Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Bank of America Corp., Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., Petrobras, ProLogis and Portland General Electric - Press Releases
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – March 4, 2010 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO), Petrobras (PBR), ProLogis (PLD) and Portland General Electric (POR).
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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:
BofA Consolidates 2 Units
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) said on Tuesday that it is combining the Global Card Services and Deposits under Susan Faulkner. Previously, Ric Struthers had led Global Card Services. But as part of management changes begun in mid-January by Chief Executive Brian Moynihan, Struthers has decided to leave BofA.
Susan Faulkner will run the combined business and report to Joe Price, the former chief financial officer who took over the consumer bank in mid-January. Faulkner’s new designation will be Deposits and Card Product Executive and she will have offices in Charlotte and Wilmington. The latter is where the card business will continue to be based.
Faulkner has been with BofA for 25 years. Since 2007, she has served as BofA Customer Segments, Deposits and Payments executive. Prior to this, Faulkner was Global Consumer & Small Business Sales, Service & Marketing executive.
BofA’s credit-card business has been one of the worst performing divisions during the recession. BofA’s fourth quarter 2009 loss came in at 60 cents per share, a nickel worse than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 55 cents. This compares unfavorably with the loss of 48 cents in the prior-year quarter.
Diamond Wins Major Contracts
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO), a major contract driller, has received notifications of award for three term drilling contracts from Petrobras (PBR) in Brazil. Excluding bonus and extensions, these contracts have a combined capacity to generate total revenue of approximately $1.4 billion and represent at least 11 years of contract drilling backlog.
The contracts are for three floating drilling rigs: ultra-deepwater semisubmersible Ocean Valor, deepwater semisubmersible Ocean Baroness and deepwater drillship Ocean Clipper.
Ocean Valor and Ocean Baroness each received a three-year commitment that could generate approximately $493 million and $307 million of revenue, respectively. However, Ocean Clipper received a five-year commitment with a $557 million revenue generation capacity.
While Diamond has been suffering from a severe contraction in utilization rate for jackups and high specification floaters, the new contracts will surely boost the company’s struggling bottom line.
ProLogis’ New Solar Project
ProLogis (PLD), a leading global provider of distribution facilities, recently announced a new rooftop solar project in Portland. On completion, the project spanning 90,000 square feet of roof space and generating about 2.4 megawatts (MW) of energy would be the largest rooftop solar system in the Pacific Northwest region.
In order to develop the project, ProLogis signed a deal with Portland General Electric (POR), a vertically integrated electric utility company that serves approximately 818,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Oregon. The new solar project is the second such rooftop project between ProLogis and Portland, generating a total of 3.5 MW of solar energy to power approximately 388 households annually.
Currently, ProLogis has various global solar projects spanning 8.1 million square feet of roof space generating approximately 13.5 MW of energy. The installations are spread across 27 buildings throughout France, Germany, Japan, Spain and the U.S. ProLogis has more than 450 million square feet of roof space worldwide available for solar installations.
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