The company announced the deal in its most recent earnings, noting that Outerwall had agreed to buy "certain assets and liabilities" of Gazelle.com for $18 million in cash.
Fiscal 2011 earnings noted revenue of $11.7 billion and operating income of $1.7 billion.
"Europe is a concern obviously," said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co. Citi Research analyst Mark Mahaney cut his price target on Groupon shares to $19 from $22 in an Internet earnings preview note that came out late Tuesday.
Wal-Mart raised its earnings outlook, noting that better inventory control helped to limit markdowns on merchandise.
Some analysts caution that investor exuberance may be racing too far ahead of the earnings fundamentals, noting that the profit surge is unbalanced.
A regional bank – an entity that might have a presence in a number of states and have tens of billions of dollars of assets – might trade for as much as 16 times its annual earnings, Peters notes.
Mr. Diamond acknowledged the dead and dying in the earnings release, noting that "we are especially pleased with our ability to maintain consistently strong operating momentum in light of the difficulties being experienced in the online sector".
"Even in these difficult times GE produced consistent earnings," he notes, adding that Mr Welch "presided over GE for over 20 years long enough for his policies to come undone if they truly were unsustainable".hjc73 has no problem with Mr Welch having left GE before its share-price performance began taking a turn for the worse: "Great people have great timing.
How much of their portfolio involves things like this?" A spokesman for J. P. Morgan, Joseph Evangelisti, pointed to statements by executives at the time of its earnings report noting that this type of insurance was not commonly used by the bank to hedge against potential losses.
The sector is still attractive from an earnings standpoint, notes Bruce Simon, chief investment officer of Glenmede Trust.
