Stocks to Watch: BP, UBS, Pfizer

NEW YORK -- BP (BP), the British oil giant, posted underlying replacement cost profit in the second quarter of $3.7 billion, down from $5.7 billion a year earlier. Including charges, BP reported a loss for the period of $1.4 billion.

BP wrote down the value of its assets by $5 billion -- $2.7 billion for U.S. refineries and $2.1 billion for U.S. shale gas assets. It also took an additional provision of $847 million for the Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster, bringing the total it has set aside to more than $38 billion.

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UBS (UBS), the Swiss banking giant, said Tuesday that second-quarter profit fell 58% from a year earlier to 425 million francs ($434.16 million). It blamed the drop on lower trading revenue and fewer commissions and client fees.

UBS said it lost 349 million Swiss francs following Facebook's disastrous initial public offering in May. It plans to begin legal proceedings against Nasdaq for what it called "gross mishandling" of the IPO.

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Pfizer (PFE) is expected to post a second-quarter profit Tuesday of 54 cents a share on revenue of $14.87 billion.

The stock of the drug giant and Dow component has outperformed so far in 2012, rising more than 10%. Pfizer has beat earnings estimates for eight straight quarters.

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Seagate Technology (STX) , the hard disk drive maker, on Monday reported a non-GAAP profit of $2.41 a share in its fiscal fourth quarter on revenue of $4.48 billion, falling short of Wall Street's expectations for earnings of $2.51 a share on revenue of $4.56 billion.

Seagate Misses Earnings, Revenue Targets; Shares Fall

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Cirrus Logic (CRUS), the chip maker, provided a strong revenue outlook on Monday for the September quarter, forecasting sequential growth of 70% from revenue of $99 million in its fiscal first quarter ended in June.

The company said it expects revenue of $170 million to $190 million for the second quarter, well ahead of the current consensus estimate for revenue of $129.7 million.

Cirrus Forecast Sends Shares Soaring

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Aetna (AET) is expected by analysts Tuesday to post second-quarter profit of $1.25 a share on revenue of $8.75 billion.

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Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is expected by analysts to post quarterly earnings Tuesday of 59 cents a share on revenue of $21.85 billion.

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-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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