E.W. Scripps Earnings Preview

E.W. Scripps (SSP) reports before the open on Thursday. The company preannounced a shortfall late last year related primarily to continuing disappointing results at the Shop At Home division. Therefore, there should be little surprise in the headline EPS number which is projected at 49 cents for 4Q05. That would bring the year in at […]

Comcast Earnings Preview

Comcast (CMCSA/K) reports before the open on Thursday. So far in 2006, CMCSA has risen 7.5%. I think this sets up a big move in the stock off the earnings report as investors will either be disappointed and willing to lock in this year’s gains or they will be happy and build on the gains. […]

Crash Scores Big In Oscar Nominations

Crash won nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Song in the Oscar nominations announced this morning. While the investment implications are extremely limited, this a real feather in the cap for Lionsgate (LGF). Just a few months ago, the film was considered a real long shot for […]

Insider Buying At Lionsgate

A couple of quick follow-ups to my Weekend Box Office Update that support my bullish trading bias on Lionsgate (LGF). First, this weekend’s Barron’s contained positive commentary on LGF in the Inside Scoop column. The column noted recent insider buying by senior executives along with a big boost in the position of Carl Icahn protégé […]

Why Apple Is Still A Growth Stock?

Over on Street Insight, my fellow contributor Jeff Bagley and I have been tag-teaming the defense of Apple Computer (AAPL) since the company reported its December quarter EPS. We were both bullish prior the earnings release and I really feel Jeff has hit it on the head with his long-term bullishness based upon the unusually […]

Time Warner Earnings Preview: Will The Boredom End?

If there were an equation that measured media and analyst coverage vs. stock price volatility, Time Warner (TWX) would probably produce an answer nearing infinity. Dare I say a google. Tomorrow provdes the stock another chance to offer some excitement when TWX reports 4Q05 earnings. The results are expected to be quite strong, consistent with […]

Knight Ridder: Weaker Than Peers As Buyout Awaits

While Knight Ridder’s earnings report was sloppy with weak December trends, I am surprised the shares would trade down 2% given that the investment case is totally controlled by the auction underway for the company. On this front, management led off the call by announcing it would take no questions. One analyst did have the […]

Lionsgate Story Shaping Up

Lionsgate (LGF – recently renamed from Lions Gate Entertainment) announced the sale of its studio production facilities in Canada for $36.1 million. To be honest, I did not even realize the company owned its own facilities. According to a report I just read, this asset was going to generate less than $5 million in revenue […]

Thoughts on the Disney-Pixar Merger

It is hard to add value on the Disney-Pixar transaction. I received a dozen virtually identical analyst reports and CNBC was basically DisneyPixarVision for two days. I do want to highlight notes by Rich Bilotti of Morgan Stanley and Dave Miller of Sanders Morris Harris. It is not really anybody’s fault that the notes were […]

Knight Ridder Earnings Preview: Waiting On The Auction

It would be very surprising if anything of substance came from the earnings release and conference for the 4Q05 report by Knight Ridder (KRI). First, the company is in the midst of an auction with presentations being made to a number of interested industry and private equity buyers. This will probably restrict what management can […]