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Lots of earnings this morning. Danaher (DHR) reported earnings of 78 cents a share, one penny ahead of expectations. Sales were up 20% to $2.56 billion, which was also more than expectations. I really like Danaher. It’s a quiet company that consistently churns out the profits. The company also said that it expects second-quarter earnings of 88 to 93 cents a share, and full-year earnings of $3.70 to $3.80 a share. No surprises here.

Harley-Davidson’s (HOG) earnings were down from last year due to a strike at its York, PA factory, but the numbers were still pretty good. HOG earned 74 cents a share compared with 86 cents last year, and sales dropped 8.3% to $1.18 billion. That sounds rough but Wall Street was expecting even worse, EPS of 72 cents on sales of $1.10 billion. The good news is that the strike is behind them, and their business still looks good.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) had earnings of 74 cents a share, after charges, which beat Wall Street’s forecast by three cents a share. The company sees second-quarter earnings of 80 to 82 cents a share, and full-year earnings of $3.42 to $3.46 per share.

Melissa Davis at the TheStreet.com wrote:

But investors will no doubt stew over another metric entirely. Notably, UnitedHealth’s all-important medical-cost ratio—reflecting the amount of each premium dollar spent on patient care—for the commercial book of business ticked up to 81.2% in the latest quarter and forced the company to raise its MCR projection for the entire year.

UnitedHealth offered two major reasons for this troubling development, both of which could worry the market. The company blamed much of the change on inadequate reserves, signaling a rare misstep in this department, and the rest on higher utilization of consumer-directed health plans.

Yesterday, Amphenol Corp. (APH) reported very good quarterly results. The company made 43 cents a share compared with 31 cents last year. These results beat the Street by two cents a share, although one penny was due to a tax benefit. APH also slightly raised guidance this year to $1.75 to $1.80 per share. The previous estimate was for $1.73 to $1.78 per share. I always like to see a company revise or reiterate future guidance. The better companies don’t leave Wall Street guessing.

Posted by edelfenbein at April 19, 2007 9:47 AM