Steven Mallas
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DreamWorks Animation (DWA) has an animated film coming to the the multiplexes next week. It's called How to Train Your Dragon. I have no idea what it's about (aside from the fact that it obviously involves training dragons). But I do know that a marketing transaction with Walmart (WMT) is making headlines.

According to a press release, Walmart and DreamWorks Animation apparently have come up with a very tightly coordinated plan to promote the project. There will be special sections dedicated to Dragon inside the stores. More than 100 licensed items will be lining the shelves. And some sort of event featuring a Viking vessel in Times Square will see what it can do to get potential ticket buyers interested in the flick.

If you are a shareholder of apparel entity Perry Ellis (PERY), you probably aren't so happy about the price action seen on Friday. The stock was off by 9%, on strong volume. The market just wasn't buying the earnings news.

What happened? According to Reuters, the situation didn't seem so bad. The company made 64 cents per share in the fourth quarter. That was a lot better than the $1.58 per-share loss observed in the comparable period twelve months ago. Furthermore, estimates were set at 59 cents per share. Come on, what gives? Plus, if you look at the actual press release, you'll find some encouraging commentary from management. The worst of the economic problems is hopefully behind the business; in addition, cash flow appears to be decent.

Palm (PALM) got hit in yesterday's after-hours session after announcing its third-quarter earnings report to Wall Street. According to BusinessWeek, an adjusted loss of 61 cents per diluted share was recorded on the bottom line. Analysts thought the loss wouldn't be so severe; they projected red ink of 42 cents per share.

Shares of Palm were down over 15% in extended trading. That's enough to scare any shareholder into rethinking the investment thesis with this business.

The video-game retailer rallied on the Q4 report (at the time of this writing, shares were 7% higher). Earnings were down: they came in at $1.29 per diluted share, a dime less than what was made in the previous year's similar quarter (this latter period included 5 cents of merger-related income, so take that into account). But expectations were slightly beaten: according to our earnings preview, the call was for $1.28 per share.

Guess (GES), a fashion concept whose related companies include Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Gap (GPS), and Polo Ralph Lauren (RL), posted fourth-quarter results Wednesday after the bell. Adjusted income went up well over 40% to 96 cents per diluted share. According to Earnings.com, Wall Street believed 81 cents per share would be the bottom-line number.

Total net sales increased 14%. Same-store sales were up 5.3% (they were better by 2% if you look at the metric in constant dollars). Net cash from operating activities over the last twelve months experienced significant expansion.

Besides owning a long-term position, I tried trading the company during the economic crisis. I didn't succeed; I eventually sold the short-term position at a loss, as I mentioned in this piece. But I still hold my long-term shares. And if you haven't been reading the financial news lately, you've missed all the articles about the industrial conglomerate. Looks like everyone is talking about GE, specifically about its potential to come back in the next year or so.

Discover Financial Services (DFS) issued its fiscal first quarter report Tuesday after the bell. According to an article at BusinessWeek.com, a net loss of 22 cents per share was recorded. Last year at this time, the card entity, which counts American Express (AXP) as a colleague, brought in 25 cents per share of positive income.

The quarter's red ink was driven by an addition to loan loss reserves. Without that aspect, Reuters says that Discover brought in a profit of 11 cents per share. Unfortunately, that won't help the company win the expectations game. The estimate at Earnings.com indicates a desired figure of 12 cents for the bottom line.

I'm sure everyone knows about the growth problems at the social-networking site. This recent article at Reuters discusses them. Morale at the company appears to be waning. Unique visitors aren't what they used to be. An ad agreement with Google (GOOG) is about to expire; any new transaction on that front may not be as valuable now that MySpace has been relegated to not-as-cool-as-it-used-to-be status.

Yum! Brands (YUM), a collection of restaurant chains operating in the same space as McDonald's (MCD) and Burger King (BKC), didn't post the most exciting earnings report last month, but it might not matter. Just recently, shareholders received a couple pieces of good news.

First, UBS offered inspiring comments about the company and the stock last week. Shares were upgraded to buy status, rising from neutral. A higher price target of $44 was issued. The catalyst basically centers on things getting better on a fundamental basis for the restaurant brands; also, China's sales appear to have stabilized.

The Walt Disney Company's (DIS) Alice in Wonderland was number one at the domestic box office for the second weekend in a row. Excellent, especially for shareholders. Disney needs Alice to do some massive numbers to prove to Hollywood, as well as Wall Street, that changes in its film division are here: changes for the better, ones that will increase economic value.

According to Box Office Mojo, Alice grossed over $60 million. Coming in second was Green Zone, from General Electric Corporation's (GE) Universal. Make that a distant second. Zone pulled in approximately $14 million. As some have said, this was a very weak opening for a Matt Damon project.

We all have our watch lists. I'm no different. Here are four companies that I monitor almost every single day, and a brief opinion on each of them.

Activision Blizzard (ATVI): I sold this one back in January. Some believe I was wrong to do so. I definitely comprehend the sentiment, because really, this is the best publisher in the sector. Compared to Electronic Arts (ERTS) and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO), Activision Blizzard has an enviable pipeline. Unfortunately, the video-game industry isn't firing on all cylinders; check out the most recent monthly-sales report, and you'll see what I mean. In addition, the company's Guitar Hero franchise isn't the fad it once was. I do want to get in on the stock again, though; lately, the price seems to be perking up. I'm not ready to send in the buy order just yet. I'm waiting for further strength to materialize in the shares.

Ann Taylor (ANN). Now there's a stock that drives me crazy. If you check out previous articles I've written on the retailer (here's one from November 2009; here's another from August 2009), you'll notice that I didn't have a great handle on where the stock was heading. It's tough sometimes to figure out how the market will judge the fundamentals of a situation, even if the fundamentals seem especially clear.

Anyway, the company reported fourth-quarter numbers earlier today. On an adjusted basis, profit came to 5 cents per share. A year ago, investors had to deal with a loss of $1.03 per share. Analysts thought a loss of a penny per share was in the cards. That's got to be worth a bid, right?

That was certainly a large gain in profit. Now, let's check out what the analysts were thinking. According to Reuters, Wall Street was projecting only 18 cents per share. Management scores again.

IMAX (IMAX) issued its Q4 report yesterday after the bell. The stock was slightly weak ahead of the earnings release (it ended the session down 1%), and it didn't react too much in the after-hours session once the news hit the wires. I'm not sure, though, if traders should give up on the stock just yet.

On an adjusted basis, the company behind the big, theatrical 3D format made 20 cents per diluted share. In the previous year's similar quarter, a loss of 22 cents per diluted share was booked. Awesome improvement. As for the analysts, they simply couldn't keep up with the momentum. According to Earnings.com, they were expecting something closer to 6 cents for the income figure.

Situations can change, of course, but for now, the stats do nothing at all for me. Total revenues decreased 4%. Same-store sales were down at each concept; the actual Men's Wearhouse brand was down over 7%. According to Reuters, the adjusted loss per share was 11 cents. This beat the analysts: they were bracing for a loss of 16 cents per share.