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Eddy Elfenbein submits: On Thursday morning Nicholas Financial (NICK) will release its fiscal first-quarter earnings. My view is that NICK will do pretty much what it’s been doing, only more so. My ballpark estimates are as follows:Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: Thanks to Barron’s article, AFLAC (AFL) has been as high as $51.26 this morning. We’ll know a lot more after tomorrow’s close when the company reports Q2 earnings. Fiserv (FISV) and Wright Express (WXS) also report tomorrow. Fiserv, by the way, is a great example of a company that delivers consistently higher earnings. Here’s a look at their reported earnings in blue along with Wall Street’s projections in red.Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: Over the weekend, Barron’s had a nice profile of AFLAC (AFL). Here’s a sample: With Wall Street focused on the company's investment portfolio, little attention has been paid to estimates of 8% to 12% growth in 2011 in Aflac's operating earnings, excluding currency translation. Shares trade for only eight times 2011 projected profits, when a multiple of 12 times earnings is more appropriate, says Scott Chapman, another Lateef manager. Based on the 2011 consensus earnings estimate of $5.96 a share, that multiple would result in a stock price of 71. (Woo hoo!)Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: Tomorrow marks the beginning of second-quarter earnings season for the stocks on my Buy List. The first stock to report is Intel (INTC) and I expect to see very good results. First, let me fill you in on the story so far. In April, Intel surprised Wall Street when it said it was expecting Q2 revenue of $10.2 billion, plus or minus $400 million. That was well above the Street’s estimate of $9.7 billion. Then in May, the company said that it was “highly confident” that it would achieve its financial goals for the second quarter.Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: Earlier we pointed out that the stock market has had a very dramatic effect at the turn of each month. Since 1932, most of the S&P 500’s capital gain has come during a seven-day period at the turn of each month—specifically, the last four trading days and the first three trading days of each month. This represents about one-third of the total trading days. During the rest of the month, the stock market actually lost money. Investing in just the last four days and first three days of each month would have returned over 63,000% (not including trading costs). Annualized, that’s 8.6%. However, if you consider that it’s really only 32% of the time, the true annualized rate is over 28%. The rest of the month—the other 68% of the time—has resulted in a combined loss of close to 78%.Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: Here’s another little-known stock with an amazing track record. Arden Group (ARDNA) runs 18 Gelson’s shopping centers in Southern California. The company has a market value of about $280 million and it’s almost entirely ignored by Wall Street. In fact, it’s not uncommon for Arden to trade a few hundred shares a day.Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: Another day on Wall Street, and we’re still talking about Goldman Sachs (GS). To reiterate, I don’t think Goldman is a good buy right now. Goldman is still doing what it does best—making ridiculous amounts of money. Earnings for the first quarter nearly doubled to $3.46 billion. That comes to $5.59 a share which creamed Wall Street’s estimate of $4.14 a share.Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: In Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, the D.A. was known as Captain Ahab for his tireless search for the Great White Defendant. I can’t help but this of this when looking at the SEC’s case against Goldman Sachs (GS). This is a very convenient target coming at a very convenient time. If the facts we have are correct, then Goldman should clearly be found guilty before a moral court. However, the actual legal case the SEC has seems shockingly thin. Even after several months, the case will turn on the materiality of John Paulson’s role in forming the Abacus portfolio. Furthermore, Mr. Tourre isn’t merely a small fry—he’s a micro-guppy.Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: We’re still early in fourth-quarter earnings season and Wall Street has already had a nice rally this year. The S&P 500 put on nearly 15% between February 8 and this past Thursday. We could be headed for a cooling off period. Paul J. Lim notes in the New York Times that the market may be getting a tad too optimistic about earnings:John Butters, an earnings analyst at Thomson Reuters, noted that more often than not, companies that are likely to fall short tend to pre-announce their results, in part to lower the market’s expectations.Complete Story »

Eddy Elfenbein submits: Sometime later this month Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will announce its 48th consecutive annual dividend increase. This dividend hike probably won’t make much news but I urge all serious investors to take notice. Half a century of rising dividends is a remarkable achievement. JNJ’s current quarterly dividend is 49 cents a share which works out to a yield of about 3%. Last year’s increase was fairly small, just 7.7%. Alan Brochstein speculates that this year’s increase will be 10%, which brings the dividend to 54 cents a share. That sounds about right to me. If that’s the case, then JNJ currently yield about 3.3%.Complete Story »