Specialized Consumer Services

According to the proposed 2012 budget put forth by President Obama, the IRS would be getting an additional 5,000 employees, mostly to seek people who try to cheat on their taxes. This would be an increase of 9.4% over the agency's current headcount. The funding for 2012 would be $13.3 billion for...

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. (NYSE: PPD), announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2010. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2010 increased 43% to $16.3 million from $11.4 million for the prior year's fourth quarter. Diluted earnings per share for the 2010 fourth...

Shares of Houston, Texas-based funeral home and cemetery operator Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) are trading up 15.6% at $10.51 per share during the Thursday afternoon trading session. The day's trading range for shares of Service Corporation International has been between $9.11 and...

By 10:40 am, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 25.47 points, or 0.21%, to 12,214.42, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index had lost 1.54 points, or 0.12%. The NASDAQ composite index fell 6.87 points, or 0.25%. Some of the narrow based indexes that are still afloat in the...

Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of five cents per share of common stock. The quarterly cash dividend declared today represents a 25% increase from previously declared dividends of four cents per share...

Shares of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (NYSE: JTX) are higher on the session by 8.07%, currently trading at $1.74. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past two months, though it is currently trading above the 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Options traders are buying calls on the...

A class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of purchasers or other acquirers of Coinstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSTR) securities between October 28, 2010 and February 3, 2011, inclusive. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that,...

Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR) maintained FY11 guidance, but Q1 is below consensus. In Q1, continued expensing of overbought blu-ray and 28 day delay inventory will impact gross margin and, therefore, EPS, as the company works through inventory that was purchased late in Q4. While the company may not yet...

Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR) is trading significantly lower today. At last check, shares of CSTR were trading at $38.87, down 12.14% from Thursday's close.

Piper Jaffray has lowered the price target on Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) from $56 to $50 and maintains its Overweight rating.

Unsurprisingly, Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR) met 4Q expectations owing to the pre-announcement issued on January 14th. 2011 guidance was re-stated, but 1Q11 guidance was far below expectations because CSTR needs to work through the excess inventory issue over the course of several weeks. In short, 2011...

Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR), which pre-announced weak revenues and guidance back in January, released its Q4 earnings results after the closing bell on Thursday. The company reported EPS of $0.68 versus $0.32 in the year ago period. This was in line with analysts' estimates. Coinstar (CSTR) reported...

At last check shares of Coinstar were trading over 5% lower than the close on heavy volume. Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR) dropped today after reporting earnings of $0.68 vs $0.68 consensus. Coinstar also reported revenues of $390.8M versus the $393.31M Street estimate. Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR) guided Q1...

Coinstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSTR) today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2010. Income from operations for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $43.2 million, resulting in an operating margin of 11%, including $3.1 million in share-based payments expense...