10 Stocks to Watch: Chipotle, Altera

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) posted third-quarter earnings of $60.4 million, or $1.90 a share, beating Wall Street's consensus estimate of $1.85 a share.

Chipotle said it expects new store openings for 2011 to come in at the high end of a range of 135 to 145 with same-store sales expected to grow in the low double-digits.

Shares were gaining 3.7% to $319.20 in premarket trading Friday.

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Semiconductor company Altera (ALTR) said fourth-quarter revenue will likely be down 7% to 11% sequentially, after reporting third-quarter earnings of 57 cents a share, which missed Wall Street estimates by 2 cents.

The third-quarter announcement didn't come as much of a surprise to investors, as the company had already lowered third-quarter guidance last month. During the quarter, Altera repurchased 4.8 million common shares.

Shares were advancing 4% to $34.35.

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Flash memory maker SanDisk (SNDK) reported adjusted earnings of $292 million, or $1.20 a share, on revenue of $1.42 billion, up 15% year over year and 3% and a sequential basis. The average estimate of analysts was for a profit of $1.07 a share on revenue of $1.42 billion in the period.

Shares were gaining 3.5% to $47.10.

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Aerospace products and services company Honeywell (HON) raised its full-year sales outlook to $36.5 billion to $36.7 billion, up about 13% over last year's sales.

The company also raised its earnings per share outlook to $4 to $4.05, up 33% to 35% over last year's earnings, after reporting third-quarter profit of $1.10 a share, which beat the average analyst estimate of $1 a share.

Shares were rising 3.4% to $50.10.

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Fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's (MCD) reported third-quarter profit of $1.45 a share, beating the average analyst estimate of $1.43 a share, as global same-store sales rose 5%.

"As we enter the final quarter of 2011, our global comparable sales remain strong with October comparable sales expected to be up 4% to 5%," the company said.

Shares were advancing 2.9% to $91.63.

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General Electric's (GE) quarterly operating earnings per share were 31 cents, meeting the estimates of analysts. Earnings rose 57% to $3.22 billion in the third quarter, up from $2.06 billion a year earlier.

Shares were falling 1.3% to $16.41.

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Communications services company Verizon Communications (VZ) is targeting full-year adjusted earnings per share growth in the single digits ranging from 5% to 8% and single-digit revenue growth of 4% to 8% from the previous year.

The company reported third-quarter profit of 56 cents a share, edging past the Wall Street consensus target of 55 cents.

Shares were down 0.1% to $37.05.

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Software giant Microsoft (MSFT) reported an in-line profit for its first quarter with revenue rising 7% year over year because of strong sales from its business division.

The software giant said it earned $5.74 billion, or 68 cents a share, for the period on revenue of $17.37 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of 68 cents per share and revenue of $17.25 billion in the quarter.

Shares were trading sideways at $27.06.

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Insurance company Chubb (CB) lowered its full-year operating income per share guidance to a range of $5.10 to $5.20 from the previous guidance range of $5.55 to $5.85 after reporting that its third-quarter operating income per share declined to 88 cents from $1.69 last year.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 78 cents a share.

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BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) reported third-quarter earnings of 24 cents a share, meeting estimates.

-- Written by Andrea Tse in New York.



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