EdgeWater 12/17/2010 1:55:08 AM
News / Business

Mid Day Stocks Alert (Pier 1 Imports, Centene, Microsoft)

Mid Day Stocks Alert

Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE:PIR) fell 3.56% to $10.01. The company posted a 46% drop in third-quarter net income to $21 million, or 18 cents a share, from $38.8 million, or 37 cents a share, earned in the year-earlier period.

Analysts, on average, expected the company to earn 15 cents a share, according to a poll conducted by FactSet Research.   

The stock has average daily volume of 2.48 million shares. At current market price, the market capitalization of the company stands at $1.17 billion.

Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) added 2.32% to $25.15. The company said Thursday that it expects its fiscal 2011 earnings to be in a range of $2.00 to $2.10 a share and that premium and service revenue will be between $4.9 billion and $5.1 billion for the year.

The company also reaffirmed its previous guidance for 2010. Analysts polled by FactSet Research had been expecting fiscal 2011 earnings of $2.04 a share on sales of $5.02 billion.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) slid 0.20% to $27.80. The company announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share. The dividend is payable March 10, 2011 to shareholders of record on February 17, 2011. The ex-dividend date will be February 15, 2011.

The 52-week range of the stock is $22.73-$31.58. The stock is down more than 8% year-to-date.  The stock has average daily volume of 62.19 million shares. The stock opened at $27.76 and is trading within the range of $27.66-$27.94.

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