Stocks to Watch: Facebook, Salesforce.com (Update 1)

NEW YORK -- Facebook's (FB) eagerly anticipated IPO was priced on Thursday at $38 a share.

The pricing will give Facebook a valuation of $104 billion, significantly above the market caps of Dell (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

At $38 a share, the offering will raise more than $16 billion. It's the biggest Internet IPO ever.

Facebook Prices Mega-IPO at $38 a Share

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Computer giant Hewlett-Packard is reportedly set to cut 8% of its work force, or roughly 25,000 jobs.

Bloomberg said HP is being forced to rightsize its staff to cope with slow demand for its products and services. Bloomberg cited undisclosed people who have been briefed on the issue.

HP's enterprise services group is expected to see a work force reduction of 10,000 to 15,000 people.

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Ann (HPQ), the women's apparel retailer, is expected by analysts to post fiscal first-quarter earnings of 51 cents a share on revenue of $560 million.

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Salesforce.com (CRM), the cloud and software technology company, on Thursday reported non-GAAP earnings of $54.5 million, or 37 cents a share, on revenue of $695.5 million in its fiscal first quarter.

Analysts were expecting profit of 34 cents a share on revenue of $678.2 million in the April-ended period.

Salesforce.com also forecast non-GAAP earnings of 38 cents to 39 cents a share for the second quarter ending in July; analysts estimate profit of 38 cents a share.

Shares of Salesforce.com rose 7.06% to $143.25 in premarket trading Friday.

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Aeropostale (ARO) , the New York-based casual apparel retailer, on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of $10.6 million, or 13 cents a share, on sales of $497.2 million, up 6%. Same-store sales rose 2%.

Analysts called for a profit of 13 cents a share on revenue of $467.8 million in the April-ended period.

For the second quarter, the company forecast earnings of 3 cents to 5 cents a share; analysts expect profit of 5 cents a share.

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Marvel Technology (MRVL) announced Thursday it will be making its first quarterly dividend of 6 cents a share in July.

The analog company also said it was boosting its share repurchasing program by $500 million, bringing total authorized repurchases to $2.5 billion.

Marvel reported Thursday first-quarter net income of $95 million, or 16 cents a share, up from year-earlier earnings of $81 million, or 13 cents a share.

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Autodesk (ADSK) reported on Thursday first-quarter net income of $78.9 million, or 34 cents a share, up from year-earlier earnings of $69.3 million, or 29 cents a share.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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