May's Stock Review: Most Major Indices Are Up

US Stock Market

Most major indexes were higher in May.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was at the end of the month at 18,010.68 (up 0.95%), S&P 500 (up 1.07%), Nasdaq Composite (up 2.60%).



May 2015 best and worst (S&P 500):

May's Best Stocks:

Danaher Corp (NYSE:DHR) penned a merger deal for the takeover of Pall Corp (NYSE:PLL) for approximately 13.8 billion USD or 127.20 USD per share. Natural PALL Corp stock price rose for 27.87% in week ended May 15 (top S&P performer in past week).

Cablevision Systems (NYSE:CVC) jumped 22.67% on speculation that an agreement by Europe’s Altice to acquire control of Suddenlink Communications may spur more deals in the cable industry.

Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) has agreed to merge with Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) (up 16.31%) in a 55 billion USD cash and stock deal, giving cable mogul John Malone the prize he has been chasing for two years.

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) (up 12.14%) is in talks with several Chinese online broadcast firms to enter China through a partnership. Netflix has spoken with Shanghai-based BesTV New Media and Wasu Media.

Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:CTSH) (up 10.56% in past week) earned $382.9 million, or 62 cents per share, in 1Q 2015. A year earlier it earned $348.9 million, or 57 cents per share.

May's Worst Stocks:

Windstream Corporation (NASDAQ:WIN) (down 30.31%) reported financial results in the first quarter of 2015. Net income was 5.3 million USD or 5 cents per share compared with $16 million or 15 cents in the 1Q 2014.

Two months after Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) (down 28.54%) raised 1 billion USD from the junk-bond market, buyers have lost 18% in market value as a slump in coal prices worsened. Peabody’s $1 billion of 10 percent securities sold in March slid below 80 cents on the dollar

Keurig Green Mountain (NASDAQ:GMCR)'s (down 25.89%) quarterly net sales increased 2% year over year to 1.13 billion USD as a 7% increase in pods was partially offset by 23% plunge in sales of brewers and accessories. Gross profit remained almost the same in yearly comparison at 458.8 million USD as higher price realization on portion packs was offset by negative pricing on brewers.

Frontier Communications (NASDAQ:FTR) (down 24.93%) reported first quarter 2015 revenue of 1,371 million USD, operating income of 163 million USD and net loss of 51 million USD, or 0.05 USD per share.

Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) (down 14.14%) reported disappointing first-quarter earnings. Net income came in at 0.25 USD per share, missing estimates of 0.30 USD. As for the top line, the company reported revenue of $739 million, a 7.7 percent year-over-year increase.

EU Stock Market:

UK FTSE 100 index was at the end of month at 7,023.48 (up 0.73%), French CAC 40 (down 0.63%), German DAX (down 0.41%), Italian FTSE MIB (up 1.93%) and Spanish IBEX 35 (down 1.69%).

May's Best Stocks:

Sage Group (LONDON:SGE) (up 16.62%), UK’s biggest software company by market capitalization said organic profits rose more than 9 % to 192 million GBP during the six months ending March 31.

Alcatel-Lucent (PARIS:ALUA) (up 3.70%) reported rising revenue and earnings. Operating profit more than doubled to 82 million EUR (93 million USD). Sales rose 9 % to 3.24 billion EUR.


May's Worst Stocks:

BHP Billiton (LONDON:BLT) (down 12.48%) has agreed to pay 25 million USD to settle SEC charges that it violated anti-bribery laws by failing to have a proper system in place to prevent the risk of bribery when it paid for trips of 60 government officials to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

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