Equity Research and Investment Analysis

On Wednesday, traders gleaned to a rumor that quickly leaked through the market that Microsoft (MSFT) was planning to acquire video game maker Electronic Arts (ERTS). There was little substantiating the rumors, but options activity turned heavily bullish on EA stock just the same and it finished 9 percent higher. This morning, Microsoft's VP of gaming stopped those rumors in their tracks and flat out denied any interest in acquiring EA.

The deal appears to be a good match placing a small studio with lots of characters with a major media conglomerate that can really pump out content and expand the audience to a more worldwide audience. However, the question as always, did they over pay?

Recap of a particularly lively episode of Closing Bell on CNBC. In addition, to the developments in the auto industry there were quite a few deals announced in the tech industry.

Dark Knight had an amazing weekend at the box office. What is an investors best play to take advantage of this success? Here is a hint: it is not Time Warner the parent of the studio who made it.

The stock market has benefited from the impressive earnings release for their first quarter 2008 from The Walt Disney Company ( DIS). Disney’s earnings news counters more recessionary data that lead to an ugly sell-off yesterday, which was sparked by an unexpectedly large plunge in service sector growth as reported by [...]

The guidance out of Weight Watchers should not be dismissed, but we think a lot of the difficulties seen in the year ahead have already been priced in. The company has decently strong underlying value based on the current fundamentals and value investors with a longer time frame may benefit from an eventual rebound in Weight Watchers business. In the interim the stock yields a respectable 2.7% at the current price, and we believe the downside is likely fairly limited at this point.

General Parts Company (GPC), which is the parent company for Napa Auto Parts, reported earnings on Tuesday that exceeded analysts estimate for the fiscal fourth quarter 2009. Analysts expected the company to report EPS of $.51 on sales of $2.4 billion, but the actual results outpaced estimates on both counts with EPS of $.62 and revenue of $2.47 billion. The stock rose by more than 6% following the results, but according to our methodology value investors have missed the boat on this stock.

Shares of Papa John's International (PZZA) are surging more than 9 percent following Monday afternoon's announcement that next year's earnings per share will range from $1.70 to $1.90. Current analysts' estimates had the company pegged to deliver $1.74 per share, so this news is seen as a positive to investors.

McDonald's valuation looks very reasonable, even considering global growth may be finally slowing. The market has focused on top-line growth because of today's sales release, but we think a long term investor should primarily focus on earnings growth which remains quite attractive.

Wendy's still trades at a significant premium to earnings, and has been a much hotter stock than its competitors recently. We are in agreement with Cramer that the company is starting to turn a corner, but we cannot recommend buying these shares at the current price. The stock is getting the Cramer bounce of 5.5 percent today that often comes the day after Cramer covers a stock on his show. If the stock did have a pull back of 10-15 percent and continues to show improved profitability and growth, then we would likely become at least interested.

MCD is only down 2% over the last year, coming into the day, outpacing the S&P by more than 25%. By our methodology, McDonald's is priced just about where it should be based on the fundamentals of cash earnings, revenue, sales growth, ROE, and dividends.

If you believe that the dollar will be headed lower over the long term as the U.S. government continues to run the printing presses, then the emerging market growth strategy of Yum! Brands could make it more appealing to you. For us, with a multiple approaching 18x, we think YUM is too expensive compared to its competitors.

There is no way, at this early stage, that we can have any idea how any legislation might effect corporate earnings in the sector, but you can expect that there will be increased volatility because of the amount of interest that will be generated when news on this topic breaks. At this point, all we can say is be prepared for a bumpy ride in healthcare, and the professionals are increasingly placing there bets to the downside.

Consumers everywhere are pinching penny's in this difficult economic environment and McDonald's is one of the benefitiaries of this trend. We highlight in this post why MCD may be a great hedge against further deterioration of the economy.