1 "(GE's) NBC's Slide From TV's Heights To Troubled Nightly Punch Line" by Tim Arango says at its height, NBC was the very model of what a tv network should be with iconic programming, enviable ratings and spectacular business success. But now the network is in shambles due to the challenges facing broadcast tv, fragmenting audiences, an advertising downturn, and a series of executive missteps that have made its prime time lineup a perennial loser and most recently turned its late night programming schedule into a media circus that threatens the lucrative Tonight Show franchise. Similar report at BusWk p8.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses. The rotser of Dow Dogs for '10 looks quite strong, even if some of the names, GE and Pfizer for example, have struggled to recover their former magic. ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the list as is WalMart, Procter Gamble and Verizon and AT&T who appear to be navigating the transition form land lines to mobile telephony and other digital delivery systems. The fact that Warren Buffett holds 9% of Kraft is an indication of Kraft's undervaluation. Rounding out the Dow portfolio is McDonald's, a pre-eminent global brand.

Hewlett-Packard HPQ $52.47 -0.04 0.08% 13,294,137 NYSE: Bus Wk p22 "The Next Big Thing, 20 Years later" by Spencer Ante says tables from Hewlett-Packard, Dell and others were the stars at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The story discusses HPQ's Touchsmart TM2 Tables that sells for $949.

Barron's pM14 corrected a quote from last week's story about money manager's conversation with the investor relations spokesperson at HPQ. The money manager, Eddie Brown, is selling Hewlett-Packard because he doesn't think it is growing fast enough.

Home Depot HD $28.57 +0.27 0.95% 22,946,162 NYSE: No mentions found

Intel INTC
$20.8 -0.68 3.17% 196,887,174 NASDAQ-GS: Barron's p14 "Last Week" says Intel posted a bank p quarter, with gross margins at a record while JPMorgan Chase's profits quadrupled. Alcoa tumbled, after it had a narrow loss.

Barron's p39 "Intel's Good Numbers Bode Well forthePC Sector" by Eric J. Savit says Intel's strong quarter bodes well for the disk drive industry, which, like intel, is driven by PC unit demand.

Bus Wk P21 "Make that Qualcom Inside by Olga Kharif, Ian King says suddently the cellphone chipmaker is everywhere, challenging mighty Intel on its own turf. But Intel has tremendous resources, iihond and on 1/4 Intel unveiled its next generation Atom processor that will be used in notebook designs from firms including Asus, Acer, and Dell. Intel has high hopes for cell phone chips too as it is collaborating on mobile devices with Nokia, the world's largest maker of cell phones.

Barron's '09 Roundtable Report Card says Abby Joseph Cohen's corporate bond picks are: BofA 5.65% due '18, JPMorgan 6% due '18 & Travelers 5.75% due '17 and stock picks include BofA. Marc Faber under Tech sector picks stocks of Intel, Cisco and Microsoft as well as Yahoo and Oracle while Fred hickey picks Microsoft's common.

Barron's pM3 "The Trader" by Vito J. Racanelli says stock prices feel 1% last week much of that coming Fri as the market revered course on the significance of Intel's 4Q profits. Meanwhile JPMorgan released 4Q profits that rose sharply but investors chose to fret about still rising loan losses and its stock dropped 2.3% on Fri.In just the past few weeks, shares of Verizon Communications have fallen 10%, most of that due to a couple of news items. In the first week of '10, CEO Ivan Seidenberg surprised markets when he said that '09's earnings per share would be down 13 to 15 cents from '0's 2.54 number, mostly on higher than expected pension costs. Then Fri, Verizon, not typically an industry price cut initiator, said it reduce prices of its Verizon Wireless unit, in which its owns a 55% stake with Vodaphone Group owning the rest. Verizon Wireless has shown good subscriber growth even without Apple's wildly popular iPhone, which is currently available only with AT&T service. When Verizon does get the iPhone if AT&T's exclusivity deal runs out later this year, Verizon's stock could rise.

IBM $131.78 -0.53 0.4% 8,456,725 NYSE: Barron's p15 "Preview" says IBM's 4Q earnings will be posted on Tues/ 1/19 and consensus estimate is 3.47 a share compared with 3.27 a hear ago. Barron's p14 "Last Week" says Intel posted a goodp quarter, with gross margins at a record while JPMorgan Chase's profits quadrupled. Alcoa tumbled, after it had a narrow loss.

Bus Wk p53 "IBM Piles Up Patents, But Quantity Isn't King" by Steve LeVine says no one beats IBM on patents. For 17 years running, Big Blue has been granted more US patents than any other applicant, 4,914 in '09 along which is more than the number of patents granted last year to Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Apple, Accenture and Google combined. IBM's worldwide portfolio now covers more than 40,000 inventions for everything from microprocessors for video games to the erasable read write CD but quantity is not the same as quality. IBM's collection of US patents over the past 5 years ranks only 8th in value with No. 1 being Microsoft which had 2,906 patents last year and ranked third in number.

Bus Wk p28 "Apple vs Google" by Peter Burrows says the tech industry has had its share of legendary rivalries: IBM vs. Digital Equipment Corp., Microsoft vs Netscape, AOL vs Yahoo, but Apple vs Google could dwarf them all.

J.P.Morgan Chase JPM $43.68 -1.01 2.26% 69,499,416 NYSE: Barron's p14 "Last Week" says Pres. Obama proposed a tax on 50 large financial firms to recover bailout money. The levy could start 6/30 if approved by Congress and would hit BofA and JPMorgan Chase. Barron's p44 "Pick Another Pocket" by Andrew Bary says BofA wold pay annually 1.98 bil, JPM 1.92 bil and GECcapital .87 bil.

Barron's pM16 charts JPMorgan Chase saying although the bank's quarterly earnings quadrupled, its rev disappointed. Consumer driven areas like credit cards posted losses.

Barron's '09 Roundtable Report Card says Abby Joseph Cohen's corporate bond picks are: BofA 5.65% due '18, JPMorgan 6% due '18 & Travelers 5.75% due '17 and stock picks include BofA. Marc Faber under Tech sector picks stocks of Intel, Cisco and Microsoft as well as Yahoo and Oracle while Fred hickey picks Microsoft's common.

Johnson & Johnson JNJ $64.56 -0.54 0.83% 20,919,869 NYSE: Barron's p14 "Last Week" says US prosecutors charged Johnson & Johnson with paying kickbacks to the pharmacy Omnicare, to promote sales of an antipsychotic drug.. J&J denies wrongdoing.

The well known S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats are a group of firms that have enriched their payouts for at least 25 years in a row, 13 of them have Strong Buy or Buy recommendations including Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and Walmart.

Kraft KFT $29.58 +0.46 1.58% 25,823,517 NYSE: Bus Wk p37 "Kraft's Sugar Rush" by Susan Berfield, Michael Arnd tsays CEO Irene Rosenfeld's pursuit of Cadbury is testing her considerable powers of persuasion and could define her career.

Barron's p15 "Preview" says Tues 1/19 is athe deadline for Kraft to raise its bid for Cadbury. Rival bidders have until 1/23 to make an offer and Hershey is considering one. last week, hedge fund investor William Ackman revealed he had bought 2% of Kraft and favors its bid.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses. The rotser of Dow Dogs for '10 looks quites trong, even if some of the names, GE and Pfizer for example, have struggled to recover their former magic. ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the list as is WalMart, Procter Gamble and Verizon and AT&T who appear to be navigating the transition form land lines to mobile telephony and other digital delivery systems. The fact that Warren Buffett holds 9% of Kraft is an indication of Kraft's undervaluation. Rounding out the Dow portfolio is McDonald's, a pre-eminent global brand.

McDonald's MCD $62.28 -0.37 0.59% 9,375,772 NYSE: The well known S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats are a group of firms that have enriched their payouts for at least 25 years in a row, 13 of them have Strong Buy or Buy recommendations including Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and Walmart.

Bus Wk p10 says since taking over Mcdonald's in '04, CEO James Skinner has seen 2 coos come and go and the latest to leve is Ralph Alvarez who is succeeded by Don Thompson.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses. The rotser of Dow Dogs for '10 looks quite strong, even if some of the names, GE and Pfizer for example, have struggled to recover their former magic. ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the list as is WalMart, Procter Gamble and Verizon and AT&T who appear to be navigating the transition form land lines to mobile telephony and other digital delivery systems. The fact that Warren Buffett holds 9% of Kraft is an indication of Kraft's undervaluation. Rounding out the Dow portfolio is McDonald's, a pre-eminent global brand.

Merck MRK $39.47 -0.52 1.3% 20,784,370 NYSE: Barron's pM16 charts Merck saying Credit Suisse upgraded Merck to Outperform from Neutral based on improved product prospects and greater visibility.

Microsoft MSFT $30.86 -0.10 0.32% 78,967,798 NASDAQ-GS: Barron'sp11 "Google Takes On Godzilla" by Alan Abelson says Google and 36 other US firms were attacked on their web sites in Cina but Google is being heroic in threatening to pull out of China while Microsoft has designs for its own search engine in the Giant Sino market which makes Google's actions even more courageous.

Bus Wk p53 "IBM Piles Up Patents, But Quantity Isn't King" by Steve leVine says no one beats IBM on patents. For 17 years running, Big Blue has been granted more US patents than any other applicant, 4,914 in '09 along which is more than the number of patents granted last year to Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Apple, Accenture and Google combined. IBM's worldwide portfolio now covers more than 40,000 inventions for everything from microprocessors for video games to the erasable read write CD but quantity is not the same as quality. IBM's collection of US patents over the past 5 years ranks only 8th in value with No. 1 being Microsoft which had 2,906 patents last year and ranked third in number.

Bus Wk p28 "Apple vs Google" by Peter Burrows says the tech industry has had its share of legendary rivalries: IBM vs. Digital Equipment Corp., Microsoft vs Netscape, AOL vs Yahoo, but Apple vs Google could dwarf them all.

Barron's p41 "The Cloud Lures Uncle Sam" by mark Veverka says ivek Kundra is the chief information officer for the fed gov. He is the first such officer for the fed gov and met with Steve Ballmer the ceo of Microsoft last week to discuss the CIO's plans for the cloud.

Barron's '09 Roundtable Report Card says Abby Joseph Cohen's corporate bond picks are: BofA 5.65% due '18, JPMorgan 6% due '18 & Travelers 5.75% due '17 and stock picks include BofA. Marc Faber under Tech sector picks stocks of Intel, Cisco and Microsoft as well as Yahoo and Oracle while Fred hickey picks Microsoft's common.

Pfizer PFE $19.49 +0.11 0.57% 76,467,219 NYSE: Bus Wk p40 "The Hunt For An Autism Drug" by Ellen Gibson says the new research team at Pfizer is focusing on genes that may affect synapses in the brain.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses. The rotser of Dow Dogs for '10 looks quites trong, even if some of the names, GE and Pfizer for example, have struggled to recover their former magic. ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the list as is WalMart, Procter Gamble and Verizon and AT&T who appear to be navigating the transition form land lines to mobile telephony and other digital delivery systems. The fact that Warren Buffett holds 9% of Kraft is an indication of Kraft's undervaluation. Rounding out the Dow portfolio is McDonald's, a pre-eminent global brand.

Procter & Gamble PG $60.82 -0.76 1.23% 15,692,693 NYSE: The well known S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats are a group of firms that have enriched their payouts for at least 25 years in a row, 13 of them have Strong Buy or Buy recommendations including Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and Walmart.

3M MMM $83.37 -0.13 0.16% 3,922,173 NYSE: No mentions found

Travelers TRV $48.79 -0.49 0.99% 4,208,762 NYSE: Barron's p19 "Pulling Away From the Pack" by Andrew Bary discusses Chubb, the property casualty insurance firm. Its lucrative high end masterpiece homeowners insurance is the leading choice of affluent Americans to protect their houses. Chubb commands a premium to other big propery casualty outfits. Travelers at 49, trades below its estimated '09 year end book value of 52, while Ace fetches 48, versus a projected '09 year end book of 57. The Chubb premium relfects its consistently profitable homeowners, auto and other personal lines insurance which together account for a third of its $11 bil in annual premiums.

Barron's '09 Roundtable Report Card says Abby Joseph Cohen's corporate bond picks are: BofA 5.65% due '18, JPMorgan 6% due '18 & Travelers 5.75% due '17 and stock picks include BofA. Marc Faber under Tech sector picks stocks of Intel, Cisco and Microsoft as well as Yahoo and Oracle while Fred hickey picks Microsoft's common.

United Technologies UTX $71.99 -0.82 1.13% 5,314,724 NYSE: No mentions found

Verizon VZ
$30.58 -0.64 2.05% 43,659,664 NYSE: Barron's pM3 "The Trader" by Vito J. Racanelli says stock prices feel 1% last week much of that coming Fri as the market revered course on the significance of Intel's 4Q profits. Meanwhile JPMorgan released 4Q profits that rose sharply but investors chose to fret about still rising loan losses and its stock dropped 2.3% on Fri.In just the past few weeks, shares of Verizon Communications have fallen 10%, most of that due to a couple of news items. In the first week of '10, CEO Ivan Seidenberg surprised markets when he said that '09's earnings per share would be down 13 to 15 cents from '0's 2.54 number, mostly on higher than expected pension costs. Then Fri, Verizon, not typically an industry price cut initiator, said it reduce prices of its Verizon Wireless unit, in which its owns a 55% stake with Vodaphone Group owning the rest. Verizon Wireless has shown good subscriber growth even without Apple's wildly popular iPhone, which is currently available only with AT&T service. When Verizon does get the iPhone if AT&T's exclusivity deal runs out later this year, Verizon's stock could rise.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses. The rotser of Dow Dogs for '10 looks quites trong, even if some of the names, GE and Pfizer for example, have struggled to recover their former magic. ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the list as is WalMart, Procter Gamble and Verizon and AT&T who appear to be navigating the transition form land lines to mobile telephony and other digital delivery systems. The fact that Warren Buffett holds 9% of Kraft is an indication of Kraft's undervaluation. Rounding out the Dow portfolio is McDonald's, a pre-eminent global brand.

WalMart WMT $53.68 -0.53 0.98% 18,989,468 NYSE: The well known S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats are a group of firms that have enriched their payouts for at least 25 years in a row, 13 of them have Strong Buy or Buy recommendations including Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and Walmart.

Barron's p21 "Groomed for a Comeback" by Jonathan R. Laing says despite lackluster recent performance, the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy still has fans. The performance of members of the Dow 30 varied greatly last year, with American Express more than doubling while ExxonMobil and five others chalked up losses. The rotser of Dow Dogs for '10 looks quites trong, even if some of the names, GE and Pfizer for example, have struggled to recover their former magic. ExxonMobil and Chevron are on the list as is WalMart, Procter Gamble and Verizon and AT&T who appear to be navigating the transition form land lines to mobile telephony and other digital delivery systems. The fact that Warren Buffett holds 9% of Kraft is an indication of Kraft's undervaluation. Rounding out the Dow portfolio is McDonald's, a pre-eminent global brand.

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Here are the current CEOs of the Dow 30 Companies:

AT&T T Randall L. Stephenson
Alcoa AA Klaus Kleinfeld
American Express AXP Kenneth I. Chenault
Bank of America BAC Brian T. Moynihan.
Boeing BA W. James McNerney, Jr.
Caterpillar CAT Douglas Oberhelman
Chevron CVX John Watson
Cisco CSCO John Chambers
Coca Cola KO Muhtar Kent
Disney DIS Robert Iger
DuPont DD Ellen Kullman
ExxonMobil XOM Rex W. Tillerson
GE Jeffrey R. Immelt
Hewlett-Packard HPQ Mark Hurd
Home Depot HD Frank Blake
Intel INTC Paul S. Otellini
IBM Samuel J. Palmisano
JPMorgan Chase JPM Jamie Dimon
Johnson & Johnson JNJ William C. Weldon
Kraft KFT Irene Rosenfeld
McDonald's MCD Jim Skinner
Merck MRK Robert Clark
Microsoft MSFT Steve Ballmer
Pfizer PFE Jeffrey Kindler
Procter & Gamble PG Bob McDonald
3M MMM George W. Buckley
Travelers TRV Jay S. Fishman
United Technologies UTX Louis Chenevert
Verizon VZ Ivan Seidenberg
Wal-Mart WMT Mike Duke

Here are the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 ranked in order of market capitalization rounded to the nearest billion as of 1/13/10 followed by number of shares outstanding rounded to the nearest 1/2 billion:

1. Exxon Mobil XOM $335 [5]
2. Microsoft MSFT 267 [9]
3. WalMart WMT 208 [4]
4. Chevron CVX 195 [2.5]
5. Johnson & Johnson JNJ 179 [3]
6. Procter & Gamble PG 179 [3]
7. GE 177 [10.5]
8. IBM 171 [1.5]
9 JPMorgan Chase 169 [4]
10. AT&T 158 [6]
11. Pfizer PFE 153 [8]
12. Cisco CSCO 140 [6]
13. BAC 140 [8.5]
14. Coke KO 133 [2]
15. Hewlett-Packard HPQ 123 [2]
16. Intel INTC 113 [5.5]
17. McDonald's MCD 104 [1.5]
18. Verizon VZ 90 [3]
19. Merck MRK 82 [2]
20. United Technologies UTX 68 [1]
21. 3M MMM 59 [.5]
22. Disney DIS 58 [1]
23. American Express AXP 50 [1]
24. Home Depot 48 [2]
25. Boeing BA 45 [1]
26. Kraft KFT 44 [1.5]
27. Caterpillar CAT 39 [.5]
28. DuPont DD 31 [1]
29. Travelers 27 [.5]
30. Alcoa AA 16 [1.5]

Here are the latest SEC filings as of 1/13/10 other than ownership filings, registration of shares for employee benefit plans, free writing prospectuses and, except for certain cases, I do not include third party shareholder proposals:

Symbol & Co. Name/Date of Filing/Form Filed/ Comments

T AT&T: 12/18/09 8K re: amendment Bylaws to provide that the Chairman of the Board shall call a special meeting of the stockholders whenever requested in writing to do so by stockholders representing 15% (rather than 25%) of the outstanding shares of AT&T.

12/14/09 8K re: agreement with the Communications Workers of America on new, three-year contracts covering approximately 30,000 employees in CWA District 3 (AT&T's Southeast region).

Alcoa AA: 1/12/10 8K re: Alcoa finished its 4Q '08 free cash flow positive, the first such quarterly achievement since 2Q '08. In 4Q '09, Alcoa generated free cash flow of $761 million, a $947 million improvement from 3Q '09 driven by strong cash from operations performance of $1.1 billion, a $940 million increase from the third quarter of 2009.

12/24/09 8K re: a joint venture with Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) for the development of an integrated bauxite mine, alumina refinery, aluminum smelter, and rolling mill in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

American Express AXP: 12/15/09 8K re: delinquency and write-off statistics for the lending portfolio of its U.S. Card Services operating segment for the months ended September 30, October 31 and November 30, 2009.

Bank of Am BAC: 12/17/09 8K re: election of Brian T. Moynihan to succeed Kenneth D. Lewis as the new President and Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2010 and his appointment to the Board and Executive Committee of the Board. Moynihan, 50, joined FleetBoston Financial Corporation in April 1993. He was promoted to lead Corporate Strategy and Development and then went on to lead Global Wealth and Investment Management at FleetBoston. Following the Corporation’s 2004 merger with FleetBoston, he served as president of Global Wealth and Investment Management from April 2004 to October 2007. From October 2007 to December 2008, Mr. Moynihan served as president of Global Corporate and Investment Banking. From December 2008 to January 2009, Mr. Moynihan served as the Corporation’s General Counsel. From January 2009 to August 2009, Mr. Moynihan served as president of Global Corporate and Investment Banking and Global Wealth Management. Since August 2009, he has served as president of Consumer and Small Business Banking.

12/9/09 8K re: amending its Certificate of Incorporation to fix the designations, preferences, limitations and relative rights of the Series S Preferred Stock.

12/3/09 Form 8K re: BAC's repaying the entire $45 billion investment borrowed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

12/3/09 8K re: BAC being named as a defendant in two related lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Boeing BA: 11/20/09 8K re: Boeing issued $700,000,000 of 1.875% Senior Notes due 2012 and $500,000,000 of 3.750% Senior Notes due 2016.

Caterpiller CAT: 12/18/09 8K re: supplemental information concerning deliveries to users for its Machinery and Engines lines of business.

12/15/09 8K re: amendments to Bylaws.

Chevron CVX: 1/11/10 8K re: earnings for 4Q '09 are expected to be lower than 3Q '09. Upstream earnings are projected to be in line with third quarter results as the benefit of higher commodity prices is offset by the absence of gains recognized in 3Q from approval of the Gorgon project in Australia. Downstream results are expected to be sharply lower, mainly due to significantly weaker refining margins.

12/11/09 8K re: a new base salary of $1,500,000 for J.S. Watson (a $500,000 increase) to be effective January 1, 2010 when Mr. Watson assumes the position of Chairman & CEO and other exec compensation changes.

Cisco CSCO: 11/2/09 8K re: Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President, Legal Services, General Counsel & Secretary of Cisco Systems adopting a pre-arranged stock trading plan.

Coke KO: 10/29/09 10QA

Disney DIS: 1/12/10 8K re: new form of agreement for the award of stock units and stock options awarded to executive officers.

1/4/10 8K re: new employment agreement with James A. Rasulo and amendment of employment agreement with Thomas O. Staggs. Rasulo will serve as Sr. EVP & CFO with an annual salary of $1,400,000.

12/2/09 10K

DuPont DD: 11/5/09 Prospectus relating to $1,000,000,000 3.250% Notes due 1/15 & $1,000,000,000 4.625% Notes due January 15, 2020

ExxonMobil XOM: 12/14/09 8K re: Merger Agreement to buy XTO Energy.

12/1/09 8K re: fixing a total ceiling of $139 million in respect of 2009 under XOM's Short Term Incentive Program, of which bonuses were granted to certain officers as follows

GE: 12/3/09 8K re: GE, NBC Universal, Inc. and Comcast Corporation entering into a Master Agreement pursuant to which they will form a joint venture. The joint venture will consist of the businesses of NBCU, including its cable networks, filmed entertainment, televised entertainment, theme parks and unconsolidated investments, collectively valued at $30 billion, and Comcast’s cable networks including E!, Versus and the Golf Channel, ten regional sports networks and certain digital media properties, collectively valued at $7.25 billion. NBCU will borrow $9.1 billion from third party lenders, and the proceeds of this debt financing will be distributed to GE. Comcast will make a payment of approximately $6.5 billion in cash to GE. GE also entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement with Vivendi SA pursuant to which,GE will acquire Vivendi’s 20% interest in NBCU for $5.8 billion. GE expects to realize approximately $9.8 billion pre-tax in cash after the buyout of Vivendi’s 20% interest. The new venture initially will be 51% owned by Comcast and 49% owned by GE.

Hewlett-Packard HPQ: 1/12/10 Prelim. Proxy Statement re: annual stockholders meeting on 3/1710 at 2 pm at Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, California.

12/17/09 10K

Home Depot HD: 12/3/09 10Q

Intel INTC: 8K 1/12/10 8K re: release of 4Q earnings report on Thursday, 1/14 A public webcast of Intel’s earnings conference call will follow at 2:30 p.m. PST at www.intc.com.

12/17/09 8K re: a press release commenting on the suit filed against Intel by the Federal Trade Commission alleging anticompetitive practices.

IBM: 11/5/09 8K announcing its Form S-3, effective August 3, 2007, relating to $2,000,000,000 of debt securities.

JPMorganChase JPM: 12/22/09 8K re: the closing of a public offering of $1,500,000,000 aggregate liquidation amount of an affiliated trust.

12/16/09 8K re: the U.S. Treasury selling in a secondary public offering, 88,401,697 warrants, each representing the right to purchase one share of the common stock, of JPM at an exercise price of $10.75 per warrant.

Kraft KFT: 1/12/10 8K re: increase of guidance for '09 diluted earnings per share to at least $2.00 versus the previous expectation of at least $1.97.1 reflecting strong operating gains & a significant increase in marketing investments versus the prior year.

12/22/09 8K re: amendment of By-Laws to expand the Board to twelve members and appointment of Mackey J. McDonald & Jean-Francois M. L. van Boxmeer as directors, effective January 1, 2010. Mr. McDonald will serve on the Audit Committee, and Mr. van Boxmeer will serve on the Public Affairs Committee.

12/15/09 8K re: a press release relating to the formal response issued by Cadbury plc regarding the offer by Kraft Foods to acquire all of the shares of Cadbury plc.

McDonalds MCD: 12/23/09 8K re: am agreement re: the retirement of Ralph Alvarez, President and Chief Operating Officer.

12/9/09 8K re: an Investor Release reporting MCD's November and year-to-date 2009 sales.

12/4/09 8K re: resignation of Ralph Alvarez as President & COO effective December 31, 2009 & Director and MCD reduced its size by one for a total of 13 Directors.

Merck MRK: 11/184/09 8KA amending financial stmts re: the earlier announcement of the consummation on November 3, 2009 of the merger of Merck & Co., Inc. &, Schering-Plough Corporation.

Microsoft MSFT: 12/4/09 8K re: the resignation of Christopher P. Liddell, the former chief financial officer and his settlement agreement.

Pfizer PFE: 12/6/09 8K re: amendment of bylaws & change in fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble PG: 1/12/10 8K re: quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share on the Common Stock & on the Series A & Series B ESOP Conv. Class A Pref. Stock, payable 2/16/10 with record date of 1/22/10, which is its consistent dividend since incorporation in 1890. 4 bil times a day, P&G brands are sold globally, products include Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Whisper, Pantene, Mach3, Bounty, Dawn, Gain, Pringles, Charmin, Downy, Lenor, Iams, Crest, Oral-B, Duracell, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Wella, Gillette, Braun Fusion. P&G has 135,000 employees in 80 countries.

1/8/10 8K re:changes to its segment reporting structure & agreement to sell its global pharmaceuticals business to Warner Chilcott plc.

12/11/09 8K re: the purchase of Sara Lee's Ambi Pur brand by PG.

12/8/09 8K re: Angela F. Braly being appointed to the Board of Directors, effective December 8, 2009.

12/8/09 8K re: the retirement of Alan G. Lafley, Chairman of the Board and former President & CEO, will retire from his position as Chairman of the Board effective January 1, 2010 & Robert A. McDonald (56), currently President & CEO being elected to Chairman of the Board effective January 1, 2010.

3M MMM: 12/8/09 8K re: 2010 sales and earnings outlook.

Travelers TRV: 12/11/09 8K re: the election of Donald J. Shepard as a director. He is the former chairman of the executive board and chief executive officer of AEGON N.V.

United Technologies UTX: 12/18/10 8K re: incorp by reference of prior filings.

11/17/09 8K re: its purchase of the GE Security business from GE for $1.82 billion. The closing is pending regulatory approvals. GE Security, part of GE Technology Infrastructure, supplies security and life safety technologies through a broad product portfolio for commercial and residential applications that include fire detection and life safety systems, intrusion alarms, and video surveillance and access control systems. Headquartered in Bradenton, Fla., the business has eight manufacturing facilities and approximately 4,700 employees in 26 countries.

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ: 1/8/10 8K re: estimates that '09 adjusted EPS will be approximately 13 to 15 cents lower than '08 adjusted EPS of $2.54 and that revenues in '09 will be higher than '08. Verizon Wireless will begin providing 4G Long-Term Evolution service in 25 to 30 markets covering 100 million points of presence)by the end of '10 &within 24 months following its start of LTE service, Verizon Wireless expects to provide LTE service to 80 to 90% of the US.

12/23/09 8K re: grant of stock options to executives.

12/7/09 8K re:amendments to bylaws.

WalMartWMT: 12/8/09 10Q

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good post.