Stocks in focus for Friday

Mar.06, 2008 in Market Outlook

Ciena, Citigroup, Marvell Technology

By MarketWatch

Last Update: 7:33 PM ET Mar 6, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Among the companies whose shares are expected to
see active trade in Friday’s session are Ciena, Citigroup and Marvell Technology.

Ciena Corp. (CIEN), a company specializing in network transition, is projected to
report earnings of 36 cents a share in the first quarter, according to analysts
polled by FactSet Research.

After Thursday’s closing bell, Citigroup (C) said it will reduce its mortgage
assets by $45 billion over the next year and will streamline its remaining
mortgage operations in an attempt to lower expenses by $200 million during the
same time period. As part of the reorganization, Citi will integrate
CitiMortgage, Citi Home Equity and Citi Residential Lending into one streamlined
mortgage operation under the CitiMortgage name. The move will cut Citi’s mortgage
holdings by 50% and will be a 20% drop from December 2007 levels.

Watch list

Casey’s General Stores Inc.’s (CASY) fiscal third-quarter net income rose to $13
million, or 26 cents a share, from $11.2 million, or 22 cents a share, a year
earlier. Revenue jumped to $1.15 billion from $919.4 million a year ago.

Cooper Cos. (COO) reported first-quarter net income of $6.9 million, or 15 cents
a share, up from $5.3 million, or 12 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
Excluding acquisition and restructuring expenses, earnings were 45 cents a share,
compared with 47 cents in the same quarter the previous year, the eye-care
company said. Revenue increased to $245 million from $219.4 million. Analysts
polled by FactSet Research had forecast earnings of 44 cents a share on revenue
of $246.3 million.

Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. (FRNT) reported February traffic rose 18.1% to
744.8 million revenue passenger miles from 630.6 million a year ago. A revenue
passenger mile equals one passenger flown one mile. Capacity for the Denver-based
airline climbed 7.5% to 957.6 million available seat miles from 891 million in
the year-earlier period. Frontier said load factor increased to 77.8% last month
from 70.8% in February 2007.

Longs Drug Stores Corp. (LDG) said its same-store sales for February rose 1.2%.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial estimated same-store sales to rise 1.9%.
The company said total February sales rose 3.2% to $379 million from a year ago.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL) reported its fourth-quarter adjusted net
income jumped 495% to $122.9 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with $20.7
million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier. “The improvement in non-GAAP net
income during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 was primarily due to better than
anticipated revenue growth of storage and Ethernet connectivity products,” said
Marvell. Revenue rose to $844.7 million from $622 million a year earlier.
Analysts had projected earnings of 7 cents a share on revenue of $782.2 million.

National Semiconductor Corp. (NSM) said its fiscal third-quarter profit fell to
$71.2 million, or 28 cents a share, from $73.7 million, or 22 cents a share in
the period a year earlier. Net sales, meanwhile, rose to $453.4 million from $431
million. Analysts have been estimating that National Semi would post earnings of
25 cents a share, on $458.47 million in revenue.

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