On Tuesday, many energy stocks, like BP and Valero ended in the red amid concerns that low oil prices and thin profit margins will continue to hammer future earnings.
Despite its moderately high price-to-earnings ratio, the stock trades at 0.82 times sales, indicating that some smart cost-cutting could widen the companys thin profit margins, which were less than 1% over the past four quarters.
These base-protection rules are referred to as "thin capitalization" and "earnings stripping rules".
The trouble is, that same flexibility gives corporate managers the latitude to summon earnings out of thin air if they're so inclined.
Its earnings may be thinned by the presence of eight other post offices in an 11-mile radius.
A variable annuity is a mutual fund-type account wrapped in a thin veneer of insurance that renders the investment earnings tax-deferred.
Still, at the company's earnings presentation on Wednesday, details were thin on how, exactly, the company would be able to wring out such impressive growth.
A leading European drug maker, Aventis S.A., posted a 31percentt increase in second-quarter earnings, helped by demand for the blood-thinner Lovenox and merger-related cost savings.
Its low price-to-sales ratio of 0.3% may be justified by thin margins, but its P/E of eight on my 2011 earnings estimate is too low relative to its growth rate.
The economic calendar is unusually thin this week, and few important companies are expected to post their earnings.
