Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, November 8, 2013

Article Excerpt

DUN & BRADSTREET CORP., $111.45, New York symbol DNB, provides credit reports on over 230 million companies. Its clients use this information to make lending and buying decisions. In the three months ended September 30, 2013, Dun & Bradstreet’s earnings fell 8.5%, to $72.8 million from $79.6 million a year earlier. The company spent $55.0 million on share buybacks in the quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 6.3%, to $1.87 from $1.76. The lower overall earnings are partly because the company continues to invest in new products and improve the quality of its data. It has also discontinued less profitable products and closed unneeded facilities, which resulted in one-time severance payments and other costs. If you exclude all unusual items, the Dun & Bradstreet would have earned $2.01 a share in the latest quarter. That beat the consensus estimate of $1.90. Revenue fell 0.5%, to $411.1 million from $413.1 million. Dun & Bradstreet gets 26% of its revenue from…