Posted Jun 29th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), SLM Corp (SLM)

Despite us being on the heels of the big Russell indexes changing and despite the quarter-end being a day away, this was a boring day. A study showed a small
decrease in online job advertisements, but that was the only item on the economic front. Oil traded higher and bond yields came down as traders are voting for more stability the rest of the year there.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 8,531.19 +92.80 (1.10%)
S&P 500 927.18 +8.28 (0.90%)
Nasdaq 1,843.34 +5.12 (0.28%)
Top Analyst CallsContinue reading Closing Bell: A quiet day that didn't look quiet (BRK.A, BBI, SLM, SIRI, SWI, STT)
Posted Jun 28th 2009 2:40PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Products and services, Competitive strategy, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI)
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings says his biggest competitor isn't the one that his company is most often grouped with. It's not Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), the largest brick-and-mortar rental chain, and it's not the internet -- where technological gains are making streaming video the wave of the future.
No, according to Mr. Hastings, the biggest competitor is Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR), the coin counting business that also happens to own Redbox, the network of 15,400 vending machines that rent movies for $1 per night. Redbox is installing another machine every hour.
Continue reading Netflix says pesky little Redbox is its biggest competitor
Posted Jun 18th 2009 8:00AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI)
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), a DVD-rental business that competes with Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), was upgraded yesterday by Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. He sees good tidings ahead for the company. He believes that Netflix will see higher margins and a healthy stream of earnings. His thesis centers on the fact that the subscriber base is likely to grow and that streaming movies will lower the cost of delivery.
Upgrades are tricky beasts. Ideally, an investor or, more likely, a trader, wants to be in the stock before the upgrade occurs. Buying a company after it's been upgraded requires a lot of due diligence. And you have to get over the fact that you might be buying at a high price.
Continue reading Netflix upgraded: What does this mean for investors?
Posted May 16th 2009 9:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Wal-Mart (WMT), International Business Machines (IBM), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), Applied Materials (AMAT), Whole Foods Market (WFMI), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN), Liz Claiborne (LIZ), MBIA Inc (MBI), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Walmart, JCPenney, Freddie Mac, Playboy, Whole Foods and more
Posted May 15th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Yahoo! (YHOO), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), American Express (AXP), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF)

Not all weeks can end on an a positive note, and this week was just one of those weeks. Maybe the bulls went into hibernation, or maybe it was all just profit taking. The DJIA closed out last week at 8,574.65, so the drop to 8,273.50 shows what sort of week it was. Inflation
is still tame and the Empire Manufacturing data was actually close to positive.
Here were today's unofficial closing bell numbers:
Dow 8,273.50 -57.82 (-0.69%)
S&P 500 883.37 -9.70 (-1.09%)
Nasdaq 1,680.14 -9.07 (-0.54%)
Top Analyst CallsContinue reading Closing Bell: Profit taking to hibernating bulls (ANF, AXP, BBI, DRYS, NKE, YHOO)
Posted May 15th 2009 8:50AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA)
You know you're probably looking at a tough business situation when the first thing you see on an earnings release is a pair of bullet points related to financing strategies that are clearly meant to show the reader that a company is getting its house in order.
Such was the case with Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) and its Q1 report, which came out Thursday after the bell. Remember, this is the company that, not long ago, received a notice about its woes.
Liquidity is the name of the game these days for Blockbuster. Too bad it isn't the company's business model. As far as that goes, the video-rental chain is still having its difficulties. Revenues dipped 19% to $1.1 billion. On an adjusted basis, net income came out to 19 cents per share versus 21 cents per share in the year-ago period.
Continue reading Blockbuster beats in Q1, but stock is too big a gamble
Posted Apr 24th 2009 8:30AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, Wal-Mart (WMT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA)
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) did a spectacular job in Q1. The famous DVD-rental-by-mail entity issued its quarterly numbers on Thursday after the bell. On an adjusted basis, Netflix delivered 40 cents per diluted share. That represented bottom-line growth of over 70%. I guess movies truly are resistant to recessions, huh? Revenues advanced over 20%.
According to earnings.com, that 40-cent figure means that management destroyed expectations since Wall Street was looking for somewhere around 31 cents per share. I should point out, however, that I've noticed that some other sources listed the expectations as being a little higher than 31 cents. No matter, Netflix beat the bottom line.
Continue reading Netflix beats in Q1, but investors sold stock after report -- bad sign?
Posted Apr 7th 2009 8:30AM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI)
Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) became the latest company to get a vote of no confidence from its auditor yesterday as a declining economy, tight capital markets, and better-managed competitors have put the company in a tough spot.
In its report attached to the company's 10-K, the company's independent auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers wrote:
"The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, the risk the Company may not successfully complete a refinancing of its credit facility scheduled to mature in August 2009 and obtain related amendments of financial covenants included therein, and/or the risk the Company may not have adequate liquidity to fund their operations raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern."
Continue reading Blockbuster gets a going concern notice
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 4:00PM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: After the bell, Major movement, Walt Disney (DIS), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), Research in Motion (RIMM), Sun Microsystems (JAVA), S and P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ
In any normal universe, the market would have collapsed on news that unemployment went to 8.5%. To make matters worse, it is obviously going much higher.
The market shrugged all of that off and went nowhere. Most financial stocks were up. A number of tech and telecom stocks were down. Whatever bump the G-20 gave the market seems to have dissipated in a day.
The numbers:
DJIA:Dow 8,017.59 +39.51 (0.50%)
S&P 500 842.47 +8.09 (0.97%)
Nasdaq 1,621.87 +19.24 (1.20%)
Analyst upgrades
Analyst downgrades
Continue reading Closing bell: no reaction to jobs report (JAVA, RIMM, BBI, DIS)
Posted Mar 21st 2009 3:10PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), Adobe Systems (ADBE), Best Buy (BBY), Darden Restaurants (DRI), FedEx Corp (FDX), General Mills (GIS), Xerox Corp (XRX), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Oracle Corp (ORCL), Palm Inc (PALM)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: FedEx, Nike, Oracle, General Mills, Palm, Adobe and more
Posted Mar 21st 2009 12:10PM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, General Electric (GE), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI), Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA), News Corp'B' (NWS)
Video chain Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) reported earnings earlier this week for the fourth quarter. While there were some positive aspects to the story, I can tell you that the stock is not a buy at all, at least not from where I sit.
Okay, let me throw some of the good stats out at you. According to the press release, Blockbuster's same-store sales, or comps, are doing well. In Q4, domestic comps rose well over 4%. Free cash flow was positive. And earnings on an adjusted basis calculated out to $0.40 per share. That was a huge beat, since analysts were looking for $0.25 per share.
Continue reading Blockbuster annihilates estimates, but I won't buy it
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