Stocks to Watch: Duke Energy, Estee Lauder (Update 1)

NEW YORK -- Duke Energy (DUK) reported first-quarter earnings Friday of $295 million, or 22 cents a share, down from year-earlier earnings of $511 million, or 38 cents.

Adjusted earnings for the latest quarter were 38 cents a share.

Analysts expected a profit of 36 cents a share on revenue of $3.62 billion.

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Estee Lauder (EL) reported Friday third-quarter earnings of $130.4 million, or 33 cents a share, up from year-earlier earnings of $124.7 million, or 31.

Analysts anticipated the company earning 33 cents a share in the period.

Shares of Estee Lauder fell 1.01% in premarket trading Friday to $63.50.

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LinkedIn (LNKD), the business social networking company , topped Wall Street's expectations for its first quarter.

The company also gave a bullish forecast for the current quarter and said it has agreed to acquire privately held SlideShare, a service that allows professionals to share presentations, for $118.75 million in cash and stock.

Shares of LinkedIn rose 9.7% in premarket trading Friday to $120.02.

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American International Group (AIG) reported after-tax operating income of $3.1 billion, or $1.65 a share, as sales of once-toxic subprime assets and a rebound of its property-casualty unit lifted profitability.

Analysts were looking for AIG to earn $1.12 a share compared with $1.30 a share a year earlier.

Shares of AIG ticked down 14 cents, or 0.41%, to $34 in premarket trading Friday.

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GeoEye (GEOY), a satellite imagery company, has offered to buy DigitalGlobe (DGI), one of its rivals, for $792 million.

This deal would involve stock and cash and would be valued at about $17 a share, which is about a 26% premium to DigitalGlobe's closing price Thursday.

Shares of DigitalGlobe rose 30.92% in premarket trading Friday to $17.70.

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Church & Dwight (CHD), the consumer-products maker, reported first-quarter earnings Friday of $95.8 million, or 66 cents a share, up from year-earlier earnings of $83.6 million, or 58 cents.

On average, analysts expected earnings of 61 cents a share on revenue of $675.7 million.

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Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and its CEO Aubrey McClendon noted Thursday that they are under an informal query by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The SEC noted in its request, which was received yesterday, that its inquiry should not be construed as an indication that any violation of the federal securities laws has occurred," Chesapeake Energy said in a statement Thursday. "The company and Mr. McClendon intend to cooperate with the SEC in responding to its inquiry."

Shares of Chesapeake Energy ticked down a penny, or 0.06%, in premarket trading Friday to $17.20.

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Entertainment industry product provider Dolby Laboratories (DLB) announced Thursday that it will work with Microsoft (MSFT) to have what Dolby called "the most realistic and immersive audio experiences" on personal computers and tablets that use Windows 8.

Shares of Dolby Laboratories rose 22.91% to $46.25 in premarket trading Friday.

Microsoft shares ticked down 8 cents, or 0.25%, to $31.68.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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