The company earned $1.31 per share topping estimates of $1.16

Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) reported a first-quarter operating loss of 1.34 billion euros ($1.8 billion) after taking restructuring charges including at the Nokia Siemens Networks equipment unit.

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“BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world’s biggest asset manager, said first-quarter profit rose 0.7 percent as rising markets boosted assets.

Net income increased to $572 million, or $3.14 a share, from $568 million, or $2.89, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. BlackRock’s net income compared with the $2.95 average estimate of 6 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg….”

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“Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the world’s largest custody bank, said first-quarter earnings fell 1 percent as interest rates near record lows eroded income from lending and investing.

Net income fell to $619 million, or 52 cents a share, from $625 million or 50 cents, a year earlier, BNY Mellon said today in a statement. Analysts (BK) had expected the New York-based company to report a profit of 51 cents a share, according to the average of 15 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

“It is a challenging environment for all the custody banks because low interest rates limit what they can make on their short term assets,” Gerard Cassidy, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in Portland, Maine, said in a telephone interview before earnings were announced.

BNY Mellon follows Boston’s State Street Corp., the third- largest custody bank, in reporting lower earnings as the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates near zero since 2008 hurt custody banks. BNY Mellon, which earns fees on assets it manages and oversees for clients, was helped by a 12 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in the first quarter and cost-cutting measures.

“We are seeing the early results of our operational excellence initiatives as we generated significant positive operating leverage relative to the fourth quarter,” Chief Executive OfficerGerald Hassell said in the statement. Hassell in November outlined expense cuts designed to save as much $700 million before taxes by 2015. The bank said at that time it expected fee revenue to grow 3 percent to 5 percent a year from 2012 to 2014….”

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Software revs up by 7% & services up 1%

Revs were 1.80 billion with $0.24 in EPS…guidance is slightly higher than expected.

Guidance better than expected…+$500mil and better margins

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“TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.’s AMTD -0.43% fiscal second-quarter earnings slumped 20% as a decline in fees for handling trades weighed on the online brokerage’s revenue.

Chief Financial Officer Bill Gerber called the operating environment during the quarter “difficult,” noting the e-broker managed to improve its revenue from the previous quarter despite near-zero interest rates and low intraday volatility.

Average daily client trades at Ameritrade totaled roughly 388,000 in the latest period, down from a year earlier, although up from the December quarter.

Rising optimism on the state of the global economy helped draw retail investors back to the market in recent months, boosting trading volume at the major e-brokers.

Ameritrade, which has in recent quarters made strides in gathering new assets, reported Tuesday that it added $10.8 billion in net new assets in the latest period, compared with $11.5 billion a year earlier and $10.2 billion in the previous quarter.

For the quarter ended March 31, the company reported a profit of $136.7 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $171.7 million, or 30 cents a share.

Net revenue fell 6.3% to $673.1 million. Commissions and transactions fees slumped 14% to $292.1 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 25 cents a share on revenue of $672 million.”

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“Goldman Sachs (GS) shares fell about 2.2% in pre-market trading after the bank beat EPS expectations on strong investment banking and trading results. Goldman also boosted its quarterly dividend to 46 cents per share from 35 cents.

Goldman posted $3.92 of EPS, 40 cents ahead of expectations. Revenue of $9.95 billion was also ahead of expectations for $9.34 billion. Banking revenues rose 35% above fourth quarter results, and fixed income trading revenues were more than double fourth quarter results….”

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“Sales at healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson fell some 0.2 percent during the first quarter of 2012, the company reported this morning.

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Over the first three months of the year, revenue at Johnson fell to $16.1 billion, missing the Street’s expectations by nearly $200 million.

However, excluding one time results, the company saw earnings slightly above consensus, at $3.9 billion, or $1.37 per share.

“We continue to bring meaningful innovations to our patients and customers through the strong performance of our recently launched products,” Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive William Weldon said.  “The dedication of the people of Johnson & Johnson gives me great confidence in the prospects of our business to deliver sustainable growth, well into the future.”

The company saw healthy growth in overseas markets, with sales up 4.1 percent. That growth helped stymie lackluster results in the U.S., where revenue declined 5.1 percent to $7.2 billion.

Shares in Johnson & Johnson are slightly higher in pre-market trading.

ORIGINAL:

Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson is minutes away from reporting quarterly results for the first few months of 2012.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg forecast  the Dow component will report earnings of $1.36 per share on revenue of $16.3 billion.

Investors will be looking for commentary on  early sales of three new drugs: Incivo for hepatitis C, Zytiga for prostate cancer, and Xarelto to treat blood clotting.

Also in focus: the recent $1.2 billion fine for violating Arkansas’ deceptive practices laws.”

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“(Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co (NYS:KO – News) reported higher-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday after the world’s largest soft drink maker sold more beverages.

The maker of Sprite, Minute Maid orange juice and vitaminwater said its first-quarter profit was $2.05 billion, or 89 cents per share, up from $1.90 billion, or 82 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $11.14 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 87 cents per share on revenue of $10.82 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales volume rose 5 percent, with growth across every geographic region.

Coke shares were up 0.8 percent at $73 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Lisa Von Ahn)”

“U.S. Bancorp (USB), the nation’s fifth- largest lender by deposits, reported a 28 percent increase in first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as revenue rose and credit losses fell.

Net income rose to $1.34 billion, or 67 cents a share, from $1.05 billion, or 52 cents, a year earlier, the Minneapolis- based bank said today in a statement. Earnings beat the 64-centaverage estimate of 31 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg….”

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Citi comes in @ $0.95 in EPS

CNBC reports a beat on profits, but a miss on revs ???

$0.13 for Friday the 13th…..

conference call @ 7:30am

Revs up 12% and profits were up 7%

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One of the most important debates in the markets and the economy is the story of historically high corporate profit margins and where it’s headed next.

Jeff Kleintop, Chief Market Strategist of LPL Financial, lists profit margins as one of the three most important things to watch for during this earnings season (breadth of earnings growth and earnings guidance are the other two).

Here’s his discussion of profit margins from his latest Weekly Market Commentary:

The analyst consensus forecast of 3% earnings growth in the first quarter is the slowest growth rate since the recovery in earnings began in 2009. The weakness stems from the end of profit margin expansion. Analysts expect earnings to track revenue growth of about 4%.

Over much of the past few years, companies were able to post earnings growth rates that were several times the pace of revenue growth as profit margins expanded, granting more profit per dollar of sales. However, the ability to post faster earnings growth than revenue growth has faded; rising costs have contributed to slower earnings gains relative to revenue. In fact, nearly a quarter of S&P 500 companies are expected to report a year-over- year drop in earnings per share despite year-over-year revenue gains in the first quarter. Three sectors are expected to post earnings declines despite revenue growth. The most dramatic of these is the Materials sector, where 5% revenue growth is expected to accompany a -15% decline in earnings.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-end-profit-margin-expansion-2012-4#ixzz1rkw6v3GQ

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“Fewer S&P 500 companies are offering earnings guidance, or predictions on what they will take in and earn, which has Wall Street analysts worried.

Stock markets often punish companies that miss guidance, and with fewer firms making forecasts, some are worried a recent spate of strong corporate earnings may be coming to an end or at best cooling off.

In March, only 27 companies making up the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index provided earnings guidance to investors, the lowest ever for March and just the second-lowest of any month since 2000, Smart Money reports, citing a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Global Research report.

That has analysts bracing for disappointing numbers to hit the wire.

“The waters could get choppier for equity markets as earnings season gets underway,” says John Lonski, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, Smart Money adds.

Some aren’t so worried.

“Are we going to see 5-10 percent growth in earnings by almost all of the S&P 500? Probably,” investor and strategist Dennis Gartman, author of The Gartman Letter, tells CNBC.

Current calls of up to 2 percent growth in numbers are “probably a bit on the downside,” Gartman adds.

S&P 500 company earnings rose by 19 percent in the first quarter of 2011, although Gartman says a repeat performance will be difficult this year.

Still, the economy will rebound and even though the country added 120,000 jobs in March, way below expectations, investors should wait and see if April and May indicators disappoint before adjusting strategies.

“We are adding jobs, a smaller number than hoped. When the next numbers come out, hopefully we will see this month’s revised upwards,” Gartman says.”