Stock market trading: Dun & Bradstreet reports higher revenue, lower earnings

Dun & Bradstreet Corp., symbol DNB on New York, is the world’s largest provider of credit reports on individual companies. Companies use these reports to make lending and purchasing decisions, and to cut their credit losses. We analyze Dun & Bradstreet in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter for stock market trading in the U.S. markets The company gets two-thirds of its revenue from credit reports. The rest comes from other information products, including software to help other companies manage customer data and Internet sites. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Dun & Bradstreet’s revenue from ongoing operations rose 5.4%, to $403.6 million from $382.8 million a year earlier. The company earned $64.4 million, down 2.3% from $65.9 million. Earnings per share were unchanged at $1.29 due to fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude unusual items such as restructuring costs and losses on the sale of investments. Dun & Bradstreet is a dividend paying stock. Its annual rate of $1.44 yields 1.9%. Dun & Bradstreet is just one of the U.S. stock market trading picks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. You can get a 1-month trial subscription, which includes the latest issue, 5 in-depth Special Reports and access to our Email/Telephone Hotlines—absolutely FREE when you subscribe to Wall Street Stock Forecaster today. Click here to learn how.

Jim is an associate editor at TSI Network. He is the lead reporter and analyst for The Successful Investor and Wall Street Stock Forecaster and a member of the Investment Planning Committee. Jim has held the Chartered Financial Analyst designation since 1992 and spent more than a decade at the Financial Post DataGroup before joining TSI Network. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.