Stocks to watch: Yahoo, B of A

By Joseph Woelfel

Yahoo’s (YHOO) board is considering selling the bulk of the company's holdings in Alibaba Group of China and Yahoo's Japanese affiliate back to their majority owners in a transaction that values the stakes at about $17 billion, The New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the matter. The board is expected to meet Thursday to discuss the offer, the Times said. If directors approve the plan, they may also decide to reject separate investment proposals by Silver Lake and TPG Capital that would have given control of the Internet company to the private-equity firms and Yahoo's management, said some of the people. The stock was up 2.3% to $16.36 in premarket trading Thursday.

Bank of America (BAC) will pay $335 million to settle U.S. Department of Justice charges that alleged discriminatory lending practices by its Countrywide Financial unit. The settlement, announced Wednesday, will be the largest residential fair lending settlement in history and will compensate thousands of African-American and Hispanic borrowers who were victims of the alleged discriminatory practice.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), the specialty retailer, beat Wall Street's third-quarter earnings expectations, but came in slightly below sales forecasts. The company posted third-quarter profit of $228.5 million, or 95 cents a share, on sales of $2.34 billion. Same-store sales rose 4.1%. Analysts were expecting earnings of 88 cents a share on revenue of $2.35 billion. Bed Bath & Beyond also said it expects earnings of $1.28 to $1.33 in the fiscal fourth quarter ending in February and $3.86 to $3.92 a share for the full year. Analysts estimate fourth-quarter profit of $1.30 a share.

Micron Technology (MU) posted a first-quarter loss of $187 million, or 19 cents a share, on revenue of $2.09 billion amid continued declines in pricing for dynamic random-access memory products. Analysts were expecting a loss of 8 cents a share on revenue of $2.13 billion.

Toyota (TM) is targeting record global sales of 8.48 million vehicles in 2012 and 8.95 million vehicles in 2013 as the automaker bounces back from the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan that crimped production. Toyota, Japan's No. 1 automaker, fell behind General Motors (GM) and Volkswagen as the top global car seller in the first half of the year. Toyota said Thursday global vehicle sales for this year totaled 7.9 million vehicles, down 6% from the previous year.

American Greetings (AM) is expected Thursday by analysts to post fiscal-third-quarter​ earnings of 81 cents a share on revenue of about $440 million.

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