wall street

Verizon Communications (New York symbol VZ) has announced that it’s interested in buying two small Canadian wireless carriers: Wind Mobile and Mobilicity. Verizon is a recommendation of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stocks. Wind and Mobilicity both have negligible market share, so regulators will probably approve a sale....

It pays to be skeptical of investment performance calculations that companies calculate for themselves. This includes calculations by brokers, money managers and newsletter publishers. There are just too many ways to manipulate or “fudge” the numbers. For instance, a number of brokerage firms publish the results of what they refer to as “model accounts”. These hypothetical accounts supposedly measure the results you might enjoy by following the broker’s research. In reality, the hypothetical account does much better than the broker’s clients, because it enjoys advantages that are unavailable in real life. For example, I recall one model account to which the broker could post new buys or sells after the close of trading, anytime up till the opening of trading in the morning. It based results of these late additions on the closing price of the night before....

U.S. oil production is up 40% since 2008. That’s largely because of new technologies like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. This involves injecting water, sand and chemicals to break up shale and other tight rock formations and allow access to the oil and gas. The best way to profit from this volatile industry is through companies with high-quality reserves and diverse operations. Here is one of the diversified U.S. energy stocks we cover regularly....

CONAGRA FOODS INC., $34.93, New York symbol CAG, rose 5% this week after it reported better-than-expected earnings. In its 2013 fiscal year, which ended May 26, 2013, ConAgra earned $773.9 million, or $1.85 a share. That’s up 65.4% from $467.9 million, or $1.12 a share, in 2012. These gains are mainly due to Ralcorp Holdings, the largest maker of private label food in the U.S., which ConAgra recently bought for $4.75 billion. If you disregard costs to integrate this purchase and other unusual items, ConAgra’s earnings would have risen 17.4%, to $2.16 a share from $1.84. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $2.15 a share....

BLACKBERRY INC., $11.08, Toronto symbol BB, fell 26% on Friday after the company reported lower-than-expected earnings. In its 2014 first quarter, which ended June 1, 2013, BlackBerry shipped 6.8 million smartphones, down 12.8% from 7.8 million a year ago. The latest quarter’s shipments included 2.7 million of its new, higher-priced BlackBerry 10 models, which fell short of the consensus estimate of 3.3 million. BlackBerry also lost $84 million, or $0.16 a share (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). Still, that’s a big improvement over the $510 million, or $0.97 a share, it lost a year earlier....

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC., $44.77, Nasdaq symbol ADBE, reported better-than-expected earnings this week. In its fiscal 2013 second quarter, which ended May 31, 2013, Adobe’s earnings fell 39.0%, to $182.9 million, or $0.36 a share. A year earlier, it earned $299.6 million, or $0.60 a share. These figures exclude several unusual items, such as restructuring charges and gains on investment sales. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.34 a share. Revenue fell 10.1%, to $1.01 billion from $1.12 billion. That matched the consensus estimate....

AMAZON.COM $278.16 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206- 266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 455.2 million; Market cap: $128.3 billion; No dividends paid) has invested heavily in cloud computing. This is now paying off with some big contracts: earlier this year, it won a $600-million deal with the U.S....

GOOGLE INC. (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; www.google.com) is the world’s top Internet search engine, with about two-thirds of this market. The company makes money by selling advertising on its websites. Google gets 96% of its revenue from advertising. The company also offers a variety of free services such as Gmail (email), YouTube (videos) and Google+ (social networking). These services help draw more users to Google’s websites, which lets the company sell more ads and charge higher ad rates....

PFIZER INC., $29.09, New York symbol PFE, sold 19.8% of its animal-health subsidiary to the public in February 2013. This business, ZOETIS INC., $30.80, New York symbol ZTS, makes drugs and vaccines for livestock and pets. Next week, Pfizer plans to hand out its remaining 80.2% of Zoetis to its own shareholders. Investors will be able to swap all or part of their Pfizer shares for Zoetis stock. Pfizer shareholders can tender some or all of their stock for Zoetis shares. Pfizer has designed the offer so that its investors get Zoetis shares at a 7% discount. For each $100 worth of Pfizer shares tendered, holders could receive a maximum of $107.52 worth of Zoetis. Pfizer has also structured the exchange so that participating investors will not have to pay capital gains taxes until they sell their new shares....

DOREL INDUSTRIES, $35.10, symbol DII.B on Toronto, fell over 10% this week after it announced that its earnings will fall below expectations in the current quarter. Dorel makes a wide range of products, including ready-to-assemble home and office furniture; juvenile products, such as car seats, strollers, high chairs, toddler beds and cribs; and recreational products, mainly bicycles. Continued poor weather across the U.S., Canada and Europe has led to lower-than-expected sales volumes, particularly for bicycles (which account for roughly 34% of Dorel’s sales). The slowdown has also prompted the company’s competitors in the bicycle industry to cut their prices....