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======================== THE MOTLEY FOOL ======================== B R E A K F A S T N E W S Tuesday, October 9, 2001 benjamin.rogers@enron.com ================================================================= IN THIS ISSUE --------------------- - TOP STORY: First Data Charges Ahead http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512586 - NEWS TO GO: D.R. Horton, Benchmark Electronics, and Pepsi Bottling Group http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512587 - POST OF THE DAY: Samsung and Rambus http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512588 ================================================================= SPONSORED BY: Jos A. Bank Special Offer for Motley Fool Members! Jos. A. Bank Clothiers is offering all their Pinpoint Oxford shirts at 2 for the price of 1 (Limit 2). Click here for this and other offers! http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=512589 "The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket." -- Elbert "Kin" Hubbard ----------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORY ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST DATA CHARGES AHEAD Paper or plastic? Dour economy or not, we continue to move toward a cashless society and electronic payment specialist First Data (NYSE: FDC) is leading the charge. The country's leading processor of credit card transactions, as well as the parent company of Western Union, reported operating earnings of $0.69 a share. That surpassed even the highest of the analyst estimates as the company trounced the consensus projections calling for a $0.69 a share showing. <<FULL STORY: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512590 ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS TO GO ----------------------------------------------------------------- Home stocks, sweet home stocks. Housemaker D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) reported record backlog levels as net sales orders surpassed the billion-dollar mark for the fourth quarter. Given the buoyant real estate market and dirt-cheap mortgage rates, it was no problem for the company to drum up orders for 22,179 houses through the entire fiscal year. Benchmark Electronics (NYSE: BHE) is comfortable with its benchmark. The Texan-based maker of electronic parts for various components announced that it would meet consensus cash earnings estimates for the third quarter. However, not immune to weakening demand, the company will be taking a $50 million to $60 million charge in an effort to downsize and consolidate its operations. Give me an earnings sign. Hit me baby one more time. Pepsi Bottling Group (NYSE: PBG), months deep into its Britney Spears marketing campaign, did what any thirsty soul would do with a bottle of Pepsi -- it topped it. The company reported earnings of $0.96 a share before a one-time tax gain, a penny ahead of market expectations. With a 3% increase in worldwide case volume, the world's largest Pepsi seller also reiterated its comfort with analysts' targets of $1.87 in earnings for the year. The red ink will run south for the Borders (NYSE: BGP) bookstore chain. Due to soft comps since the September 11 attacks, the retailer is now expecting to report a loss of $0.04 a share for its fiscal third quarter. That's three cents steeper than Wall Street was expecting. The company remains "hopeful" that the seasonally strong holiday shopping period will pan out, but it's not ready to commit to turning the page to reveal this year's ending just yet. It seems that Fair, Isaac & Company (NYSE: FIC) was a good credit risk after all. The California company, which develops credit scoring systems for the consumer credit industry, is looking to top fourth-quarter forecasts calling for earnings of $0.55 a share. The company now expects to earn $0.56 a share on revenue of nearly $90 million. Last year the company earned just $0.39 a share on a $78.7 million top-line performance. Sometimes, it's hard to make the rent. Housestuffs lender Rent-A-Center (Nasdaq: RCII) will miss its quarterly profit targets despite healthy store-level sales growth. The company, which rents out home appliances, computers, and furniture, is looking at earnings between $0.50 and $0.52 a share. Last week the projections were running as high as $0.70 a share. While the company had a decent 4.6% uptick in same store comps, the increased traffic was due to margin-crunching sales promotions. Rent-A-Center had been a solid performer through the years by taking advantage of a fragmented rental market to build out a chain that is now nearly 2300 units strong. For now, though, the company's leader may be leasing out a recliner: Chairman and CEO Ernest Talley announced his retirement, effective immediately. Rick Aristotle Munarriz believes that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So eat up! His suggestion for today is apple French toast. Insert sweetened stewed apple slices into thick loaf bread, batter, and pan fry. Then cover with caramel maple syrup. Rick's stock holdings can be viewed online, as can the Fool's disclosure policy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- POST OF THE DAY ----------------------------------------------------------------- SAMSUNG AND RAMBUS "This has to be very troubling news for the memory manufactures betting heavily on DDR. This graph clearly shows that Samsung expects 4i RDRAM to actually become smaller than DDR in the very near future, with the exception of 8-bit wide DDR devices. In this case, the difference is expected to be less than 1%. Sumsung definitely appears to be in a Gorilla position on this one and Rambus is along for the ride." <<FULL POST: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512591 ================================================================= SPONSORED BY: Jos A. Bank Special Offer for Motley Fool Members! Jos. A. Bank Clothiers is offering all their Pinpoint Oxford shirts at 2 for the price of 1 (Limit 2). Click here for this and other offers! http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=512592 ================================================================= My Portfolio: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512593 My Discussion Boards: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512594 WANNA TAKE THE SHORTCUT? Check out our new Crash Courses, the fastest way to get your finances in order. Get results in less than an hour, for just $10. Try one today! http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512595 PERKS FOR FOOLS ONLY Get free stuff and special offers, just for you! http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512596 CUSTOMER SERVICE Ask our staff for help with email delivery problems. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512597 UNSUBSCRIBE Here's how to unsubscribe or change your settings. http://www.fool.com/community/freemail/freemaillogin.asp?email=benjamin.rogers@enron.com _________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 1995-2001 The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. Legal Information: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=512598 MsgId: msg-10140-2001-10-09_9-17-59-334792_2_Plain_MessageAddress.msg-09:19:09(10-09-2001) X-Version: mailer-sender-master,v 1.84 X-Version: mailer-sender-daemon,v 1.84 Message-Recipient: benjamin.rogers@enron.com
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