Timken Stock Surges Higher After It Confirms Split

Shares of steel products maker Timken Co. (TKR) continued their ascent Friday, climbing as much as 5% in morning trading.
Its stock surged 7% the prior two days amid speculation it might split into two publicly traded companies, and increase its dividend. Timken late Thursday said its board approved a plan to separate its steel business from the unit that makes bearings and power transmissions.
The announcement lifted others in the ailing steel producers group.

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Timken had been under pressure from activist investors, including the Relational Investors fund, who had pressed it to make the move.
Relational has taken positions in several large manufacturers in recent years, including ITT (ITT), Ingersoll-Rand (IR) and Illinois Tool Works (ITW), and advocated changes to make the companies more profitable and lift share price.
Relational was supported in its drive by CalSTRS, the California state teachers' pension fund, which joined in urging Timken management to make changes.
Timken shares were up 3.3% in afternoon trading on the stock market today.
The company had struggled of late, reporting lower year-over-year profit five quarters in a row, and lower sales growth for four quarters.
Still, its stock price rose 63% from a Nov. 16 low to Aug. 5 on prospects of better growth amid a manufacturing resurgence tied to the economy. It's consolidated since, in sync with the market.
Elsewhere in the Metal Processors & Fabricators group, ranked a weak 99 on IBD's list of 197 industries, Valmont Industries (VMI), with annual revenue of about $3.3 billion, edged up.
Smaller but highly rated Handy & Harman (HNH), with sales of $626 million a year, was up 1.4%. Handy & Harman boasts an 89 IBD Composite Rating, meaning its stock has outperformed 89% of all stocks on key metrics such as sales and profit growth.
In the related Steel-Producers group, ranked a dismal 158 on IBD's industries list, Netherlands-based Arcelor-Mittal (MT), the world's largest steel producer with $80 billion yearly revenue, rose 1%. And smaller Valley City, Ohio-based Shiloh Industries (SHLO), with an 83 Composite Rating, was also up about 1%.
Timken plans to spin off the bearings and transmissions business as a $3.4 billion revenue global company, and named Richard Kyle, current chief operating officer of that unit, as CEO. That company will start with 17,000 employees and 35 manufacturing plants.
The new engineered steel company will start with about $1.7 billion annual revenue and be headed by Ward Timken, currently president of the steel business and chairman of Timken's board.
Timken expects to complete the split within 12 months.

GE May Target Dresser-Rand, Dril-Quip In Energy Push

General Electric (GE) may be aiming to add to its rapidly growing oil and gas business, this time with Dresser-Rand (DRC) or Dril-Quip (DRQ) in its sights, Bloomberg reported.
The diversified giant, which has expanded its oil and gas unit primarily via acquisitions, could spend part of its $19.3 billion cash stockpile to buy more companies as U.S. drilling takes off, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
Global Financial Private Capital sees Houston-based Dresser-Rand and Dril-Quip as attractive takeover candidates for GE.
Dresser-Rand is expected to grow sales by 51% in the next three years, Bloomberg says, and Dril-Quip by 63%. Dresser-Rand, which makes compressors, turbines and other oil and gas production gear, has a $4.7 billion market cap. Offshore drilling equipment maker Dril-Quip's market cap is $4.4 billion.
It's not the first time both companies have been seen as possible targets for GE or another big suitor. Analysts think a Dresser-Rand or Dril-Quip play by GE could attract antitrust regulators' attention.
GE completed its most recent acquisition, Lufkin Industries, in July. When that buyout was announced in April, Tesco (TESO) and Weatherford International's (WFT) were named as possible next targets. Other oil and gas buys included John Wood's well-support unit and Wellstream, both in 2011.
U.S. crude oil output has been growing at a record pace. The Energy Department said production in July increased to a 20-year high of 7.5 million barrels per day in July. The Energy Information Administration has said crude oil imports have been steadily declining since 2005, when U.S. oil production rose above 12 million BPD.
GE shares were trading marginally higher at 23.22 in afternoon trading on the stock market today. Dresser-Rand was up 0.8% to 61.61 and Dril-Quip 0.2% to 107.03.

LinkedIn Looks To Grow With Strategy, Stock Offering

Mobile is hot. And LinkedIn, which just boosted a new stock offering above $1 billion, is well-positioned to jump on the bandwagon of mobile marketing, and into other promising areas.
With 238 million registered members and new ones joining at a rate of more than two per second, the professional networking site has been expanding ways to monetize its various channels. Its $1.17 billion stock offering, detailed in SEC filings, will help fund the growth.
"Marketing solutions is probably the biggest topic of conversation this year," said Randy Reece, analyst at Avondale Partners. "Everyone noticed how Facebook (FB) went from zero mobile advertising revenue to having it be more than 40% of its total advertising revenue within a very short period of time.

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"And LinkedIn (LNKD) recently introduced its first significant efforts to sell advertising in the mobile format," Reece said. "So, in 2014, whatever advertising revenue comes in from mobile will be incremental to what the company did this year."
Growth And Green
The social networker has several areas of growth focus — among them mobile, collegiate and international expansion. LinkedIn's stock offering, to increase the company's "financial flexibility," according to the prospectus, could go not only toward organic expansion and general purposes but also for strategic acquisitions. The offering priced at $223 apiece for 5.4 million shares late Wednesday, with option for underwriters to buy about another 807,000, which would boost the offering to a total as high as $1.35 billion. It's expected to close on Tuesday Sept. 10.
During the most recent quarter, LinkedIn saw its mobile activity increase. Its mobile home page engagement rose over 40%, while social actions, article views and mobile profile edits also accelerated.
It is continuing to ramp up sponsored updates on the mobile platform where advertisers can place relevant content within LinkedIn's mobile news feed.
LinkedIn's marketing solutions represented 24% of total revenue in the past quarter. Mobile advertising took up an even smaller share.
"The company is deliberately restraining its mobile ad inventory right now while it tests different aspects of the program," Reece said. "Exactly how to sell this, how to price it, how much advertising to allow without annoying members — there are a lot of things to figure out. So, LinkedIn is trying to go slowly."
That said, analysts view LinkedIn as relatively better-positioned for the accelerating shift to mobile compared with many other Internet companies.
An emerging theme is how the shift to mobile devices negatively impacts near-term monetization, says Tom White, analyst at Macquarie Research, in a research report

Harman CEO Sees Signs Of Europe Auto Industry Pickup

The future's looking bright, car audio systems maker Harman International (HAR) said, as Europe's automotive industry revs up for recovery.
Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal said in an interview with Reuters news service Friday there are signs that vehicle sales in Europe might be turning a corner.
"For the current fiscal year, we assume in our planning for the European auto sector a flat to 1% decline from last year. We hope it will be zero to 1% plus," he said.
The rate of decline has slowed and is close to zero now, Paliwal said.
The company sells a large share of its JBL and Harman Kardon branded systems to high-end European carmakers, such as Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler AG (DDAIF), Ferrari maker Fiat SpA and Volkswagen AG's (VLKAY) Audi brand. Europe accounted for 43% of Harman's sales last year.
Harman's stock reflects its growth.
It climbed 71% in four months this year, from a 41 low on April 19 to a 71 high on Aug. 12, before consolidating in sync with a market downturn. Harman shares eased fractionally in Friday afternoon trading on the stock market today.
The audio systems maker is in the consumer electronic products group, ranked a healthy 40 on IBD's list of 197 industries.
Elsewhere in the group, Sony (SNE) was roughly unchanged, Dolby Laboratories (DLB) dipped 0.4% and GPS systems maker Garmin (GRMN) was down about 1%.
Harman is well positioned to take advantage of any upside in Europe.
After sales fell in late 2012 and early this year, it returned to growth last quarter with an 8% year-over-year increase to $1.18 billion.
It's reported higher profit 11 quarters in a row and is expected to record a 13% rise this quarter.
Its stock carries a powerful 94 IBD Composite Rating, meaning it's outperformed 94% of all stocks in recent quarters on key metrics such as sales and profit growth.
Another group member, Universal Electronics (UEIC), which makes universal remote controls and accessories, Like Harman, sports a 94 Composite Rating. Its shares were up 1%.

BP Wins Legal Round Over $9.6 Bil Spill Deal

BP's (BP) won an appeal to expedite an ongoing legal battle over a $9.6 billion settlement tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf.
On Friday, Circuit Judge E. Grady Jolly set oral arguments in the case to start the week of Nov. 4, a move seen as increasing pressure on Americans who filed a class-action suit contending BP should pay more to businesses and individuals harmed by the spill, the largest ever in U.S. waters.
BP contends plaintiffs exaggerated the financial impact and contests the settlement value. In June, the oil company took out ads in major newspapers claiming that "trial lawyers and some politicians" encouraged businesses to submit claims for inflated or nonexistent losses. The oil giant has been trying to stop settlement payments until an appeal can be heard.

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BP shares were trading up less than 1% on the stock market today following the judge's ruling.
Lawyers for those affected by the spill say BP is having "buyers remorse" after initially agreeing to the settlement.
The company even warned investors in March that costs from the oil spill could be "significantly higher" than it initially expected.
BP and the Justice Department are also at odds over the amount of oil that was spilled into the Gulf before BP capped the well 86 days after the explosion on April 20, 2010.
In a court filing Thursday, BP asked District Judge Carl Barbier to use their estimate of 2.45 million barrels, roughly 103 million gallons, when calculating any Clean Water Act fines. But the Justice Dept. countered Thursday that its experts think that around 4.2 million barrels, or 176 million gallons, spilled into the water.

Auto Dealers In The Fast Lane Amid Favorable Trends

How many of your neighbors are suddenly driving new cars?
Auto sales are rebounding as cautious Americans who held onto their cars through the economic downturn are now trading up to newer vehicles. Sales of new cars rose 17% in August, reaching an annualized rate of 16.09 million — not a record, but the fastest pace since December 2007.
AutoNation (AN), the dealership chain with the largest revenue, reported Thursday its new car sales soared a whopping 32% in August. Its sales of luxury-premium category vehicles swelled 37%.

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Auto dealerships of all stripes have upshifted financially as more consumers commit to buying new cars and a rising number of willing lenders are helping them do so.
The 10 auto dealership chains tracked in IBD's Retail-Wholesale-Automobile industry group have all seen sales and earnings tick higher in recent quarters. Most have also set new stock highs over the last month.
Analysts expect the financial gains to continue in coming years as the industry puts more distance between itself and the beating it took during the recession of 2008 and 2009.
"There are a number of things pushing growth in the industry right now — pent-up demand from buyers, better access to financing, an onslaught of new products and technologies," said Larry Dixon, senior automotive analyst at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). "The whole industry has benefited."
In terms of stock price, collectively, the auto dealers' industry group is up 34% since the beginning of the year. It ranked No. 29 on Friday among IBD's 197 industries. In addition to AutoNation, CarMax (KMX), Penske Automotive Group (PAG) and Group 1 Automotive (GPI) are the group's largest players.
Aging Cars, Access To Credit
Before the industry's August sales report, most industry researchers forecast that sales of new vehicles will reach about 15.5 million units this year, up from 14.4 million in 2012. Even the most optimistic upwardly revisions are still well below the peak of 16.6 million units sold a decade ago. The trough occurred in 2009, when only 10.4 million vehicles were sold.
One of the key drivers of the recent growth is the nation's aging fleet of cars. The average age of cars on the road is about 11.5 years, according to industry estimates. That's well above the average of nine years established a few years ago.
"Consumers held on to their vehicles during the recession longer than would have otherwise, and now many of them are ready to get back into the market," Dixon said.

WIPRO Company-Profile : 29582

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Wipro Technologies Limited is a giant information technology services corporation headquartered in Bangalore, India. According to the 2008–09 revenue, Wipro is one of the largest IT services company in India and employs more than 112,925 people worldwide as of June 2010. It has interests varying from information technology, consumer care, lighting, engineering and healthcare businesses. Azim Premji is the Chairman of the board.

Wipro Technologies, a division of Wipro Limited is amongst the largest global IT services, BPO and Product Engineering companies. In addition to the IT business, Wipro also has leadership position in niche market segments of consumer products and lighting solutions. The company has been listed since 1945 and started its technology business in 1980. Today, Wipro generates USD 6 billion (India GAAP figure 2009-10) of annual revenues. Its equity shares are listed in India on the Mumbai Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange; as well as on the New York Stock Exchange in the US.

Wipro makes an ideal partner for organizations looking at transformational IT solutions because of its core capabilities, great human resources, commitment to quality and the global infrastructure to deliver a wide range of technology and business consulting solutions and services, 24/7. Wipro enables business results by being a ‘transformation catalyst’. It offers integrated portfolio of services to its clients in the areas of Consulting, System Integration and Outsourcing for key-industry verticals.