Topic: Growth Stocks

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, February 14, 2014

Article Excerpt

GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER, $26.76, symbol GT on New York, is up over 10% after reporting strong earnings yesterday. The company also announced that it has used its rising profits to add $1.15 billion in cash to its U.S. hourly workers’ defined-benefit pension plan. This plan is now fully funded, and Goodyear has started to freeze it. A defined benefit plan is where an employer promises to pay a specified monthly retirement benefit regardless of employee contributions or investment performance. Under its recent four-year contract with its U.S. unions, Goodyear has the right to freeze this plan once it’s fully funded. The company will now set up a defined contribution plan for its U.S. employees. That’s where workers make contributions on a regular basis, typically matched by employers, and their retirement payouts are based on those contributions and any investment gains or losses. In the quarter ended December 31, 2013, lower sales in North America and a stronger U.S. dollar cut…