Stocks to Watch: General Motors, Linkedin (Update 2)

Updated to include information about LinkedIn, General Motors' earnings and updated prices.

NEW YORK --

Automaker General Motors (GM) reported first-quarter earnings Thursday of $1 billion, or 60 cents a share, down from year-earlier earnings of $3.2 billion, or $1.77 a share.

Excluding items, General Motors' earnings per share for the first quarter were 93 cents. Analysts were expecting 85 cents a share.

Shares of General Motors rose 1.09% in premarket trading Thursday to $23.18.

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Media giant Viacom (VIA) reported second-quarter earnings Thursday of $535 million, or 98 cents a share, up from year-earlier earnings of $430 million, or 72 cents a share.

Analysts anticipated the company would report fiscal-second quarter earnings of 89 cents a share on revenue of $3.32 billion.

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Networking company LinkedIn (LNKD) is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings Thursday after the market closes.

Analysts, on average, expect earnings of 9 cents a share on revenue of $178.58 million.

LinkedIn shares rose 99 cents, or 0.93%, to $107.39 in premarket trading Thursday.

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Dow component Kraft Foods (KFT) is scheduled to report its first-quarter results after Thursday's closing bell. Analysts are calling for earnings of 56 cents a share on revenue of $13.05 billion.

Kraft is splitting into two separate publicly traded entities -- a North American grocery products company that will retain the Kraft Foods name and a global snack foods company to be called Mondelez International.

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Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) reported a revenue shortfall in its fiscal second quarter and provided an outlook for fiscal 2012 that was well below analysts' expectations.

Green Mountain said it sees non-GAAP earnings of $2.40 to $2.50 a share; analysts forecast profit of $2.67 a share.

Shares of Green Mountain plummeted 39.58% in premarket trading Thursday to $29.92.

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Costco Wholesale (COST), the warehouse retailer, said Thursday that comparable-store sales in April rose 4%. Total sales rose 7% to $7.25 billion.

Shares of Costco fell 1.55% to $85.30 in premarket trading Thursday.

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Kensey Nash (KNSY), a medical-devices company, agreed to be acquired by Dutch high-performance materials maker Royal DSM for $38.50 a share.

The cash bid, which has been approved by the Kensey Nash board, is a 33% premium to Kensey Nash's closing price of $29.01 on Wednesday.

Shares of Kensey Nash rose 32.33% in premarket trading Thursday to $38.39.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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