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business newsMartha Stewart Can't Get Too Much of a Good Thing
By
Justin Sharon
Nov 24, 2010 4:30 pm
Shares in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are surging over 6% to take their place among today's top-25 gainers on the entire NYSE in percentage terms.
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To learn more about devils and deviled eggs, please see Economic Snapshot: Prison Advice for the Average White-Collar Criminal and True Luxury: If You’re Not Having Fun, Lower Your Standards.
Those radioactive rodents may be dropping, but anything nuclear has been climbing to dizzy heights of late. Cameco Corporation (CCJ) is up almost 6% as I write, continuing the torrid run of an industry that's been on a real roll recently. (Diversified utility Ameren (AEE) is another, if more tangential, play on the sector and also showing strength after Goldman gave it the backhanded complement of removing the stock from its list of Conviction Sells this morning. France -- France! -- gets over three-quarters of its energy needs from nuclear sources, but the US has not built such a power plant since the '70s when an accident at Three Mile Island caused some second thoughts. For all the Chernobyl-like images the sector may evoke, it is by all accounts an extremely safe, reliable, and efficient method of power and this Canadian outfit is poised to reap further benefits, both from Beijing’s current mineral land grab and our own attempts at alternative energy. It is the world’s second largest publicly traded uranium producer and just inked a far-reaching agreement with a Chinese company to supply 29 million pounds of uranium concentrate until 2025. Cameco operates in some fairly problematic locales including Kazakhstan, so it isn’t one for widows and orphans, but risk-tolerant investors might mine good gains over the long haul.
Turn to Why Investors Should Follow Cameco, Uranerz Energy, and Other Uranium Miners in Wyoming, What Does Future Hold for Newly Minted Uranium ETF?, and Mega Trends for the Next Decade: Uranium and Nuclear Power for more.
While that warm glow you see emanating out of tooth titan Patterson Companies Inc. (PDCO) today could also be due to radioactivity of course, it is more likely based on this afternoon’s 4%-plus stock price jump. The firm, founded in 1877, is best known for providing dental supplies and equipment but also operates an increasingly lucrative veterinary business accounting for over 30% of total revenues. Earlier in the week it announced second-quarter per-share earnings which matched Wall Street expectations, with CEO Scott P. Anderson declaring himself “encouraged” by a “solid second quarter” that was “attained amid the context of sluggish economic conditions that continued to affect our served markets.” The stock trades below its peer group average of approximately 16.3 times calendar year 2011 earnings per share and has embarked upon a share repurchase program. Concerns include sluggish growth in consumables sales, up only 1% on a sequential basis. Still, with Prince Charles -- featured here as the final frown-worthy entry in “The Big Book of British Smiles," presumably about to polish up for his son’s upcoming wedding, that business may soon perk up also.
Also check out Top 10 US Cities With the Worst Dental Hygiene and Gaining Exposure to Emerging Markets via Midwestern Companies.
No Simpsons character references for our final stock, just two much more cartoonish characters. Although hotel shares are near new highs today, I wonder if Paris Hilton ever looks back wistfully on those fun farm times she had with Nicole Richie on The Simple Life? Perhaps not, after seeing today’s sluggish stock performance in Deere & Company (DE) on an otherwise strong session in equity markets. The world’s largest maker of farm equipment reported stronger-than-expected earnings but offered cautious full-year guidance for 2011 going forward. Deere, which dates to pre-Civil War Illinois, swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $457.2 million, or $1.07 a share. This bested both its year-ago $222.8 million net loss and analyst EPS estimates of only $0.95. Market share gains in booming economies including Brazil were perhaps expected, but an improvement in European demand for the first time since 2008 was arguably even more welcome. However, the company now forecasts profit for next year of only $2.1 billion, well below the $2.42 billion Wall Street was looking for, partially reflecting “the complexity of transitioning to new equipment models as well as increased product costs to comply with regulations," according to a statement.
Related content can be accessed at Make Your Portfolio Run Like a Deere and A Farmer’s Not-So-Little Secret.
No positions in stocks mentioned.
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