Google, Citi, Caterpillar Lift U.S. Stocks

123jump.com Staff
18 Apr, 2008
New York City

U.S. stocks advance after solid earnings from Google, Caterpillar, Honeywell and BB&T. Citigroup reported a loss of $1.02 per share and wrote down $13 billion in assets and credit losses of $2 billion. Google surged 20% after its revenue rose 46% and earnings increased 30% in the first quarter. Honeywell and Caterpillar gain 6% and Citigroup soars 7%.

[R]12:40PM New York – U.S. stocks edge higher after Citigroup reported $13 billion in asset write down, but lower than feared by the market.[/R]

U.S. stocks edged higher in the morning trading after Google reported 30% rise in net income. The news lifted tech stocks.

Citigroup reported $13 billion in asset write downs and $2 billion in credit losses. The global bank also reported second quarterly loss in a row. In the first quarter 2008 the bank lost $1.02 per share compared to $1.01 a year ago.

Google ((GOOG)) surged 20% or $88.80 to $538 after it reported 30% rise in earnings last evening on 46% increase in sales. Google reported first quarter net income of $4.12 compared to $3.18 per share.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc stock ((AMD)) was unchanged at $6.19 after the computer chip company reported first quarter 2008 revenue increased 22% to $1.505 billion compared to $1.223 billion from a year ago.

Loss in the quarter was $358 million, or $0.59 per diluted share compared to net loss of $611 million or $1.11 per share a year ago.

SanDisk Corporation ((SNDK)) rose $1 to $27after the world's largest supplier of flash storage card products said that first-quarter total revenue increased 8% to $850 million and GAAP basis net income was $18 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, compared with net loss of $0.6 million, or break even a year-ago.

Caterpillar ((CAT)) stock soared $5.50 to $84.08 after the construction equipment company reported record first quarter revenue of $11.796 billion, 18% compared to $10.016 billion a year ago.

Jim Owens Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said “We continue to see robust demand for products used in the global mining and energy industries and for machines used by our customers to build infrastructure, particularly in emerging markets. These record results are a remarkable testament to our global strength”

The company continues to expect another record year with sales and revenues increasing 5 to 10% and profit per share increasing 5 to 15% from 2007 despite further weakening in North America.

“We are pleased to be able to maintain an outlook for 2008 that reflects all-time records for sales and revenues and profit,” said Jim Owens.

BB&T ((BBT)) gained $1.63 to $35.20 after it reported net income for the first quarter of 2008 $428 million, or $.78 per diluted share, compared with $421 million, or $.77 per diluted share, for the same quarter of 2007.

BB&T's first quarter net income produced annualized returns on average assets and average shareholders' equity of 1.29% and 13.30%, respectively, compared with returns 1.41% and 14.81%, respectively of prior year.

Nonperforming asset levels and credit losses increased in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. Nonperforming assets, as a percentage of total assets, increased to 0.73% at Mar. 31, compared to 0.52% at Dec. 31, 2007, and 0.30% at Mar. 31, 2007.

Annualized net charge-offs were 0.54% of average loans and leases for the first quarter of 2008, surged from 0.48% in the fourth quarter of 2007, and 0.29% in the first quarter of 2007.

Wipro Limited ((WIT)) stock added 60 cents to $12.39 after it reported revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter ended at the end of March 2008 of 55.96 billion rupees or $1.4 billion, an increase of 29% over the same period last year.

Net Income in the quarter was 8.75 billion rupees or $219 million, an increase of 2% over the same period last year.

Global IT Services and products revenue was 38.27 billion rupees or $956 million, an increase of 26% compared to last year. The company added 29 new clients and signed 3 multi-year multi-million dollar contracts.

SunPower Corp ((SPWR)) stock surged $6.70 to $93.41 after it reported first quarter revenue of $273.7 million an increase of 22% from the fourth quarter and 92% increase from the first quarter revenue of $14.23 million a year ago.

Net income in the quarter increased to $12.8 million, or 15 cents per share, compared to $1.2 million, or 2 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier.

For the full year 2008 the company guided total revenue between $1.3 billion and $1.375 billion and diluted net income per share between $1.10 and $1.20.

For the second quarter of 2008 the company guided total revenue between $330 million and $350 million, gross margin of approximately 21% to 22% and diluted net income per share between $0.24 and $0.28 and higher average tax rate between 33% and 34% in 2008.

For the second quarter SunPower expects the components business segment to generate revenue of $95 million to $100 million and gross margin of approximately 28% to 29% and the systems business segment to generate revenue between $235 million and $250 million and gross margin of approximately 18.5% to 19.5%.