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Here are highlights from Wednesday's Analyst Blog:

COST Misses; BJ Beats

This morning, two membership warehouses reported 4th quarter results. Costco (NASDAQ: COST) missed Zacks consensus EPS estimates by $0.05, while revenues were in line. BJ's Wholesale Club (NYSE: BJ) reported earnings of $0.89 per share $0.03 above the Zacks consensus estimate, while falling a little short on revenue.

Both companies were negatively affected by gasoline deflation. As gasoline prices fall, BJ's and Costco's overall gasoline sales fall. Costco, which generates about 20% of its sales outside the US, was also hurt by the stronger US dollar.

GM Target Price Remains $0

General Motors Corp (NYSE: GM) is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. We believe that the company should file for bankruptcy to rid itself of Unions and pension & health care issues, besides separating dealerships from the rest of the company.

The U.S. Government has provided the company up to $13.4 billion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 3-year term loans to sustain operations through the 1st quarter of 2009. The company has indicated a further requirement of $16.6 billion aid from the U.S. Government and $6 billion from the governments of Canada, Germany, U.K., Sweden and Thailand to sustain operations in these countries.

JBT Expects "Challenging Year"

JBT Corp (NYSE: JBT) -- formerly known as John Bean Technologies, which, in turn, was spun out of FMC Technologies (NYSE: FTI) during 2008 -- reported its 4th quarter 2008 results.

Revenue of $234.4 million was down 19.3%. Income before Interest & Taxes was off by 25% to $17.1 million, as the margin declined from 7.8% to 7.3%. Net Income from Continuing Operations of $10.3 million equaled 4.4% of Revenue compared to $14.7 million or 5.1% on an historical basis, and $13.0 million or 4.5% on a pro-forma basis.

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