Specialized Finance

Deutsche Bank is maintaining its Buy rating and its $28 price target on CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) after the company reported earnings above expectations. According to Deutsche Bank, “Despite 3% ad markets contraction in 2Q CME managed to beat our and market expectations. With sales of USD 250m the...

Moody's Corp (NYSE: MCO) reported a 56% rise in its second-quarter profit. Moody's posted its quarterly profit at $189 million, or $0.82 per share, up from $121 million, or $0.51 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding items, Moody's earnings came in at $0.79 per share. Its revenue climbed...

Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE: LMT) reported a 10% decline in its Q2 profit. Lockheed Martin's quarterly net earnings dropped to $742 million, or $2.14 per share, from $824 million, or $2.22 per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Its net sales increased to $11.55 billion from $11.28 billion....

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today announced that CIT Rail, the third largest railcar lessor in North America, ordered 5,000 railcars from multiple manufacturers. The orders, for which deliveries are scheduled throughout 2012, include the exercise of an option for an additional 1,750 railcars...

CIT Group Inc (NYSE: CIT) swung to a second-quarter net loss on Tuesday. CIT posted a quarterly net loss of $48 million, or $0.24 per share, versus a profit of $181.6 million, or $0.91 per share, in the year-earlier period. CIT's total interest income dropped to $602.1 million from $1.024 billion...

Perhaps taking a lesson from the financial meltdown of 2008, the CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) has stepped into the Treasury futures market to stem potential volatility. The exchange has taken action to make it more expensive to trade in the futures market of U.S. government debt. Margin...

Life Partners Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: LPHI) announced today that on July 18, 2011, the Company received a letter from the staff of the NASDAQ advising that because the Company has not yet filed its Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended May 31, 2011, and because the Company remains delinquent in...

CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) unveils its next round of earnings this Thursday, July 28, 2011. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's second quarter earnings announcement. Earnings and Revenue: Analysts are looking ahead to a positive EPS of $4.17 per share and...

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment-arm of the World Bank Group, recently announced it will make an equity investment of USD 4.6 million and a medium-term loan of USD 9 million in Caja Nuestra Gente, a microfinance institution (MFI) in Peru owned by Spain's BBVA...

Medallion Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: TAXI) announced that Medallion Bank, the Company's unconsolidated wholly-owned portfolio company received an investment of approximately $26.3 million in Medallion Bank's preferred stock from the United States Department of the Treasury under the Small Business...

Shares of Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ: IBKR) are lower on the session by 0.66%, trading at $15.13. Overall call volume is now running at 2.97x the daily average, with 15% of all calls traded being purchases on the offer. 1,733 contracts have traded on the session so far. Interactive...

The earnings crunch continues this week even as the month of July winds to a close. Quarterly reports of note scheduled for the week include those from Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Dow Chemical (...

Shares of Life Partners (NASDAQ: LPHI) rocketed higher into the close today, ending the session up 10.09%, at $4.80. The stock has been under pressure for the past nine months, but has been making a rounded bottom since the beginning of July. Notably, Life Partners rallied through the $4.50...

According to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ: IBKR), PT and EPS are revised. KBW reports a higher PT of $18. They also increased EPS estimates to $1.20 from $1.19 (2011) and to $1.10 from $1.06 (2012). Interactive Brokers Group closed yesterday at $15.68.

Here's what Benzinga's reading on our friend, TheStreet.com. What's Hot On TheStreet Verizon Should Benefit from iPhone Demand Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is scheduled to report quarterly earnings before the market open on Friday. Investors will on the lookout for subscriber growth related to Apple's (...