Sapient swings to a profit, completes options probe
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THE REGION Sapient Corp. , a Cambridge business and technology services consultancy, said it swung to a first-quarter profit, topping Wall Street expectations. Net income for the quarter ended March 31 was $775,000, or a penny per share, compared with a loss of $1.4 million, or a penny per share, for the year-earlier quarter. Excluding certain expenses, earnings for the ...
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The software maker proves that its form of capitalism is working quite well, with quarterly earnings topping its own and Wall Street's predictions.
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CHINA Aviation Oil Singapore Corp (CAO), which revealed a US$550 million ($900 million) trading loss earlier in the week, is being probed by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), which investigates white-collar crime.
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Quarterly profits were up 55%. It's a possible takeover target. Is it a good option for investors?
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Find out why the stock rose even after reporting a tough quarter.
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Plus earnings from Bear Stearns, Research In Motion and Palm.
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Its valuation might be holding the stock back, but look at the company's track record.
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(InfoWorld) - Rambus will pay $18 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over stock-option accounting. The suit was filed last year on behalf of shareholders afterÂ the audit committee of Rambus's board of directors found that the company had improperly accounted for stock-option grants. Under the settlement, which still needs court approval, all claims against all defendants in the case would be dismissed, according to the company. The audit committee found that option grants to employees had been misdated and the company had improperly accounted for those grants. Rambus had to restate results for 2003 through 2005 and the first quarter 2006 as a result of the investigation. Rambus, in Los Altos, California, makes memory technology. Last month, Rambus settled its own suits against all but one former executive for more than $6.5 million. As part of that deal, claims were dropped against all the former executives except Ed Larsen, former vice president of human resources and senior vice president of administration, who worked for the company from 1996 to 2004. Rambus was one of scores of technology companies, including Apple, McAfee, and Broadcom, that have been embroiled in controversy surrounding accounting for backdated stock options. Many companies used backdating to try to give new employees a greater windfall when they exercised their options.
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The company raises earnings guidance, boosting the stock.
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(InfoWorld) - Market reaction to BEA Systems' stock options backdating inquiry this week provided a clue to investor psychology, while RealNetworks and Microsoft offered a look at the future of aspects of the software and services business. BEA announced Wednesday that an internal review found that most options granted for nine years, up until last June, were improperly recorded. The company expects to restate earnings, which will include putting previously unrecorded expenses of $340 million to $390 million on the books. CEO Alfred Chuang and other executives will repay gains from "mispriced options," BEA said, but added: "Following the review, the audit committee and the board of directors expressed their continued confidence in the leadership and integrity of Mr. Chuang and the current executive leadership team." BEA shares closed Thursday at $13.01, up $0.48 for the day. Brokerages Piper Jaffray and JMP Securities both raised their ratings on the company. Why the joy? It seems that company observers and IT investors like closure more than they dislike the idea of companies having to restate earnings. This has been a pattern in many of the stock options inquiries -- numbering well over 100 -- that have occurred. ThoughÂ government inquiries into Apple options practicesÂ are ongoing, company shares bounced up after an internal inquiry expressed confidence in CEO Steve Jobs. Though the spectacle of well-paid executives getting richer via improperly recorded options grants may strike some as unseemly, it seems the market as a whole wants to forgive and forget. Investors, however, were hard on RealNetworks after the company reported earnings Wednesday. The company, which offers music subscription services through Rhapsody, added 100,000 users in the last quarter and recordedÂ a revenueÂ gainÂ of more than 50 percent to $125.6 million. But guidance for the year fell short of expectations. Company shares plunged by $1.70 to close at $8.97 Thursday. The guidance for the year suggests that Real's growth will be impaired by a general preference over downloading songs via complete systems such as Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's Zune rather than subscribing continuously to a service. Meanwhile, Microsoft's shares closed at $29.46 Thursday, up by $0.06 ahead of its financial analysts meeting in New York, which began as the market closed. Though Microsoft shares have faltered recently, they started climbing steadily last June in the run-up to the Vista launch. Now, sales reports indicate that Vista is being snapped up faster than XP was. However, the financial meeting was scheduled to last only one hour, and Microsoft said ahead of time that it would not alter its earnings guidance for the year. Many analysts are saying that Microsoft won't see the full effect of Vista revenue until late in the year, or even next year. So despite a boost this week, company shares in the medium term may not rise as quickly as they did in the last two quarters of 2006.
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The software company beat Wall Streetâs projections as it claimed substantial gains over its rivals, SAP and I.B.M.
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A veteran analyst provides some salient advice on getting the next big stock.
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Investors are wowed by the firmâs first quarterly earnings report since it became a publicly-owned company, which showed sales and profit more than doubled in the third quarter.
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One Fool made a great call on Microsoft. Check out the stocks he thinks you should be looking at.
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The Dorozhko Defense Oleksandr Dorozhko made almost $300,000 in stock-option trading by using insider information that was obtained after someone hacked into the network of a company called IMS Health. Now, the Ukrainian resident is exploiting a loophole that may allow him to keep the ill-gotten gains for good.â¦
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The UnitedHealth Group completed an earnings restatement of up to $1.5 billion tied to its stock options accounting Tuesday.
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange, the largest U.S. options market, said on Thursday that third-quarter profit more than doubled, helped by a rise in record trading volume and new product offerings.