(Source: Business Wire)
Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Cox Radio (NYSE: CXR), Lloyds Banking Group Plc (NYSE: LYG), Acergy SA (NASDAQ: ACGY), Tech Data Corp (NASDAQ: TECD) and Town Sports International Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CLUB).
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Here are highlights from Thursday's Analyst Blog:
Investors Tune Out Cox Radio
Cox Radio (NYSE: CXR) reported 4Q08 earnings that, as expected, showed ad revenue continuing to tumble -- down 13% -- as the economy sinks. Station operating income plummeted 36% to $29.6 million, and free cash flow fell 40% during the quarter.
Fundamentals are set to get even weaker after 18 consecutive months of ad revenue declines, as CXR's revenue and EBITDA growth are eviscerated by the recession. Exacerbating the decline are secular industry pressures, as listeners migrate to recorded music (iPods), satellite radio and the Internet. Longer term, the industry is facing the challenge of reinventing itself to develop new revenue streams and offset ad share losses to the Internet.
Lloyds Up on Results, Still a Hold
As preannounced on February 13, Lloyds Banking Group Plc (NYSE: LYG) posted statutory pretax earnings of £1.2 billion for full-year 2008, while HBOS, which was acquired by Lloyds in January 2009, had a £10.8 billion statutory pretax loss, reflecting £12.1 in impairment losses from loans and investment securities.
Positively, Lloyds enjoyed solid loan growth and strong cost controls in 2008, but impairment charges jumped 68%. We expect retail and corporate impairment charges to continue to rise as the recession takes hold, which will offset lower investment and asset portfolio writedowns and any near-term synergies of the HBOS acquisition. Accordingly, we have reduced our 2009 EPADS estimate to a loss of $1.50 per share from earnings of $0.47 per share.
Acergy Has Strong Leverage
London-based Acergy SA (NASDAQ: ACGY), previously known as Stolt Offshore S.A. (SOSA), is a leading oilfield contractor engaged in the designing, procurement, building, installation and servicing of a range of offshore surface and sub-surface equipment for the oil and gas industry.
Acergy's year-end earnings came in better than expected, though backlog slipped, reflecting the tentative operating environment due to commodity price and credit market overhang.
