Eaton fourth quarter profit down 36% ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Due to the global economic recession, which led to a drop in demand for products, the fourth-quarter profit of Eaton ( Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) fell 36 percent from the same period last year of 256 million U.S. dollars, or 1.71 U.S. dollars per share, fell to 163 million U.S. dollars, or 98 cents per share.

Quarter revenue growth of 3.3 percent from a year earlier to 3.37 billion U.S. dollars of the 3.49 billion U.S. dollars.

Last week, the company announced that as part of its cost-cutting part of the plan, to lay off 5,200 people. Eaton last year the number of its global workforce during peak periods from about 8 million people laid off about 10%.

As per Sep 08 shareholding pattern of Eaton Corp, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 2,908,700 shares.

Eaton Lowers Revenue Guidance (Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Eaton (Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) Lowers Revenue Guidance and Provides Mixed Earnings Guidance. Eaton Corp. (ETN) expects first quarter results of approximately breakeven with revenue below $3.49 billion and expects 2009 earnings of $4.20 to $5.20 per share on revenue of approximately $14.15 billion. The current consensus estimate is earnings of $0.94 per share on revenue of $3.58 billion for the quarter ending March 31, 2009 and earnings of $4.73 per share on revenue $14.53 billion for the year ending December 31, 2009.

As per Sep 08 shareholding Pattern of Eaton, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 2,908,700 shares.

American Express Q4 Profit tumbles 72% ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

American Express Company (Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) today reported fourth-quarter income from continuing operations of $238 million. It is down 72 percent from $858 million a year ago. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were $0.21, down 71 percent from $0.73 a year ago.

Net income for the quarter is $172 million, which is down 79 percent from a year ago.

Consolidated total revenues net of interest expense declined 11 percent to $6.5 billion, down from $7.3 billion a year ago.

Consolidated provisions are$1.4 billion compared to $1.5 billion in the year-ago period.

Consolidated expenses are 5 % up to $4.9 billion as compared to $4.7 billion a year ago.

The company's return on average equity (ROE) was 21.7 percent, down from approc 37 percent a year ago. The company continued to invest in the business, announcing a multiyear partnership with Delta Airlines this quarter and also expanded their global network business. In addition, successfully integrated the corporate card business that they purchased from General Electric.

As per Sep 08 shareholding Pattern of American Express, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 151,610,700 shares.

Wesco Financial is a Divident Champion (Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Wesco Financial Corporation (Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) board has approved a 2% increase in its quarterly dividends from $0.385 to $0.395 per common share. Wesco Financial Corporation has consistently increased its dividends for 37 years. The stock currently yields 0.50%. Wesco Financial Corporation engages in insurance, furniture rental, and steel service center businesses.

As per Sep 08 shareholding pattern of Wesco Financial Corporation, Waren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 5,703,087 shares.

U.S. Bancorp Q4 profit fell 65% ( Part of warren Buffett Portfolio)

U.S. Bancorp's ( Part of warren Buffett Holdings) profit fell 65 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the same period a year earlier, primarily due to higher provisions for credit losses.

US Bancorp reported net income of $330 million, or 15 cents per share, in fourth quarter 2008, compared to $942 million or 53 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2007.

US Bancorp recorded $253 million in securities losses in the fourth quarter of 2008. U.S. Bancorp increased the provision for credit losses in the recent quarter by $1.04 billion compared to the prior year’s quarter, to nearly $1.27 billion, reflecting continued stress in the residential real estate market, the company said.

Fourth-quarter revenue grew 1.4 percent to $3.6 billion on 22.6 percent higher net interest income while noninterest income decreased 19.2 percent as the slowing economy hit equity valuations and customer behavior, the company said.

For the full year 2008, U.S. Bancorp saw its net income fall 31.9 percent to $2.9 billion, on net revenue that rose 4.4 percent to $14.7 billion.

U.S. Bancorp has $266 billion in assets and operates 2,791 banking offices in 24 states.

As per Sep 08 shareholding pattern of US Bancorp, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 2,627,190 shares.

Nike Coming Out With Adjustable Drivers April 1 ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio )

Nike Golf ( Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) is coming out with two new drivers with adjustable clubheads for 2009 on April 1.

The SQ DYMO STR8-FIT and SQ DYMO2 STR8-FIT drivers feature eight different positions for the clubhead. The DYMO2 is the square-headed model.

Nike calls it straight-fit (STR8-FIT) technology. It can adjusted for players who slice or hook the ball off the tee, for example.

Nike said Trevor Immelman, K.J. Choi and Anthony Kim won tournaments in 2008 using the technology, with Immelman winning the Masters with it.

The clubs come with a torque wrench to change positions. When the head position is locked into place, a sound indicator and light on the wrench goes off.

The MSRP? $540.

As per Sep 08 shareholding pattern of Nike, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 7,641,000 shares.

NRG Energy's Preliminary FY08 Adj. EBITDA Below Guidance ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Thursday, NRG Energy, Inc. ( Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) reported preliminary fiscal 2008 adjusted EBITDA lower than prior guidance. The company also reiterated previously issued 2009 adjusted EBITDA guidance while increasing full year 2009 cash from operations view.

The Princeton, New Jersey-based power generation company now expects fiscal 2008 adjusted EBITDA of $2.29 billion compared to its prior guidance of $2.4 billion. The decline was attributed to the impact of incorrectly increasing guidance for the non-cash effects of energy option revenues.

The transportation service provider anticipates reporting fiscal 2008 cash from operations of $1.43 billion or $1.85 billion excluding collateral changes compared to its prior guidance of $1.5 billion. The company noted that preliminary cash from operations, excluding the effects of cash collateral, was $151 million higher than previously issued guidance due to a combination of lower cash tax payments along with cash provided by changes in working capital.

NRG expects to end the year with $3.36 billion in total liquidity compared to $2.72 billion in the similar period last year. The liquidity excludes cash collateral posted by hedge counterparties. The company stated that continued strong operating cash flows and a reduction in letters of credit outstanding, primarily the result of lower commodity prices and hedge counterparties migrating from NRG's second lien collateral structure to the first lien structure, contributed to higher cash balances and greater LC capacity.

That the Company succeeded in surmounting the extraordinary challenges of 2008 to achieve the best financial results in NRG's history in terms of both adjusted EBITDA and, particularly, cash from operations before collateral movements, is a testament to the professionalism of NRG's dedicated employees.

Looking forward, NRG reiterated previously provided 2009 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $2.2 billion. However, the company increased cash from operations guidance for 2009 by $200 million, from $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion, as cash taxes are anticipated to be significantly lower due to accelerated utilization of tax loss carry forwards generated in prior years.Clint Freeland, NRG Chief Financial Officer is of the view that the company was able to protect its portfolio and stability of cash flows through risk management and hedging activities when energy related commodities are experiencing significant and rapid market price declines.

The company noted that it remains on course to deliver 2009 adjusted EBITDA goal and would be able to increase 2009 cash flow guidance by $200 million through effective tax planning.NRG closed Thursday's regular trading at $22.40, down $0.26 or 1.15% on a volume of 1.7 million shares on the NYSE.

As per Sep 08 shareholding Pattern of NRG, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 5,000,000 shares

Johnson & Johnson completes Mentor tender with 94% of shares ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Johnson & Johnson ( Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) said Friday it had successfully completed its tender offer for Mentor Corp. , having acquired 93.9% of Mentor's outstanding shares. Johnson & Johnson said it will acquire Mentor through a "short-form merger" in which there will be no vote or meeting of Mentor's remaining shareholders, and that Mentor stock will be converted into the right to receive $31.00 per share.

As per Sep 08 shareholding pattern of the company, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 61,754,448 shares of Johnson & Johnson.

Anheuser-Busch InBev sells most of Tsingtao stake ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Anheuser-Busch InBev ( Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) said Friday that it’s selling 19.9 percent of China-based Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd. to Asahi Breweries Ltd. of Japan for $667 million.

Anheuser-Busch InBev said it will keep a minority stake of 7 percent in Tsingtao, China’s second-largest brewer.

Reducing its stake in Tsingtao allows the Belgium-based brewer to generate cash to repay debt incurred from its $52 billion purchase of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. in November.
Carlos Brito, A-B InBev’s CEO, said in a statement that the company remains “strongly committed” to China, the world’s largest beer market. “Our operations in Northeast and Southeast China are a key platform for our global growth strategy going forward. With strong local brands such as Harbin and Sedrin and global brands such as Budweiser, we are well positioned to benefit from the significant potential in this important market.”

Anheuser-Busch InBev said it currently doesn’t plan to sell additional Tsingtao shares and will review its strategic options as appropriate.

The sale agreement calls for Anheuser-Busch InBev to sell the shares at a premium of 38 against the closing price of H-shares as of Thursday. The deal is subject to approvals under Chinese and Hong Kong laws, and the companies expect to complete the transaction this quarter.

The sale will make Asahi Tsingtao’s second-largest shareholder. With a 31 percent stake, Tsingtao Brewery Group will remain the largest shareholder in Tsingtao.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the newly named Anheuser-Busch InBev. Anheuser-Busch is the top domestic competitor to MillerCoors, a joint venture of Canada's Molson Coors Brewing Co. and SABMiller of London. SABMiller competes in China primarily with its Snow brand, produced by its Chine Resources Snow joint venture.

As per Sep 08 shareholding pattern, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 13,845,000 shares of Anheuser-Busch .

M&T Bank 4Q profit encouraging ( Part of Warren Buffett's Portfolio)

Regional bank M&T Bank Corp. ( Part of Warren Buffett's Holdings) fourth-quarter profit jumped 57 percent as interest and fee-based revenue grew, but shares tumbled on signs of rapidly deteriorating credit.

For the final three months of 2008, the bank earned $102.2 million, or 92 cents per share, compared with $64.9 million, or 60 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

On an adjusted basis, excluding certain one-time charges and expenses, the bank earned $111.8 million, or $1 per share, compared with $83.7 million, or 77 cents per share.

Shares tumbled, hitting a 12-year low of $33.60 in early trading.

Analysts are worried about the bank's deteriorating credit trends.

During the quarter, the bank set aside $151 million to cover potential loan losses. This compares with $101 million in the corresponding 2007 period. Meanwhile, net chargeoffs, or loans written off as unpaid, more than doubled to $144 million. The chargeoffs represent an annualized 1.17 percent of average loans outstanding, up from 0.46 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. M&T said chargeoffs were primarily concentrated in loans to residential real estate builders and developers, commercial loans, residential real estate loans, and consumer loans.

Net interest income, or the difference between how much it costs a bank to borrow money and how much it receives from lending money to customers, was $486.1 million, up 3 percent from $470.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Results were boosted by a drop in interest expense.
Noninterest income, or income earned from fees and other charges, increased 50 percent to $241.4 million from $160.5 million, driven by increases in mortgage banking revenue and brokerage services fees. Additionally, the bank reported a loss on investment securities of $23.5 million, down sharply from a loss of $127.3 million in the prior-year period.

In December, the bank announced plans to buy Baltimore-based Provident Bankshares Corp. in a stock-for-stock deal. The transaction, which will boost the bank's presence in Maryland and Virginia, is expected to close in the second quarter.

For the year, M&T earned $556 million, or $5.01 per share, compared with $654 million, or $5.95 per share, in 2007.

As per Sep 08 shareholding pattern, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 6,715,060 shares of M&T Bank.

Johnson & Johnson lowers 09 outlook ( Part of Warren Buffett's Portfolio)

Johnson & Johnson ( Part of Warren Buffett's Portfolio) reported an increase of 14 percent in its fourth quarter profit Tuesday but issued a lower 2009 forecast.

The health care products maker company said it earned $2.71 billion or 97 cents a share in the fourth quarter, up $2.37 billion or 82 cents in the same period of 2007.

However, pressured by exchange rates and increased competition with generic products, Johnson's revenue declined 4.9 percent to $15.18 billion in the quarter. Excluding charges and gains, the company earned 94 cents per share.

The pharmaceutical firm forecasted earnings of $4.45 to $4.55 a share in the current year, below analysts expectations which according to FactSet Research expected 2009 profit of $4.61 per share.

As per Sep 08 shareholding pattern, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 61,754,448 shares of Johnson & Johnson.

Enlight Biosciences and Industry Giant Johnson & Johnson Forge Partnership ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Enlight Biosciences, a Boston-based biotech firm advancing new technologies used in the discovery and development of drugs, said today it has gained a commitment from Johnson & Johnson to invest up to $13 million in its programs.

Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick, NJ-based healthcare giant, is the latest drugmaker to form a partnership with Enlight. The list of Enlight’s partners now includes Eli Lilly, Merck, and Pfizer. Enlight now has attracted as much as $52 million to direct toward technologies intended to help its Big Pharma partners improve their chances of bringing breakthrough drugs to the market.

Enlight aims to address a crucial need among pharma companies to develop technologies in such fields as molecular imaging, drug formulation, and drug synthesis—all of which could improve R&D needed to fill the pharma firms’ ailing pipelines with new drugs. Johnson & Johnson and its peers are struggling to find new drugs to replace the revenues from older products that face present or future competition from generic drugs. (In fact, J&J got a call to action to launch new drugs this week when it reported a 67.4 percent decline in fourth-quarter 2008 sales of blockbuster schizophrenia drug risperidone (Risperdal), which the company blamed on generic drug competition.)

Luke captured the ongoing dilemma facing the pharma industry in his story about the public launch of Enlight in July 2008, in which he wrote that drug companies are pumping record-high billions of dollars into research and development while actual U.S. drug approvals are lagging.

Johnson & Johnson hopes to collaborate with Enlight’s other pharma partners to identify technologies that could help all of them overcome R&D hurdles.

Enlight’s pharma partners get to choose the programs in which they invest, while Enlight tracks down the technologies worthy of their investment from multiple academic and industry sources. Enlight has already launched a virtual startup, Endra, which develops technology that combines the capabilities of ultrasound and optical imaging to, for example, show researchers whether a drug is shrinking tumors during clinical trials, Steinberg says.

Eaton slashes global workforce ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Eaton Corp. has announced it will eliminate 5,200 jobs worldwide, which will equal the elimination of 10% of its workforce when combined with earlier layoffs, Bloomberg reported.

The company slashed 3,400 jobs last year.

The company said it has experienced a “dramatic deceleration” in demand for its products in truck, automotive and hydraulics operations.

Union Pacific Corp: We are not responsible for Lead Contamination ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio )

Union Pacific Corp. ( Part of Warren Buffett Holdings) says a federal proposal to clean up lead contamination in eastern Omaha is misguided because it focuses on past industrial sources of lead and not lead-based house paint.

On Thursday, the Omaha-based railroad submitted hundreds of pages of comments on the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal. The EPA and Union Pacific have been trying for years to settle who should pay to clean up 5,600 contaminated properties.

Union Pacific has said it shouldn't be held responsible for the lead contamination, because it only leased property to a smelting company, Asarco, and that ended in 1946 when Asarco bought the land and continued operating a smelter there until its closure in 1997.

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Conoco Phillips plans to cut 4 percent of its workforce ( Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

Conoco Phillips ( Part of Warren Buffett holdings)(NYSE: COP) the second-largest U.S. refiner, announced that it plans to cut 4 percent of its workforce, or about 1,350 jobs.

Unfortunately, many other companies in the U.S. and around the world cut jobs yesterday. And the cuts are across a wide range of industries which suggests that a deflationary spiral is hurting all industries. That means that lowering demand causes sales to drop and producers respond by cutting prices and reducing capacity. The lost jobs that follow the capacity reduction mean that consumers, which account for 70% of GDP growth, will buy less. And the cycle will begin anew.

Let's hope that the stimulus package will be able to "save or create" the hoped-for three million jobs. If it does, then we might be able to get back to where we were at the end of 2007. If not, the 2.1 million forecast for 2009's lost jobs may prove to be too low.

As per Sep 08 shareholding of Conoco Phillips, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is holding 83,955,800 shares.