>>> Lowe's beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; reaffirms FY15 EPS guidance, gu

--> -2.95% pre market $50 vs $51.52 - 24k shares traded

Lowe's beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; reaffirms FY15 EPS guidance, guides FY15 revs in-line

Reports Q2 (Jul) earnings of $1.04 per share, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $1.03; revenues rose 5.7% year/year to $16.6 bln vs the $16.57 bln consensus.
  • Comparable Sales Increased 4.4%
  • Sales for the second quarter increased 5.7% to $16.6 billion from $15.7 billion in the second quarter of 2013, and comparable sales for the quarter increased 4.4%.
  • For the six month period, sales were $30.0 billion, a 4.2% increase over the same period a year ago, and comparable sales increased 2.8%.
Commentary:
"We believe home improvement spending will continue to progress in tandem with strengthening job and income growth," Niblock added. "Our year-to-date sales performance, together with our previous assumptions for the second half of 2014, result in a modest reduction to our sales outlook for the year. Our diluted earnings per share outlook is unchanged, which is a testament to our keen focus on profitability."

Stock repurchases:
Co repurchased $1.1 billion of stock under its share repurchase program and paid $183 million in dividends in the second quarter. For the six month period, the company repurchased $2.0 billion of stock under its share repurchase program and paid $369 million in dividends.

Guidance:
Co issues mixed guidance for FY15
  • Co reaffirms FY15 EPS of $2.63 vs. $2.64 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate
  • Co sees FY15 revs of +4.5% YoY to ~$55.8 bln vs. $55.84 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, down from +5% YoY (or $56.09 bln) prior
  • Comparable sales are expected to increase ~ 3.5%.
  • The company expects to open ~ 10 home improvement and 5 hardware stores.

(BFW) De Maiziere Says Germany Not Discussing Sale of Telekom Stake

BFW 08/20 09:35 Germany Wants to Maintain Open Internet, Economy Minister Says
BN 08/20 10:10 *DE MAIZIERE SAYS THERE'S NO DEBATE ABOUT SALE OF TELEKOM STAKE
BN 08/20 10:09 *GERMANY WANTS TO MAKE DATA SECURITY COMPETITIVE ASSET: GABRIEL
BN 08/20 09:58 *GOVT COMMUNICATIONS CAN'T RELY ON NON-EUROPEANS: DE MAIZIERE
BN 08/20 09:49 *DOBRINDT SAYS SALE OF GERMAN 700 MHZ FREQUENCY TO START 2015
BN 08/20 09:35 *DOBRINDT SAYS SOME GERMAN REGIONS WON'T GET FIBER ACCESS
BN 08/20 09:28 *DOBRINDT SAYS WILL USE FREQUENCY SALE PROFIT TO BOOST BROADBAND
BN 08/20 09:21 *GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER DE MAIZIERE SPEAKING IN BERLIN
BN 08/20 09:20 *NETWORK PROVIDERS MUST ENSURE INTERNET SECURITY: DE MAIZIERE
BN 08/20 09:13 *GABRIEL SAYS GERMANY WANTS TO MAINTAIN NET NEUTRALITY
BN 08/20 09:11 *GERMAN ECONOMY MINISTER GABRIEL SPEAKING TO REPORTERS IN BERLIN
BN 08/20 09:11 *GERMAN INDUSTRY MUST STAY COMPETITIVE IN DIGITAL AGE: GABRIEL
BN 08/20 09:09 *GABRIEL SAYS DIGITAL ECONOMY ONE OF MAIN CHALLENGES FOR GERMANY
De Maiziere Says Germany Not Discussing Sale of Telekom Stake
2014-08-20 10:25:21.93 GMT


By Rainer Buergin
Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- German Interior Minister Thomas de
Maiziere says “there is no debate about the sale of Telekom
shares” when asked by reporters in Berlin whether the
government would sell its stake in Deutsche Telekom AG to
finance the expansion of Germany’s broadband telecommunications
network.
* NOTE: Germany Should Sell 32% Deutsche Telekom Stake,
Adviser Says {NSN MXWSTP6S9728 <GO>}


Link to Company News:{DPW GR <Equity> CN <GO>}
Link to Company News:{DTE GR <Equity> CN <GO>}
Link to Company News:{UTDI GR <Equity> CN <GO>}
Link to Company News:{VOD LN <Equity> CN <GO>}

For Related News and Information:
First Word scrolling panel: {FIRST<GO>}
First Word newswire: {NH BFW<GO>}

To contact the reporter on this story:
Rainer Buergin in Berlin at +49-30-70010-6228 or
rbuergin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tony Czuczka at +49-30-70010-6227 or
aczuczka@bloomberg.net

WWD : Luxottica CEO Said Close to Exit

MILAN (Reuters) — Andrea Guerra, chief executive of Italy's Luxottica, is close to leaving the eyewear group after differences of opinion with founder and chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio, several newspapers said on Wednesday.

Luxottica, whose brands include Ray-Ban and Oakley, declined to comment. The company's shares were down 4.5 percent in morning trading.

Guerra, who earlier this year was tipped to become a minister in Matteo Renzi's government, is credited with helping turn family controlled Luxottica into the world's largest eyewear maker by revenue.

But according to a report in Corriere della Sera, relations between Guerra and patriarch Del Vecchio soured after Guerra's recent deal with Google to market its Internet-connected spectacles.

The paper cited a source close to Guerra as saying the next move was in the hands of 79-year-old Del Vecchio, one of Italy's richest men who owns 66.5 percent of Luxottica.

"He (Guerra) is a good manager and the stock is reacting. But the company was created by Del Vecchio, not Guerra," said Roberto Lottici, a fund manager at Ifigest who said he had bought Luxottica's shares on Wednesday morning.

Under Guerra, Luxottica has become a world leader in its sector through innovation and acquisitions, including the purchase of U.S. sports eyewear firm Oakley in 2007. Last year, the group had sales of 7.3 billion euros, or $9.7 billion.

Since he became cel in 2004, shares in Luxottica have nearly trebled in value.

Luxottica’s stable of icensed brands include Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Polo Ralph Lauren, Prada, Tiffany and Versace. The company has more than 7,000 optical and sun stores and its chains include LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and ILORI in North America and Sunglass Hut worldwide.

(MAKOR) Event Driven Telecom: BUY Telecom Italia


Event Driven Telecom: Telecom Italia

BUY
TIT IM: Eur 0.8215
August 20, 2013
TIT seems to be heading into a bidding war with TEF over GVT as the latest press reports suggest that TIT is preparing a bid valuing GVT at €7bn. Under this rumored bid, VIV would get a 20% stake in TIT and a stake in the merged Brazilian entity (comprised of Tim Participacoes and GVT). This is part of a broader alliance, which TIT would plan to create with VIV. Previously, Telefonica offered €6.7bn comprised of BRL11.96BN cash and a 12% stake in the merged Brazilian subsidiary of TEF, Telefonica Brasil. Separately, TEF also offered to sell 8.3% stake it owns in TIT to VIV, for which VIV could settle by cash. The latest development is that Telefonica is planning to offer a content alliance to VIV. Any one of these deals is likely to require the approval of Brazilian regulators such as Anatel and CADE before it could become effective. From VIV’s point of view, both deal offer the optionality to participate in the Brazilian consolidation story while benefiting from potential side deals that allow VIV to leverage its content assets. The drawback in the TIT’s offer is obviously the lack of cash in the deal terms. However, both offers have common drawbacks. By retaining a stake in the merged Brazilian entity (under both offers), VIV may also have to participate (e.g. capital raise) in any future capex investments by these entities. Particularly, TIM plans to invest $1.82bn annually over the next three years and participate in the upcoming 4G spectrum auction. In addition, these offers will add additional listed companies to VIV’s holding structure, potentially increasing the discount to the VIV’s NAV. Hence, despite the bidding war, we are uninterested (as mentioned in our Aug 5 report) by the VIV’s discount. We estimate that VIV’s discount is below 10% under both TIT and TEF offers.
On the other hand, TIT’s restructuring story seems to be improving. The asset sales plans are progressing at a steady pace with expectations that TIT could sell a majority of its towers. The Argentine business sale is still subject to regulatory approvals but on its track for near term completion. The corporate governance issues seem to be subsiding with the recent dissolution of the Telco holding and the appointment of an independent board. Furthermore, Telefonica is under pressure from the Brazilian regulator to either sell its TIT stake or exit from VIVO. On a SOTP basis (assuming no GVT deal), we value TIT around €23bn (equity value), implying a 51% upside. On a relative basis, TIT looks undervalued both on EV/Sales vs OP Margin screen and EV/Asset vs ROA screen. Although the current high debt situation, operational uncertainties in Brazil and Italy are underpinning this wide discount to our estimates, we expect this discount to narrow going forward. Hence, we would buy TIT.
FULL REPORT ATTACHED

(UBS) GDF Suez : Further doubts on reactors-restart: 6-7% risk

* Nuclear reactors' restart to be delayed or may never happen, says Belgian TV
Yesterday night, the Belgian TV channel VRT reported that several “reliable sources”
indicated that tests performed on the Doel 3 and Tihange 2 nuclear reactors (15TWh
output pa, c2GW capacity) revealed thousands of “micro-fractures” in the vessels.
According to the TV report, the reactors may not restart before spring 2015, at the
earliest, and may never restart at all.

* Discovery of hydrogen flakes not a novelty; that is why the plants were offline
The discovery of hydrogen flakes has been the reason to take these reactors offline;
ever since, about one hundred tests have been carried out. Only one test gave results
that were not in line with the initial expectations – a piece of steel with hydrogen flakes
undergoes 40y of irradiations concentrated in one month, and is then heated up /
cooled down, to simulate a critical situation. Given the timing of the results, and that
the government and the nuclear agency will have to analyse them, we currently assume
a re-start in Jan-2015. Although we wouldn't entirely dismiss it at this stage, the TV
report appears to be quite speculative.

* Still, risk-perception around reactors-restart is on the rise: 6-7% EPS risk
Doel 3 and Tihange 2 generate some €345m net income pa, after the payment of the
nuclear levy. Considering the closure of the reactors has triggered a surge in domestic
power prices, the ultimate net impact would be <€200m, or c6-7% of adjusted
earnings. Assuming the permanent closure of Doel 3 and Tihange 2, our 2015E
adjusted EPS of €1.30 would drop to €1.22 (implied 15.6x PE).

* Valuation: at premium but defendable due to better growth / business mix
Thanks to its global positioning, diversified business mix and re-leveraging potential, we
expect GDF Suez to deliver c4% bottom line annual growth through to 2020. This,
coupled with a >5% DY should keep supporting the stock. We set our PT based on a
target DY of 4.75% (sector average), which implies a PT of €21ps.