Whole Foods 3rd-quarter profit tops expectations

(Reuters) - Profit dropped to $49.1 million, or 35 cents per share, in the fiscal third quarter ended July 1, from $53.9 million, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier.



Analysts, on average, expected Whole Foods to earn 33 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.


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Loews profit climbs 15 pct

(Reuters) - Profit attributable to Loews shareholders rose to $511.7 million, or 95 cents per share, from $474.9 million, or 85 cents a share.




Excluding investment losses, profit attributable to shareholders was $599.2 million, or about $1.11 per share, based on reported shares outstanding.


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Citigroup, Wachovia profits top forecasts

(Reuters) - Profit rose 18 percent at Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank,
and 24 percent at Wachovia, the fourth largest.




Shares of both companies fell, however, as investors
worried that banks would get stuck with more soured consumer
loans or riskier corporate debt on their balance sheets.


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TVS Expects New Motorcycles in India, Overseas Expansion to Boost Profit

(Bloomberg) -- TVS Motor Co., India's third-largest
motorcycle maker, expects profit to rise for the first time in
four years as it introduces new domestic models and expands to
Indonesia.

The company will start selling new variants of the Victor
and Apache motorcycles in India, TVS Chairman Venu Srinivasan
said in an interview in Jakarta yesterday. Profit at the company
fell 43 percent to 666 million rupees ($16.5 million) for the
year ended March 31 after TVS cut prices and cost of raw
materials such as steel and aluminum rose.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

LG.Philips Posts First Profit in Five Quarters on Higher Flat-Panel Prices

(Bloomberg) -- LG.Philips LCD Co., the world's
second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, reported its
first profit in five quarters after prices of monitor and
notebook panels rose.

Net income was 228 billion won ($248 million) in the three
months ended June 30, from a record loss a year earlier, Seoul-
based LG.Philips said today in a regulatory filing. Sales,
including overseas affiliates, rose 45 percent to 3.36 trillion
won. Profit beat analysts' estimates.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Apple, Applebee's, Epiq, Healthspring, Sapient: U.S. Equity Movers

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies
whose shares are having unusual price changes in U.S. exchanges
today. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.
Share prices are as of 2:40 p.m. New York time.

A. Schulman Inc. (SHLM US) fell $2.95, or 12 percent, to
$21.01. The maker of plastics used in steering wheels cut its
2007 forecast, citing unexpected weakness in Europe and North
America. Profit this year will be $17 million to $23 million,
lower than an earlier estimate of as much as $30 million.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Dell, Direct-Sales Icon, Tries Wal-Mart in Bid to Revive Profit Growth

(Bloomberg) -- Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell built
the world's largest personal-computer maker by bypassing
retailers and selling directly to customers. Now he's looking to
the people he snubbed to help reclaim the No. 1 spot from
Hewlett-Packard Co.

Dell last week said it will sell PCs at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
starting June 10. The Round Rock, Texas, company may give details
of the new retail strategy today, when it reports earnings.
Profit probably fell for a fourth quarter in five, analysts
surveyed by Bloomberg say.


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Saks profit tops estimates as sales improve

(Reuters) - Profit fell to $11 million, or 7 cents a diluted share, in the first quarter ended May 5 from $77.9 million, or 57 cents a share, a year earlier.




Excluding special items, including expenses of 9 cents a share tied to retention and severance costs, profit in the latest quarter was 19 cents a share. Analysts had expected 15 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.


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Bernanke, Greenspan Disagree on Impact of Corporate-Profit Peak

The disagreement between Alan Greenspan and Ben S. Bernanke about where the U.S. economy is headed boils down to just one word: profits.

For the 81-year-old former Federal Reserve chairman, a peak in profit margins is a sign the economic expansion may be past its prime and the risks of recession are growing. For his 53- year-old successor, the topping out of margins may instead herald better times for U.S. workers as wage increases start to catch up with the five-year boom in corporate profits.

Many economists -- including some who worked with Greenspan at the Fed -- side with Bernanke. If companies are accepting lower profit margins instead of raising prices to help offset increasing wages, that helps contain inflation. It also helps forestall the kind of Fed-engineered interest-rate rises that have often triggered recessions in the past.

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Anglo American profit up 46 pct, to return $3 bln

Anglo American Plc, the world's third-largest miner, said on Wednesday it would return $3 billion to investors as it posted a 46 percent rise in annual net profit, at the bottom end of forecasts.
Anglo said in a statement it made a net profit of $5.47 billion in 2006, on revenue up 12 percent at $38.6 billion. The final dividend was raised 21 percent to 75 cents.

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Metorex earnings surge 284%

South African-based miner Metorex posted a 284% surge in first-half headline earnings per share on Monday on higher output and strong metals prices, in line with its forecast.

Metorex said headline EPS for the six months to December 31 rose to 51.44 cents from 13.41 cents in the same period the previous year.

The firm said earlier this month in a trading update that headline EPS were expected to rise to 48-52c.

Read more at FIN24.co.za

Tongaat-Hulett profit up 51%

South African sugar and aluminium producer Tongaat-Hulett Group Ltd posted a 51% rise in headline earnings on Monday, in line with its own forecast, and said it expects profits to increase in the year ahead.

The firm, majority owned by mining group Anglo American plc, said headline earnings rose to R703m during the year to December 31 from R466m the previous year.

Read more at FIN24.co.za

FTSE flat ahead of BoE rate decision, miners up

Britain's FTSE 100 index was flat by mid-session on Wednesday as gains in mining stocks, buoyed by BHP Billiton's results, were offset by concerns over interest rates ahead of a key Bank of England meeting.

BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, was the biggest gainer, up 4.1 percent after it announced a 41 percent jump in first-half profit and earmarked an extra $10 billion for share buybacks.

Fellow miners also rose, with Vedanta Resources up 2.3 percent, Kazakhmys tacking on 0.5 percent, Anglo American rising 1 percent and Xstrata adding 0.5 percent.

Read more at Reuters South Africa