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Best Stocks: Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) keeps analysts confused after results, pay raise; Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI), Swift (NYSE:SWFT)

By Kim Rodriguez February 23, 2015
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Barclays cut its rating on Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) last week after the world's largest retailer reported its quarterly results and gave forward looking guidance. However, research firm Janney Capital wrote a note to investors that it believes shares of Wal-Mart will probably outperform going forward, as other retailers are likely to implement wage hikes similar to the one that the giant discounter announced. Last week Wal-Mart announced that it would raise the wages of all of its employees to at least $10 per hour by February 2016. The company also reported higher than expected fourth quarter profits, excluding certain items, but its Q4 revenue came in below expectations. Moreover, the retailer provided lower than expected profit guidance for its fiscal 2016 and lowered its fiscal 2016 sales growth guidance to 1%-2% from its previous outlook of 2%-4%. Wal-Mart's stock sharply dropped after the quarterly report.

 

Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) informs, U.S. rig count down 48 from last week. Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI)  said that the U.S. rig count has come down  to 48 rigs from last week to 1,310, with oil rigs down 37 to 1,019, gas rigs down 11 to 289, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 2. U.S. Rig count is down 461 rigs from last year at 1,771, with oil rigs down 406, gas rigs down 53, and miscellaneous rigs down 2. The U.S. offshore rig count is 54, up 2 rigs from last week, and down 3 rigs year over year. Canadian rig count is down 22 rigs from last week to 360, with oil rigs down 14 to 184, and gas rigs down 8 to 176.

 

Truck carrier stocks (NYSE:SWFT) poised to outperform, believes Citigroup. Citigroup believes that growth in the U.S. economy will likely help truck carrier stocks  to  outperform the S&P 500. Citigroup analyst Christian Wetherbee wrote in a note to investors that truck transportation prices and truck carrier stocks "respond most directly to economic growth.” Among truck carriers, Swift (NYSE:SWFT) is particularly attractive, since it has underperformed its peers over the last year, Wetherbee stated.  The analyst predicted that after carriers' truckload rates rose 4% last year, the rates should rise by a similar amount this year.

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By Kim Rodriguez February 23, 2015
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