Two Stocks Hitting New Highs: Harman International Industries & Monster Beverage Corp (NYSE:HAR, NASDAQ:MNST)
Harman International Industries Inc./DE/(NYSE:HAR) shares hit new 52-week high this morning after the company posted a better-than-anticipated third-quarter earnings boosted by one time ne-time tax-related boost and robust demand for its products in the luxury car market.
The company reported net income of $172.7 million, or $2.38 a share, up from a year ago profit of $36.6 million, or 51 cents a share. Excluding certain costs, the company would have earned 74 cents a share, ahead of analysts’ estimates 7 cents.
Revenues during the quarter grew 16% to $1.1 billion, and were up 19% excluding currency changes. Analysts expected net sales of $1.04 billion.
The company’s infotainment division, its largest, reported a 15% jump in sales with help from strong demand in the luxury automotive segment.
Gross margin widened to 26.7% from 26.2%, an increase the company said was due to better leverage of fixed costs on higher sales and productivity improvements in its cost base.
Separately there is one more positive news for its shareholders – the company it won a $2 billion contract from its largest customer, in the audio systems maker’s biggest deal to date.
“This deal will come into production in late 2014. We will be serving the customer worldwide from 2015 to 2017,” Chief Executive Dinesh Paliwal told Reuters.
Shares of HAR are up 7.66% to $50.88 and made a new 52-week high of $52.75.
Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) shares soared to new highs with gains coming in the last few minutes on reports from the Wall Street Journal that The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is considering to buy the company.
Monster trades at more than 30 times estimated 2012 earnings, and Coca-Cola may not want to pay a large premium for the beverage-maker because the two companies already have a distribution deal, the Journal reported. Both companies declined to comment to the newspaper.
Shares of MNST were up 12.31% to $73.60 after hitting a life time high of $83.96 earlier in the session.