The Fool's Look Ahead

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz
July 5, 2009 | Comments (3)

Recs

10

Monday
The market will gradually get back into form after the holiday weekend. The exchanges will be open on Monday. They took Friday off. However, stateside companies will not be as wide-eyed. According to my sources, there isn't a single major publicly traded company scheduled to post its quarterly results on Monday. Wait for tomorrow.

Tuesday
Specialty plastics maker A. Schulman (Nasdaq: SHLM) announces earnings on Tuesday. The company expects to see its profits bend but not quite break, falling to $0.09 per share from last year's $0.42 figure.

Wednesday
Speaking of "wait for tomorrow": Do you remember the company behind the "we can't wait for tomorrow" advertising jingle? It's Alcoa (NYSE: AA), and the aluminum giant is projected to post a sharp loss on Wednesday. Maybe it can wait until tomorrow.

Also, Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO), and Nu Horizons (Nasdaq: NUHC) will step up to the earnings stage on Wednesday. Family Dollar is expected to post bottom-line growth, earning $0.59 a share after ringing up a profit of just $0.46 a share last year. Nu Horizons isn't expected to be so lucky.

Thursday
Value Line (Nasdaq: VALU) reports its fiscal fourth-quarter results on Thursday. The independent research giant for stocks, funds, and options has some explaining to do. It boosted its quarterly dividend by $0.10 a share last year, and recently reversed the move. It's not the only company hacking away at its yield, though one would expect a research specialist to have a clearer crystal ball. The Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation earned $0.48 a share during the same quarter a year ago. Let's see on which side of the growth bar it turns up this time around.

Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) is also checking in with Mr. Market on Thursday. Wall Street's pros think the enterprise software provider will clock in flat with the $0.10 a share it earned a year ago.

Friday
Oh, if only Progressive (NYSE: PGR) shareholders could be as bubbly and upbeat as Flo, the perky yet quirky star of the auto insurer's television commercials. Friday's report out of Progressive is shaping up to be more of the ho-hum variety. Analysts see the company earning $0.36 a share, exactly what it earned a year ago.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

Closed for 15 months – opening 10 days only! Get notified ahead of time as our expert portfolio manager invests $1 MILLION in the best opportunities from across The Motley Fool’s premium investment services. This is the first open since August 2008, by invitation only. Enter email below.

Value Line is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation. Try any of our Foolish newsletters today, free for 30 days.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz recommends windshield wiper fluid when trying to look forward. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On July 05, 2009, at 11:01 AM, plange01 wrote:

    the 2 car insurance companys that advertise the most with those horrible commercials! are exactly the ones you dont want to use! they take your money with a smile but watch out if you ever need to use them!!..the one that trades(pgr) is a bad buy and the other is a big reason buffetts company is down 50%...

  • Report this Comment On July 05, 2009, at 11:05 AM, plange01 wrote:

    china ,russia and now india are worried about their investments in US dollars.when the biggest countrys in the world worry you better to!the US is in a depression and bankrupt.it has been running a ponzi scheme for years to pay its bills.where do you think madoff got the idea?in the end it wont work any better for the US than it did for him...the ultimate fool?

  • Report this Comment On July 06, 2009, at 1:29 AM, DiscoFinance wrote:

    Rick, are you in the movie "Stock Shock" that just came out about Sirius Xm and naked short selling? you write about them quite a bit. Were you interviewed for Stock Shock?

Add your comment.

Compare Brokers

TD AMERITRADE
more info
ShareBuilder
more info
Power E*Trade

more info
Scottrade
more info
Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 933675, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 11/7/2009 9:23:09 AM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

The Must-Read Story on Fool.com
Which Companies Can Buy It Like Buffett?

By The Motley Fool

Which Companies Can Buy It Like Buffett?

Related Tickers

11/6/2009 4:00 PM
VALU $32.96 Down -0.86 -2.54%
Value Line, Inc. CAPS Rating: *****
LWSN $6.71 Up +0.06 +0.90%
Lawson Software, I… CAPS Rating: **
AA $12.89 Down +0.00 +0.00%
Alcoa, Inc. CAPS Rating: ****
SHLM $17.62 Down -0.09 -0.51%
A. Schulman, Inc. CAPS Rating: ****
FDO $28.59 Down -0.09 -0.31%
Family Dollar Stor… CAPS Rating: ***
NUHC $4.27 Down -0.08 -1.84%
NU HORIZONS ELECTR… CAPS Rating: No stars
PGR $16.13 Down -0.10 -0.62%
The Progressive Co… CAPS Rating: ***

Community: Investing Wiki

Term Of The Hour

PEG ratio: The PEG ratio of a stock is the P/E ratio | price to earnings ratio (P/E) divided by the expected future growth rate. The PEG may be used to find growth stock | growth stocks that are inexpensively valued.

Want to learn more or edit this definition?
Click here to read more!