Investment "Logic"

I wanted to provide a quick update after yesterdays chilling move in the stock of Ionis Pharmaceuticals.  The stock, which was down over 11% at one point during the day, closed down just over 8%.  There weren't any announcements from the company, its newest subsidiary Akcea (yeah, I have some catching up to provide here), or the FDA.  The cause for the swoon were the explosive earnings results that came out of Biogen Idec, which Ionis partnered with on the creation of the SMA therapy Spinraza.  Analyst expectations for sale of the drug were at $70M for the quarter, but the real results were almost three times that, coming in at $203M.  The partnership deal between Biogen and Ionis provides a royalty fee of between 11 and 13 percent of those revenues, meaning that we can expect the company to announce income between $22M and $26M for this one therapy alone - much more than was expected for the quarterly results.  The stock surged in the pre-market hours to open at $63, only to c

Honeywell announced their second quarter results on July 21.  Results were a solid beat with earnings hitting the high end of guidance at $1.80, beating analyst estimates of $1.78.  Sales also beat expectations of $9.98B, coming in at $10.1B.  In addition, they handily beat estimates for organic growth registering 3% on what was guided to be a flat to 2% organic growth quarter.  This is a nice acceleration in organic growth, which fits the guidance that the company provided 6 months, or so, ago when there was a lot of concern with -2% decline in organic growth, which was fueled by lackluster performance in the aero group - primarily in the private jets and helicopters spaces.  Margins, overall, were up 50 basis points and free cash flow is up 39% year to date compared to last year.  Finally, they raised guidance on both earnings and sales, with the lower end of the earnings guidance provided raised ten cents to $7.00 while sales edged up to a range of $39.3 - $40B. Looking a litt

Citigroup announced their second quarter results on Friday.  Earnings beat expectations of $1.13 by posting results of $.  They also delivered top line results of $17.9B, which beat expectations of $17.67B.  Despite the beats, the stock has struggled to rise since the announcement, falling 1.1% last week.   The results were strong, with the company losing less than expected.  They increased revenues by 2% compared to last year and are up 3% on the year so far.  Branded cards were particularly strong in North America, showcasing the strength for this area as the acquisition of the Costco cards are starting to bear fruit.  All regions increased their revenues with international strength showing the health returning to the global economy.  Equity market trading revenues were down 11% due to low volatility, however, this is better than was expected.  The company returned $2.2B of capital to the shareholders in the quarter, including repurchasing 6% of the outstanding shares.  This al

Last Tuesday Pepsico helped kick off my earnings season by beating both top and bottom line expectations.  Earnings came in at $1.46 and revenues were $15.71B compared with average estimates of $1.40 and $15.61, respectively.  Overall, the reporting results were good, however there was some hair in there.   For the good, organic revenue grew to 3.1%, pulling up the year to date number to 2% growth.  Targets stayed in line for an "at minimum" 3% organic revenue growth for the year.  The company was able to pass on price increases, which is always a good sign for consumer strength.  Growth outside of the US was strong and encouraging.  The snacks division, in particular, was exceptionally strong in Latin America and Europe, though it also performed well (over 3% reported growth) too.  The story continues to be intact and the management team continues to deliver on their words better than any other CPG company in the industry right now. Not everything was perfect, though