Thanks to several sideways trading sessions, by and large, it has been an uneventful week for stocks. However, few stocks have still managed to eke out impressive gains.[More...]

Credit Suisse is upgrading Esterline Technologies (NYSE:ESL) to Outperform from Neutral while raising their tgt to $43 (prev. $32). While ESL has strong breadth across the typically late-cycle aerodefense market, the firm thinks its 18% sales (higher % for EBIT) exposure to comm’l aftermarket will allow it to benefit from the nearer-term recovery in spares demand that they anticipate in 2010. Thus the firm sees a single down EPS year in ‘09 as ESL’s diverse markets and acquisitive strategy should drive growth thereafter. A Volatile Chart: The Feb. sell-off to $20 traces to an abnormally soft FQ1 (Dec) of $0.38 which startled investors following 8 prior qtrs averaging $0.93 (albeit w/ volatility). The mkt rightfully questioned ESL’s $3.70-$3.90 FY09 guidance after it[More...]

The aviation financiers gathered together in Phoenix this week to commiserate - with each other as well as the commercial aircraft manufacturers. Their message: “You can build ‘em, but you can’t get financing for ‘em!” Uh oh! One attendee opined that we who live in the Pacific Northwest are about to see ...

Late on Thursday, Esterline Technologies Corp. (NYSE: ESL), an engineered products and systems provider for aerospace and defense applications, reported that its fourth quarter net profit jumped to $43.88 million or $1.46 a share.[More...]