Pawn Shop Leads Financial Sector

John Ransom | January 30, 2014 12:48 PM

Welcome to John Ransom’s Stocks in the News where the headlines meet the trendlines:

Stock number one: Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd.

Freescale shares jump on strong 4Q results- Associated Press

Shares of Freescale Semiconductor jumped 16 percent Wednesday after it posted an adjusted fourth-quarter profit and issued bold revenue guidance for this quarter. Pacific Crest Securities' Michael McConnell backed an "Outperform" rating on the company, saying that while debt levels remain very high, it's making progress in boosting revenue and profitability..

Symbol: FSL

Trailing PE NA; Forward PE: 10.20

PEG: 0.78

Dividend: NA

Estimate Trend: Down

Ransom Note Trendline: Avoid Freescale

FSL data by YCharts

Stock number two: CommVault Systems, Inc.

Commvault Systems beats by $0.10, beats on revs- Briefing.com

Reports Q3 (Dec) earnings of $0.54 per share, $0.10 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.44; revenues rose 19.7% year/year to $153.3 mln vs the $149.1 mln consensus.

Symbol: CVLT

Trailing PE: 56 Forward PE: 34

PEG: 1.89

Dividend: NA

Estimate Trend: Steady

Ransom Note Trendline: Avoid Commvault

Ezcorp(EZPW_) was soaring 22.25% to $11.43 shortly after noon on Wednesday after the pawn shop operator announced first-quarter earnings per share that exceeded analysts' expectations. The company reported adjusted earnings of 49 cents per share in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, which surpassed analysts' expectations of 39 cents a share. Ezcorp also reported revenue dropped 1% to $269.4 million from $272.7 million in the same period one year earlier, though this still beat analysts' expectations of $257.5 million.

Symbol: EZPW

Trailing PE: 19; Forward PE: 6

PEG: 0.64

Dividend: NA

Estimate Trend: Up

Ransom Note Trendline: Avoid Ezcorp