This silly earning thing

First Quarter earning reports for the stocks I own (as of this writing, it could change without notice). This is mostly for my own benefit, I want to collect them in one place rather than go to different IR web sites. Listening to conference call is a mixed experience, sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s boring. The most interesting part is the Q&A session, where the analysts and management goes back and forth: and I get the most out of things there (most of time).

US Bancorp USB beat slightly
Conference call (audio and slides)

McDonald MCD (barely according to CNBC)
Conferece call (for some reason it’s not working for me).

CNBC report (link).

This "Wang Yang Bu Lao thing" on credit rating

(Update) Big bro started to act now.

(Original) We all know the stock rating game: I mean those “buy”, “hold” and “sell” rating usually issued by sell side (brokeage) analysts. They are mostly not objective, because at the end of the day the dealers want to sell you more stocks, regardless they are good or bad. At the height of this analyst game is Goldman “conviction buy”, my question for them is why there are no “conviction sell”? Presumably, one can use a sell list to short stocks?

Oh well, Michael Lewis, the former Soloman bond salesman, described the analysts in his “Liar’ Poker” very well. So I won’t keep beat on them. My focus on this little article is on the credit rating (bond rating) game. We all know the credit rating agencies (agencies may have mislead some to think they are independent organization, they are really for-profit companies) have been under attack for the debale of housing/mortgage markets because they had been slept in the same bed with the issuers of MBS (mortgage backed securities).

Ingersoll Rand: huge write down, stock still up?

This morning, Ingersoll Rand (NYSE: IR), the diversified industrial company makes procucts to air conditioner (Trane) to Schlage locks, reported its Q4 2008 earning this morning. Some highlights: it wrote down $3.7 billion (pre-tax, $3.4 b after tax) from Trane acqusition, or a loss of $10.56 per share. Interestingly, the stock went up about 15% in today’s trading. Why?

Some are saying the reason is the Q4 earning is above guidance (and street expectation).

Ingersoll Rand

Company web page; Google Finance; Yahoo Finance; quick facts on Trane unit.

2Q 2008 results (Bloomberg), released on Aug 1.
======
Ingersoll-Rand Co., the maker of Thermo King and Hussmann refrigeration equipment, said second- quarter profit rose 26 percent after acquiring air conditioner- maker Trane Inc.

Profit from continuing operations climbed to $262.5 million, or 90 cents a share, from $208 million, or 68 cents, a year earlier, matching analysts’ estimates. Sales grew 38 percent to $3.08 billion, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said today in a statement.

The results include about three weeks’ worth of sales from Trane. Ingersoll-Rand completed the $9.6 billion purchase June 5, creating a climate-control business that spans refrigerated truck parts, display cases and ventilation systems. The combined company is forecast to post sales of $17 billion this year as Chief Executive Officer Herbert Henkel expands the company’s industrial products after exiting construction machinery.
======