A positive earnings report for the 3rd quarter and some positive guidance boosted Boeing (BA) stock today by near 2%. Commercial place deliveries provided for a revenue surprise of $25.85 billion. A 7% increase from the prior year period. The new earnings guidance came in above the range of $7.7-7.9 a share at $7.95-8.15.

Profit popped 25% and the company reduced costs on its 787 Dreamliner that many analyst have been pushing for. The company has a backlog of 5700 jets which is a good number of orders that should keep revenue solid going forward. Other worries include the closing of the import-export bank and slowing demand from emerging markets. The company did not feel these issues would be enough to offset current positive trends.

H&R Block jumped higher yesterday by 6% at the open after the company posted a smaller loss and better revenue than anticipated. The company also announced a stock buyback program of $3.5 billion in addition to closing its banking business a month ahead of schedule.

The company’s adjusted gross earnings for the first quarter came in at a loss of $96 million with revenue of $138 million. Analyst were looking for $108 million loss, the same as last year, and revenue of $134 million.

Questions came today after Wal-Mart missed earnings with profit margins coming down from 5.6% a year ago to 5.1% this quarter. The retail giant blamed the pharmacy business, shrinkage, and increasing wages. The company now has a starting wage of $9.00 an hour which is set to raise to $10.00 an hour early next year. This increase in wages translates to a 24 cent reduction in profit.

Wage growth is not happening organically according to recent economic reports. But is expected to occur more so next spring, at which time, revenue growth is also expected to accelerate. These two moving at the same time allows companies to maintain profits. Artificial wage growth without top-line improvements causes profits to fall, like we are seeing at Wal-Mart and other companies that moved towards the federal governments desire for a $15 minimum wage.

Microsoft reported its 3rd quarter results tonight, beating analyst estimates with stronger sales in cloud services, tablets, and software. Windows sales were soft during the period. Revenue beat estimates at $21.7 million, an improvement of 6% when compared to the same quarter last year. Earnings beat by 10 cents, coming in at 61 cents a share.

Microsoft touted its cloud services as evidence that companies are moving away from server based technologies to its cloud products. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, also mentioned the upcoming Build developers conference as something we should look forward to, to see more cloud products from the company.

The wind of change is blowing in the television and content delivery space. Netflix has done it again, increasing its share prices by nearly 14% to end at $65.28 at the close of trading. This was surely helped by the release of its first quarter report that showed steady progress in subscriber acquisition. Other news included not so stellar profit figures and the possibility of a stock split.

The company hosted a Q&A session after the report was made public. Its CEO Reed Hastings sounded triumphant as he emphasized the growth of Internet TV. He did not show concern about the moves of his competitors, saying instead that more players mean a greater attraction for the audience to try this new wave.

Chipotle Mexican Grille Inc. which has outperformed all other members of the S&P 500 Restaurant Index so far, sees sales coming in soft next year. Growth has been near 15% for stores opened in the last year but going forward, the company predicts sales to grow closer to 5%. Analysts had thought a slow down in the 7.2% growth range was coming. So they did see this trend prior to the company discussing it today while reporting its most recent quarter.

The stock, ticker symbol CMG moved lower in after-hours trading. The stock has climbed 23% this year to date. Analyst are hoping the soft sales growth projection is the company being conservative at this time and the actual numbers will be better. Some till remain positive on the stock with Buy ratings. Strong growth in the past was attributed to the healthy nature of their meals and the ability of customers to customize their orders.

A Hamburger, fries, and a coke from a fast-food restaurant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Burger King Worldwide 2013 Third Quarter Results

Over the years, Burger King have been steadily going from strength to strength, so it comes as no surprise that the third quarter results are so impressive. Their third quarter earnings have grown dramatically to $68.2 million in net profit. This translates to 19 cents per share. This result towers over the result from the same time last year and Burger King shows no sign of relaxing it's positive momentum.

Citigroup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Investing Money In Citigroup

For over 100 years, Citigroup has been a global leader in commercial and consumer banking. While the company has historically been very strong, their stock has faltered a bit and been quite volatile over the past few years. While investment performance had been up and down recently, now could be a great time to invest in the company.