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The Daily Dow LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 16): In case you've been on a deserted island for the last few weeks and weren't able to keep up with the stock market, it's earnings season again. And with the market doing its Sybil imitation lately, it's nice to have some actual earnings numbers come out to report.
Foolish Four component Eastman Kodak <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:EK)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:EK)") end if %> announced that second-quarter profit jumped 17% over last year's total, up to $440 million on strong film and camera sales and photo-finishing services.
On a per-share basis, Kodak earned $1.30 versus the year-ago total of $1.11. First Call consensus estimates for the quarter were $1.22.
For those of you with a more current group of Dow stocks than our January 2 "holdings," two of the companies on today's current Foolish Four list also posted better-than-expected earnings.
General Motors <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:GM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:GM)") end if %> posted a record for per-share earnings in the second quarter, taking in $2.63 versus last year's tally of $2.39. Wall Street was looking for $2.51. And Caterpillar <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:CAT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:CAT)") end if %> posted earnings of $1.94 per share compared to last year's $1.62. That's 30 cents a share better than the Street expected.
Of interest to our Foolish Four model is the beginning of trading in Imation <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:IMN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:IMN)") end if %>, the recent spin-off from 3M <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:MMM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:MMM)") end if %>. Shareholders of 3M should now own 1 share of Imation stock for each 10 shares of 3M they held. With the model portfolio holding 149 shares of 3M, it doesn't come out to a full share amount. In such a case, the company will usually pay the fractional share amount as a cash dividend and I believe that'll be the case here. So, I'll carry the 14 shares of Imation on the books and count the remaining nine-tenths of a share as a cash dividend using today's opening price of $24 1/8 as the basis. If it turns out that the company pays a different amount, someone please let me know how they've calculated it for your account and I'll make the cash adjustment to the model.
When it comes time to update the model portfolio in January, the Imation shares will be "sold" and the proceeds added back into the new list of Dow stocks for the next year. Fool on.
Transmitted: 7/16/96
Today's Dow Numbers THE FOOLISH FOUR MODEL (7/16/96) |
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