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. Rolling like a burrito
No matter how long the lines at your local Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) are, analysts always seem to think that they're shorter.
Wall Street once again missed the mark on the leading quick-service burrito shop, as a healthy 8.7% spike in store-level comps fueled a 20% spike in revenue. Margins improved along the way, with earnings per share soaring 33% to $1.46 a share. Analysts were targeting a profit of only $1.39 a share.
At least the pros are getting closer. This is the first time in more than a year that Chipotle didn't earn at least 22% more than Wall Street was projecting. It only landed 5% ahead this time.
2. The Kindle's happy ending
Don't bury Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) Kindle just yet. It's been a great week for the online retailer's fledgling e-book reader.
Amazon began the week with a laundry list of inspiring metrics, including the nugget that it's selling far more Kindle e-books than it is hardcover leaf turners through its namesake store. Yes, Amazon isn't including cheaper soft covers in the comparison, but it also left out freebie downloads of public domain works.
Yesterday, Amazon announced that it inked a deal with Wylie Agency to give it e-book exclusivity over the next two years on 20 classic titles -- including some works from John Updike and Salman Rushdie. It's unlikely that exclusive access to old books will be a magnet for the Kindle, but it may be enough to deter the sale of rival gadgetry.
The favorable Kindle news came just as Amazon is being roughed up this morning for missing Wall Street profit targets despite a healthy spike in sales. Amazon's throwing more money at its Kindle, and that may not be the best thing for shareholders, but it will make Kindle owners more confident in their e-reader decisions.
3. da Vinci's latest masterpiece
The steady surgical arm of medical robotics maker Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) continues to slice through market expectations. Fueled by the growing popularity of its da Vinci high-tech surgical systems, revenue and net income soared 35% and 44% in the second quarter.
Intuitive's precise operating table robotics originally became popular in prostatectomies, but the company's no longer a one-snip pony. In fact, there were more hysterectomies performed than prostate procedures for the first time this past quarter.
4. Made in the trade
E*Trade (Nasdaq: ETFC) is back in black. The discount broker posted its first quarterly profit in three years last night, coming through with a profit of $0.12 a share during the last three months.
The early profit surprised analysts, banking on yet another deficit out of E*Trade. That's what happens when you discount a discounter. Investors should have probably seen this coming, since rivals Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) and TD AMERITRADE (Nasdaq: AMTD) also beat Wall Street's profit forecasts a few days earlier.
E*Trade's breakthrough quarter happened despite a dip in both sequential and year-over-year revenue. Delinquencies are also down sharply, distancing the web-based broker from the subprime woes that threatened to take it down for keeps a couple of years ago.
5. Not so blue Baidu
China's leading search engine continues to prove that the country's dot-com revolution is still in its early growth stages. Baidu's (Nasdaq: BIDU) quarterly profit more than doubled to $0.36 a share in its latest quarter, catapulted by a 74% surge on the top line.
We're not talking about an explosion in advertisers. Sponsors on Baidu's namesake search site climbed just 25% over the past year. However, that actually translates into the typical advertiser spending substantially more than what was spent a year ago.
Baidu's valuation isn't cheap, but that's been true all the way up. Growth like this is worth a healthy market premium.
