We suspect that expectations were modest for MCD’s Q1 results given the weather in the U.S., recent trends ex-weather and the company’s cautious commentary on margins contained in its last sales release. We believe that the stock’s recent move higher
Our positive stance on DuPont has been driven by two factors; valuation, and the belief that there is a real growth story in the core business. Valuation support remains but it is much less of a factor today than it
We expect 3.5% (nominal) y/y growth in US health services demand during 1Q14, the product of 2.5% growth in demand intensity and 1.0% growth in price. Intensity growth reflects a 20bp improvement over actual 4Q13 growth of 2.3%, and a
There is very little not to like in CMG’s earnings release this morning (unless you care about margins or EPS results) – but we recognize that it is a growth stock and that top line growth is pretty much all
This morning, PM reported Q1 ’14 EPS of $1.19 per share, besting consensus estimates by $0.03 – we would characterize the quality as somewhat mixed (certainly not as strong as Q4 ‘13), but our view on PM is unchanged given
The outlook for commercial premium growth is sluggish; modest enrollment gains from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and rising employment are offset by the rising tendency of beneficiaries to either buy cheaper policies, or forego coverage altogether On top of
TMT: Don’t Rain on My IPO 2013 was the biggest year for TMT IPOs since 2007, with 54 companies hitting the market, led by TWTR, but otherwise dominated by enterprise cloud software. 2014 began with a big backlog of 590
According to yesterday’s Crop Progress Report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2% of the nation’s corn crop has been planted thus far, compared to 3% at the same time last year and 6% historically – small numbers, to be
KO this morning reported Q1 EPS of $0.44 per share, consistent with consensus estimates, a result that we expect will be sufficient to move the shares higher given just how bad we see the sentiment on the name currently. Global
As of Thursday April 10th roughly 7.5 million persons have selected plans on the health insurance exchanges (HIEs); of these roughly 86 percent have paid (or are likely to pay) premiums; this points to a total of 6.5 million HIE
