Stocks to watch: Dell, Abercrombie

By Joseph Woelfel, TheStreet

 

Updated at 8:35 a.m. ET

 

Dell (DELL) beat third-quarter earnings estimates, but revenue failed to meet analysts' expectations. The world's third-largest PC maker reported adjusted earnings of 54 cents a share on revenue of $15.4 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of 47 cents on revenue of $15.7 billion. The company said it's on track to exceed its full-year operating income forecast for growth of 17% to 23%.

 

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) said profit rose in the third quarter but its margins shrank. The teen retailer reported third-quarter earnings of 57 cents a share, below the average estimate of 71 cents. Its gross margin was 60.1%, 3.6 percentage points lower than that of last year's third quarter. 

 

Industrial conglomerate Tyco International (TYC) reported a fiscal-fourth-quarte​r profit of 92 cents a share, beating the consensus target of 86 cents.

 

Discount retailer Target (TGT) reported third-quarter net income that rose to $555 million, or 82 cents per share, from $535 million, or 74 cents per share, a year earlier. The results beat Target's forecast of 70 cents to 75 cents and the Wall Street's estimate of 74 cents. Same-store sales rose by 5.4%.

 

American Airlines parent AMR (AMR) appears to have failed to reach an agreement with its pilots. The lack of a deal raised the specter of bankruptcy, which has clouded the outlook for AMR shares throughout the year.

 

Apple (AAPL) named Art Levinson its new chairman, succeeding co-founder Steve Jobs, who died last month. Levinson, the chairman of Genentech, has been a co-lead of Apple's board since 2005 and will now serve as nonexecutive chairman. Apple also said Walt Disney (DIS) CEO Robert Iger will join its board.

 

Citigroup (C) plans to eliminate 900 jobs in its securities and banking division, or about 5% of the unit's worldwide staff, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the situation.

 

Chip services provider Applied Materials (AMAT) is expected to report fiscal-fourth-quarte​r earnings of 19 cents a share after the markets close Wednesday, down from last year's earnings of 36 cents.

 

Computer storage company NetApp (NTAP) is expected to post fiscal-second-quarte​r earnings of 59 cents a share after the markets close, up from last year's 52 cents.

 

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