Panera bread is scheduled to report fourth quarter earnings today after the market close.

Technically the stock has seen growth over the years, especially since September of 2012. Over the past year, the company has seen an average growth of 17.1% and has reported increasing profit for the last three quarters. Panera is expected to report revenues for the year at 2.13 billion. Analysts are projecting a profit in earnings at $1.72 per share, a rise from last year at $1.42 per share. Options are pricing in for a move at 6.25%, up from the last two quarters. The majority of analysts are reporting Panera as a buy, comparing favorably to its competition. 

Analysts estimate that Chipotle will report earnings of $1.97 a share and revenue of $698.87 million. That estimate would show a $0.16 increase year-over-year in Chipotles earnings per share, which was reported at $1.81 in the previous year’s fourth quarter.Chipotle has reported earnings per share that have beat analyst’s estimates five out of the last eight quarters. Estimates are down from Chipotles preliminary estimates released January 15, which predicted earnings between $1.92-$1.97 and revenue of $699.2 million. In the previous quarter CMG missed analysts’ forecasts of $2.30 per share, only reporting earnings of $2.27. CMG is estimated to have grown sales by 17.10% during 2012. During the fourth quarter Chipotle is expected to have grown by 8.30% compared to the S&P 500, which is expected to have grown 9.50%. Chipotle has been developing new strategies to attract more customers, announcing in January that it was testing vegetarian menu items known as “Sofritas”. Chipotle has also been testing a new catering venture, which Chipotle said will be available in all the markets it serves. The company is expected to have grown 28.60% this year compared to the estimated industry growth of 36.00%. Shares of CMG are currently trading at $310.19, which is up around 22.86% from the last earnings announcement. Chipotle’s Q4 report will likely fall in line with analysts’ estimates, however that may still come as a disappointment to investors if there is no significant growth realized.

Author: Tyler Sciortino

Contact for questions or inquiries at tsciortino312@aol.com

Technicals look sick right now and internals are confirming this down move in the S&P 500.

When looking at the technicals on the 30-minute chart, the MACD and RSI are showing extreme exhaustion…it’s a point where we could see one more push up but the downside looks like the most probable scenario. Also today there was a bearish cross on the daily MACD, again, it could push back up for a quick squeeze…but not likely.

My current count on this market (Elliot wave analysis) has us already completed the end of wave 5 of (3) on February 1st. After a completed five waves, we need to look for a corrective move (counter-trend)…. and we may have already started that move. Today, it looked like we completed five waves down, completing wave 1 of (4). This leaves us with a wave 2 bounce before the biggest drop in a wave 3 of (5). If this count is to follow through, we will be seeing this correction end near the 1460 level. A hard break of 1490 should confirm that this correction is in full force…

Internals are currently confirming this markets downward move. EEM (Emerging Markets), XLF (Financials), XLK (Technology), XLE (Energy), XLB (Materials) and DJT (Dow Jones Transportation Average) all had big down days today, and have struggled in the past week to hold up the S&P’s upward push. In the past this is a tell-tell sign that something is developing in the market and it wants to show a different face. All of these have bearish crosses on the daily MACD, besides XLE… is that a bearish sign or bullish?! To me that’s bearish, I don’t see how we are going to push up past 1525+ without all of these sectors joining the party. A 20-35 point pullback would be healthy for this market, to help unwind these indicators to push up through 1525+ with force and strength.

Author: Peter Nitso

Twitter: @PeterNitso

Email: pnitso@yahoo.com

Traditional emerging markets, as measured by the BRICs, lagged in 2012 compared to the new generation of emerging markets and developed markets (SPY). The MIST index was basically created to differentiate these emerging countries, for some have better investment profiles than others. For example, the M in MIST (Mexico) has a lower unemployment rate than the USA. Moreover, Indonesia, I in MIST, has lower credit default swap rates on their 5 year bond compared to China; the C in BRICs.

In the age of the ETF, it is easy to build a diversified emerging markets portfolio. The MIST index below was build by taking the average of EWW, IDX, EWY, and TUR.

MIST=Blue

BRIC=purple

SPY=red/green

salerno.mark.a@gmail.com

I watch 3200 Stocks Trade everyday and I look for Stocks with Huge

Unusual Volume and I trade using the OCRRBTT Trading Plan.  Today

I saw paper buy 19,300 CBI April 55 Calls for $1.00 which was 12.2

times the Usual Volume, so I go through my Trading Plan

O: Options Volume vs Open Interest, 19,3000 vs 262

C:  Chart looks Very Bullish for a Breakout even higher

My Trade:  Buying the CBI April 55 Calls for $1.00

R: Risk: $100 per 1 lot

R: Reward: Unlimited

B: Breakeven: $56

T: Time: April

T: Target: Will take off 1/2 at Double then leave the other 1/2 until Expiration

—

Andrew Keene
President/Founder KeeneOnTheMarket.com

AKAM seems to be a way to play on the cloud-computing trend. Cloud companies tend to trade at a higher multiple than traditional tech. The recently released SKYY ETF, which tracks the cloud computing industry, has an average PE multiple of over 33x EPS for a company inside the ETF. AKAM trades at a significant discount to this average. Akamai’s “Cloud Performance Solutions” are designed to, “provide on-demand access to applications and resources anywhere…cloud computing offers businesses significant cost savings, and operational scalability,” says the company.

With regard to bottom line EPS performance. AKAM has had the tendency to beat Wall Street expectations. Over the last six observations (quarters), AKAM has posted positive EPS results over the streets’ expectations. The average beat is 6.6% over the same sample.

Other risks include general pricing trends. While there are very strong secular trends for AKAM (like the mobile tsunami), pricing is a key component for the stock. Renewal waves may keep the peeks and valleys of AKAM’s prices volatile to moving downward…a massive risk

But shares have been rather volatile. AKAM recently made a low of $20, so investors should be cautious. Another catalyst includes earnings. It is important to note that AKAM has earnings February 6^th of 2013 after the close. The February options, that include earnings, are implying a $4.00 range in the stock by the third Friday of February (expiration day). This is roughly a 10% move up or down.

salerno.mark.a@gmail.com

Lets start with Apple… its obvious that they have enough cash to buy Twitter up whenever they want to, but would they pay up? If you were looking at their track record, you would say no. But, Steve Jobs is not in charge anymore. The times of no major acquisitions could be over if Twitter entices Tim Cook enough. Personally, I think Cook would be willing to make the move…he’s already introduced dividends, and Jobs was obviously not willing to do that during his time. So why would shelling out 5-10 billion be any different?!

Apple already has the iPad, iPhone and Macs to immediately implement Twitter if they decide to make the move. The way all of their devices are currently connected to each other is mind blowing, and if they could figure out a way to weave social media into their products, it could be the next jump Apple needs to take to separate them from competitors.

How does Google fit with Twitter? Well, they have already tried their own social media aspect, Google+, and that has not worked out for one second! I do not know anyone who ever signed up for it and who currently uses it. But, that is not the point, the point is, is that they have tried to get into that business, but failed. Who says that they still don’t want to get back into it? They certainty have the cash to buyout Twitter, but would they make that move? Sure, they acquired Motorola for billions and look at what they’ve done with them?! Nothing! That doesn’t say they don’t have plans for the long term with Motorola, but in the short run it doesn’t look that way. Twitter is no different in my eyes; they could acquire them for ‘X’ amount and sit on them for a little bit before they introduce how they will be used.

Currently, Apple makes the most sense to acquire Twitter, but Google is right behind in second place. Look for the acquisition later on in 2013….

Author: Peter Nitso

pnitso@yahoo.com

Twitter: @PeterNitso