If you're feeling good about the market, you're not alone. Take my hand as we go over some of this week's more uplifting headlines.
1. No ordinary Joe
Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR.DL) was percolating after posting better-than-expected results on Wednesday afternoon. The company behind the Keurig single-cup brewing platform saw sales climb 10% to top $1.1 billion. Analysts were holding out for a mere 4% advance.
The news got even better on the bottom line. Given the recent spike in coffee costs, some feared that margins would contract. It didn't happen. Adjusted earnings per share soared 16% to $1.08, befuddling the analysts who forecasted flattish bottom-line growth.
2. It's a work of cart
Amazon.com (AMZN 1.06%) is making it cooler for Twitter's 255 million active users to shop. The leading online retailer and microblogging website are teaming up to allow anyone replying to an ad with an Amazon link to use the #AmazonCart hashtag to add the item to their Amazon shopping cart.
Is it easier? Not really. Assuming someone is automatically logged into one's Amazon.com account it only takes two clicks to add a tweeted link to the same cart. Pecking out the hashtag and broadcasting your shopping attentions isn't going to be for everybody. However, this is still a smart move by Amazon since it will get more people to post Amazon links to products.
Amazon Associates -- Amazon's program for bloggers and webmasters to generate commissions by pushing Amazon merchandise -- will allow its promoters to make some money on the transactions they help facilitate with the new hashtag, making it likely that there will be a lot more Amazon product links on Twitter in the future.
3. Hain now
Hain Celestial (HAIN -2.15%) sure knows how to time an earnings blowout. A day after Whole Foods, the leading organic supermarket chain hosed down its guidance -- again -- the distributor of organic and natural products delivered strong financials and boosted its outlook.
With net sales and operating profits up 22% and 25%, respectively, it's not a surprise to see Hain Celestial coming out on top. Its adjusted profit of $0.88 a share was comfortably ahead of the $0.86 a share the market expected. Things will continue to get better from here. Hain Celestial is boosting its top- and bottom-line guidance, and the new forecast calling for a 24% uptick in net sales translates into accelerating growth for the balance of 2014.
4. Let's eat
GrubHub (GRUB) is making sure that it doesn't disappoint in its first quarterly report since going public at $28 last month. The online ordering platform for restaurant takeout and delivery saw revenue climb 49% to $58.6 million with adjusted profitability of $0.06 a share, more than doubling Wall Street expectations.
GrubHub's guidance also exceeded analyst forecasts. That's huge during a week that saw many reporting companies check in with unflattering outlooks. With just 3.85 million active diners, GrubHub could just be scratching the surface.
5. Never on Sunday
LeapFrog Enterprises (LF.DL) has been a disaster in recent quarters, with children favoring traditional tablets and online apps over its many electronic learning toys. LeapFrog's report on Monday was another stinker: Net sales tumbled 31% and its adjusted net loss more than tripled to $0.17 a share. The silver lining in this grim report is that Wall Street was holding out for a larger deficit on a 40% plunge in net sales.
There's also comfort in knowing that new products are on the way. Between the LeapBand fitness tracker, LeapTV gaming console, and updates to its existing products, it's going to be a busy slate of new LeapFrog items hitting the market during the second half of this year. LeapFrog's in lousy shape, but all it takes is a single hit to get it jumping in the right direction again.
