Boston, MA 02/12/2014 (wallstreetpr) – General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) might include helicopters into its portfolio of rental assets. Although GE runs the world’s largest aircraft leasing arm, this business is facing intense competition and more companies enter the commercial jetliners financing market. The company is also invited into helicopter leasing business due to the fast growing usage of the machine by companies in oil and gas operations. Among the companies that give GE headache in jetliner leasing business are Avolon which is owned by the Government of Singapore and Cinven Ltd. Yet another competitor is Sumitomo Mitsui Financial which in 2012 acquired Royal Bank of Scotland’s plane leasing division for $1.2 billion. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) treaded on the greenzone Tuesday, gaining 38 cents per share to close north at $25.43.
Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT): All eyes on AMAT as the company reports fiscal 2014 first quarter after the bell Wednesday, February 12. In the previous quarter the company exceeded profit estimates by 5.6 percent and it will be interesting to see if this trend will continue in the upcoming quarter report. AMAT’s fourth quarter revenue was flat sequentially, but exceeded the year ago figure by 20.8 percent to hit $1.99 billion. Expectations are that revenue in the first quarter will be up between 3 and 10 percent, while EPS will be in the range of 20 – 24 cents. It is important to point out that Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) has historically beat EPS projections in the past seven of eight quarters.
Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) is receiving Purdue University printing services division in a five-year agreement for the privatization of the unit. The university will benefit from the deal in that it will reduce costs, enhance services and improve productivity. The institution has undertaken a strategic analysis for its printing services operations and arrived to the conclusion that privatizing it was the best move at this juncture. In any case, the university says that for several years revenue has been outpaced by operating expenses in the division. Thus, Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) is expected put to use its technological and perhaps financial muscles to take the printing services operations another level.
