BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. posted a slightly higher second-quarter profit recently and raised its full-year earnings forecast as frugal shoppers look for deals at discounters. "I believe that our value proposition will continue to attract more members as well as to deliver increased frequency," said BJ's President Laura Sen. "Because the majority of BJ's sales are derived from non-discretionary items we have been able to generate strong top line growth in a challenging macro environment." BJ's raised its full-year profit forecast, the second upgrade in a matter of months. The company now expects earnings for the year of $2.10 to $2.20 per share, up from its May guidance of $2.04 to $2.14 per share. The May forecast was 6 cents per share above the company's previous expectations offered in March. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $2.14 per share for the year. The company also announced that its board has authorized an additional $200 million for share repurchases. During the second quarter, BJ's purchased about 1.4 million shares of its own common stock at an average cost of $37.45 each, or approximately $54 million total. The stock trades for 6.5x cash flow.

Liberty Media Corporation recently announced that its board of directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $300 million of Liberty Capital common stock. This authorization is an increase to the $300 million share repurchase authorization of Liberty Capital common stock that was announced in March 2008. The existing Liberty Interactive and Liberty Entertainment repurchase authorizations remain in effect and were not affected by this action. The stock has a trailing PE of 5.

Pizza chain Papa John's International Inc. said recently that its board approved a $50 million increase to its stock buyback program, bringing the total to $775 million. The company said it has repurchased $705.1 million of its stock since the repurchase program began in 1999. As of June 29, the Papa John's had about 28.7 million shares outstanding on a diluted basis. The stock trades for 10x cash flow.

Extreme Networks Inc., which makes computer network components, said Monday it is seeking to repurchase $100 million of its stock through a so-called modified Dutch auction tender offer. A modified Dutch auction lets stockholders indicate how many shares and at which price they wish to sell their shares, within a specified range. The company's board chairman said the tender offer is an opportunity to increase the long-term value of Extreme Networks' stock.

The Irvine, Cali-based manufacturer of semiconductors announced a new $1 billion-dollar buyback plan. The repurchases will be made from time to time depending on market conditions until the program terminates on July 31, 2011. Under the company’s previous buyback, which began in 2005, they repurchased $2.43 billion in stock. The company has 507.3 million shares outstanding. On July 22nd Broadcom posted stellar second-quarter results with net income nearly quadrupling on heavy demand for its communication products. During the quarter, the company earned $134.8 million, or 25 cents a share, up from $34.3 million, or 6 cents a share, in the same period last year. Revenue surged 34% to $1.2 billion from $897.9 million. "Despite continued economic turmoil, demand for Broadcom's wired and wireless communications products strengthened in the second quarter," said Scott A. McGregor, Broadcom's President and CEO. "Our quarterly product revenue, excluding royalties, surpassed the $1.0 billion milestone for the first time in our history,” he added. After listening to Broadcom’s second quarter conference call analysts at Kintisheff Research reiterated their buy rating and inflated their targets. They were pleased to see better-than-expected results in all of Broadcom’s segments; broadband networking (38% of Q2 sales), enterprise networking (27%), and Mobile & Wireless (35%). Two universal themes, cable upgrades and the recent iPhone 3G design win, make for favorable near-term position said the analysts. They raised their 6-12 month price target to $44 from $41, representing about 60% upside potential from current levels.

ICE Is a leading operator of global exchanges and over-the-counter (OTC) markets with headquarters in Atlanta, GA. On Monday, August 4th, the company said it will repurchase up to $500 million in common stock over the next year. The buybacks will be financed through a mix of cash on hand, future cash flows and their existing credit line. The company will begin repurchasing shares after it completes the acquisition of Creditex Group, a credit processor, in a deal worth $625 million. Scott Hill, ICE’s CFO said, “This program reflects our belief that the current share price does not appropriately reflect the strong underlying fundamentals of our global business.” ICE reported its second strongest quarter ever as oil prices surged to record highs. In the second quarter net income rose to $84.9 million, or $1.19 a share, a 58% jump from $53.7 million, or 75 cents a share, reported in the same period last year. The operator of Europe’s largest energy market said that revenue improved 44% to $197.2 million. ICE reported $58.1 million in contracts for its future exchanges, an increase of 18% from the year-ago period. Jeffrey C. Sprecher, ICE Chairman and CEO commented, “ICE's strong second quarter performance demonstrates our team's continued focus on growth and execution.” He continued, “We continue to invest in new avenues of growth and to evaluate M&A opportunities to expand our position as one of the most global, diversified derivatives markets in the world.” After shares sank 11% following the earnings report, Credit Suisse issued a note saying the selloff was unwarranted. Analyst Howard Chen said “We view 2Q results as healthy, believe growth outlook is intact and view yesterday’s 11%+ selloff in ICE shares as dramatically overdone. ICE is our top pick in the sector as we continue to see best-in-class organic growth in the franchise at valuations close to a S&P 500 market multiple (13x 2009 EPS).” They rate ICE outperform and have a $170 price target on the stock.

Louisville’s healthcare provider announced that its board increased the company’s buyback program to $250 million. This amount excludes the $92.8 million used during the last repurchase authorization of $150 million, which was initiated in February 2008. The repurchases can be made at any time as long as they are before the expiration date of December 31, 2009. After Humana’s second quarter results beat everyone’s estimates, the stock jumped 6% in Monday trading. The company earned $209.9 million, or $1.24 a share, a slight drop from the year-ago period when Humana earned $216.8 million, or $1.28 a share. Humana was expecting $1.15 to $1.20 a share while Wall St. was anticipating $1.18 a share. Revenue for the quarter was $7.35 billion compared to last year’s $6.43 billion. The company added that the better-than-expected results were due to surprise results in its Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. Humana increased its full year forecast to $4.30 to $4.40 a share from its previous expectation of $4.10 to $4.35 a share. Analysts are expecting $4.23 a share Humana also recently agreed to purchase Cariten from Knoxville, Tenn.-based Covenant Health for about $245 million in cash. The deal will close in the fourth quarter of this year. Oppenheimer research has an outperform rating on the stock and was bullish on the company’s surprising second-quarter and the Cariten purchase. The Cariten acquisition could add over $0.10 to EPS next year and 2% to Humana’s earnings growth rate in 2009. The 12-18 month target is set at $76, offering huge upside potential.

The Santa Carla-based chip maker announced that it will increase its buyback program by $1 billion. This ups the total authorization amount to $2.7 billion. The repurchased will be made from time to time pending on market conditions and the company offered no expiration date. Nvidia has repurchased 68 million shares, worth $1.16 billion, since the inception of its buyback program through July 27, 2008. On August 12, 2008 the second largest maker of computer-graphic chips reported disappointing second quarter earnings. During the quarter revenue dropped 5% to $892.7 million versus $935.3 million in the same period last year. The company experienced a loss of $120.9 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a profit of $127.7 million, or 29 cents a share, in the year-ago period. The loss can be attributed to $196 million the company spent on customer warranty issues and high packaging materials cost. "We have a great product line-up and, having taken the necessary pricing actions, we are strongly positioned again. Our focus now is to drive cost improvements and to further enhance our competitiveness through the many exciting initiatives we have planned for the rest of the year," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA. Analyst Patrick Wang at Wedbush Morgan Securities has a buy rating on the stock. He commented, "Despite near-term headwinds, we believe shares remain attractive longer-term, trading at 17x and 14x our FY09 and FY10 EPS estimates, respectively." He maintained his $15 price target.