Best Wall St. Stocks Today: BBY,CC

On Wednesday we�ll get to see earnings out of Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY). The estimates from First Call are $1.65 EPS on $13.18 billion in revenues.  Next quarter estimates are $0.39 EPS on $8.58 billion in revenues. Estimates for fiscal Feb-2009 are $3.35 EPS on $43.08 billion in revenues.  These numbers may change by Wednesday morning.
Best Buy Co.�s 52-week trading range is $38.75 to $53.90. Analysts have an average price target north of $52.00 and shares closed at $40.56 on Friday.  Year-to-date, its shares are down close to 25%. We recently noted a Banc of America downgrade in the stock.
Normally we’d say to watch Circuit City (NYSE: CC) as well, but that company is so far imploded that a great Best Buy number would be interpreted as at Circuit City’s loss and a bad report from Best Buy would just imply things are bad there too.
One note that we’d like to point out is that while the stock is close to a 52-week low, these prices are close to lows not seen since mid-2005.  If $40.00 doesn’t act as a base for this electronics and appliances retail giant, then seeing this test $35.00 is not out of the realm of possibilities.  Much weak consumer spending should be factored in already, but Wall Street has been very bad in recent months of pricing in good news or bad news ahead of time.
Jon C. Ogg
March 30, 2008
Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Higher profit seen at Disney in 2012

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) ' Walt Disney Co. is expected to post higher profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, though difficult comparisons with very strong results at ESPN and in home video in the year-earlier period could have an impact.

Disney DIS 'is expected to post a fiscal first-quarter profit of 75 cents a share, excluding stock-option payments, on revenue of $11.19 billion, according to a consensus poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

In the same period a year earlier, the company earned 68 cents a share on revenue of $10.7 billion.

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Jeffrey Thomson of Hilliard Lyons said late last year that Disney's December quarter 'is likely to produce the smallest year-over-year increase' of fiscal 2012, 'due in part to a tough comparison to the year-ago quarter ' a period that included considerable growth at ESPN and benefits of robust DVD sales of 'Toy Story 3.''

Across the media and entertainment industries, there is optimism about the advertising market, especially in television, which has held most of its appeal for advertisers as one of the few remaining ways to reach mass audiences.

Ad sales and rates are expected to once again be strong at ESPN, where! NBA gam es, college basketball and various shows around the NFL have led to solid ratings gains, but Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger warned in November that comparisons with the fiscal fourth quarter of 2010 would be difficult.

At ABC, the network's situation comedies have received solid ratings, though it ranks third among the Big Four networks among adults 18 to 49 years old ' the group most desired by advertisers because of its apparent willingness to switch brands.

Analysts will look forward to getting more insights from Iger on the online-video model and its potential effect on traditional TV. Comcast Corp. CMCSA 'and Disney unveiled a 10-year deal last month that will make Disney shows available on a wide variety of Comcast platforms, including regular TV, video-on-demand, phones and tablets. Under the deal, Comcast customers can watch Disney shows online that can't otherwise be viewed on the Web.

Disney executives will probably also be asked what last month's Italian cruise-ship tragedy could mean for its own cruise ships. The Carnival Cruise-owned Costa Concordia foundered off the coast of Italy, killing at least 16, and observers fear that the incident could be a concern to would-be passengers in the near term.

Disney recently launched its third ship, the Disney Dream, and some analysts speculated that a fourth could be launched in fiscal 2012.