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DJ US Hot Stocks: XJT ESRX FCFS GD HSC HSY HPQ HOKU -4-
(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan 24, 2007 (Dow Jones Commodities News Select via Comtex) --ExpressJet Holdings Inc. (XJT, $8.43, -$0.34, -3.88%) said its fourth-quarter net income fell 8.3% to $22.8 million, or 39 cents a share, from $24.9 million, or 42 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue at the Houston-based regional airline, which operates flights for Continental Airlines Inc. , rose 5.1% in the three months ended Dec. 31 to $425.8 million from $405 million. ExpressJet said it and Continental have agreed to submit their 2007 rates dispute to binding arbitration.
Express Scripts Inc. (ESRX, $67.4, -$0.19, -0.28%) said it will send its proxy materials to shareholders of larger rival Caremark Rx Inc. (CMX) in connection with Caremark's special shareholders meeting scheduled for Feb. 20. Express Scripts is seeking to acquire Caremark, despite an existing bid from drug store operator CVS Corp. (CVS, $33.29, $0.04, 0.12%). St. Louis-based Express Scripts urged Caremark shareholders to vote against CVS' offer and criticized the Caremark board for refusing to engage in talks.
First Cash Financial Services Inc. (FCFS, $23.36, -$0.16, -0.68%) said its fourth-quarter net profit rose 25.5% to $9.7 million, or 30 cents a share, from $7.7 million, or 23 cents a share a year ago. Revenue at the pawn store and check-cashing company rose 46.6% to $88.2 million, with same-store revenue rising 9%. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were expecting earnings of 30 cents a share on revenue of $84 million. The firm also reaffirmed its guidance for 2007 earnings in a range of $1.25 to $1.30 a share. First Cash said it plans to open a combination of 75 to 80 pawn and cash advance stores in 2007, alongside 3 to 5 new Auto Master dealerships.
General Dynamics Corp. (GD, $78.54, -$2.35, -2.91%) said its fourth-quarter net income rose less than 1% to $408 million, or $1 a share, from $406 million, also $1 a share, in the year-earlier period. The Falls Church, Va., tank, aircraft and warship manufacturer said that, excluding a charge for the anticipated sales of its coal mining operations, it would have reported $463 million, or $1.13 a share. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call forecast earnings, on average, of $1.14 a share and $6.63 billion in shares. General Dynamics said sales in the three months ended Dec. 31 rose 13% to $6.51 billion from $5.76 billion.
Harsco Corp. (HSC, $84.6, $5.02, 6.31%) declared a 2-for-1 stock split, to be distributed March 26 to stockholders of record as of Feb. 28. The company also said it may divest itself of its gas technologies business group, Harsco GasServ. The Harrisburg, Penn., company said it hired Citigroup to help it explore the sale or another transaction for the business, which generated $400 million in revenue in 2006. Harsco GasServ is the world's leading provider of gas pressure vessels and precision valves, with principal manufacturing and service plants in the U.S., Europe, China and Malaysia, Harsco said.
Hershey Co. (HSY, $51.25, -$1.12, -2.14%) said fourth-quarter net income fell to $153.6 million, or 65 cents a share, from $170.4 million, or 69 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Results include 2 cents a share in charges relates to its business realignment plan. Net sales fell to $1.34 billion from $1.35 billion. Analysts, on average, expected it to earn 71 cents a share on revenue of $1.37 billion, according to Thomson First Call. The chocolate and candy maker backed its long-term expectations of sales growth of 3% to 4% and per-share profit growth from operations of 9% to 11%. For 2007, Hershey forecast net sales growth in the 3% to 4% range, and earnings per share from operations in the 7% to 9% range.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ, $42.65, $0.34, 0.8%) said it has amended its corporate bylaws to require that, in uncontested board elections, each nominated director must receive more votes "for" his or her election than "against" to be elected.
Hoku Scientific Inc. (HOKU, $5.83, -$0.31, -4.98%) reported a third-quarter net loss of $1.25 million, or 8 cents a share. During the same period a year ago, the Kapolei, Hawaii-based company posted net earnings of $202,000, or a penny a share.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
01-24-07 0958ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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As of Saturday, 01-20-2007 23:59, the latest Comtex SmarTrend(SM) Alert,
an automated pattern recognition system, indicated an UPTREND on
12-07-2006 for CVS @ $30.24.
As of Saturday, 01-20-2007 23:59, the latest Comtex SmarTrend(SM) Alert,
an automated pattern recognition system, indicated an UPTREND on
06-23-2006 for XJT @ $6.39.
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