Oshkosh Corp.'s defense division said Thursday that it has begun delivering to the U.S. Army the first of its Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles ahead of schedule.
The vehicles being delivered are part of the estimated $3 billion contract that Oshkosh-based Oshkosh Defense retained after a challenge by competing suppliers resulted in a re-evaluation of the award process. The five-year FMTV contract is for the production of an estimated 23,000 vehicles and trailers, as well as for support services and training.
Oshkosh (NYSE: OSK) said the first deliveries, originally slated to begin in October, left the company's Oshkosh campus Wednesday.
Production deliveries under existing orders run through December 2011. To date, Oshkosh has received orders to deliver 5,209 FMTV trucks and trailers.
Financial snapshot of banks with headquarters based in the St. Louis metro area
Ranked by assets as of March 31, 2009
Dollar figures are in thousands
RELATED: Banks based in St. Louis are turning profit again
NameTotal Assets at end of MarchAverage Assets during first quarterFirst quarter Profit (Loss)Return on Average Assets* (%)Total LoansProblem loansProblem loans / Total loans ** (%)Tier 1 Leverage Ratio *** (%) FIRST BK SOUTHWEST BK AN M&I BK ENTERPRISE BK & TR FIRST NB OF ST LOUIS BANK OF EDWARDSVILLE RELIANCE BK STIFEL B&T MIDWEST BANKCENTRE JEFFERSON B&TC BANK OF WASHINGTON EAGLE B&TC OF MISSOURI FIRST COLLINSVILLE BK ST LOUIS BK BUSINESS BK LINDELL B&TC SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL BK CASS COMMERCIAL BK FIRST NB IN STAUNTON CITIZENS NB ROYAL BK MO TRUMAN BK FRONTENAC BK PEOPLES B&TC FIRST COUNTY BK ROCKWOOD BK GERMANTOWN T&SB CARLINVILLE NB SAINT JOHNS B&TC FIRST NB OF WATERLOO UNITED BK OF UNION LIBERTY BK BANK OF SULLIVAN BANK OF O’FALLON CITIZENS CMNTY BK BREMEN B&TC BANK OF OLD MONROE BANK OF FRANKLIN CTY UNICO BK BRADFORD NB CHAMPION BK BELGRADE ST BK COMMUNITY FIRST BK FIRST ST BK OF ST CHARLES FARMERS & MERCHANTS BK COMMERCIAL BK CITIZENS BK PARKSIDE FNCL B&T TRIAD BK CONCORD BK MISSOURI BK THE NEW FRONTIER BK FIRST NB FORTUNEBANK MERAMEC VALLEY BK STATE BK OF WATERLOO JERSEY ST BK FARMERS ST BK OF HOFFMAN 1ST ADVANTAGE BK WESTBRIDGE BK & TR CO BANK OF KAMPSVILLE BANK STAR MIDWEST RGNL BK COMMUNITY BK OF TRENTON BANK OF BELLEVILLE VILLAGE BK BANK OF CALHOUN CTY SILEX BKG CO SUPERIOR BK CITIZENS ST BK BANK OF HILLSBORO FIRST CMNTY ST BK FIRST ILLINOIS BK STATE BK OF ST JACOB COLUMBIA NB FMB BK BANK OF MODESTO FARMERS ST BK CHESTERFIELD ST BK Sums * RETURN ON ASSETS payday loan lenders. Bank profit as a percent of assets. The higher the number, the better. In good times, the figure is usually above 1 percent.
* RETURN ON ASSETS. Bank profit as a percent of assets. The higher the number, the better. In good times, the figure is usually above 1 percent.
** PROBLEM LOANS TO TOTAL LOANS. The percentage of loans upon which payment is very delinquent or foreclosed upon. The lower the number, the better.
*** TIER 1 LEVERAGE RATIO. A measure of a bank’s capital adequacy. The number must be at 5 percent or better for the bank to be considered “well capitalized.”
Kentucky’s seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate rose to 10.6 percent in April, up from 10.4 percent in April 2009 but down from a revised 10.7 percent in March 2010, according to figures released Thursday by the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training.
The U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent in April, up from 8.9 percent a year earlier and 9.7 percent in March 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Seven of Kentucky’s 11 major nonfarm job sectors reported year-over-year employment increases, and four reported decreases.
Kentucky gained a net 7,500 jobs, bringing the state’s nonfarm employment to a seasonally adjusted total of 1,769,500. It marked the second consecutive month of net job growth in the state, according to the OET.
April job gains were experienced in the following sectors: manufacturing; government; construction; trade, transportation and utilities; educational and health services; professional and business services; and “other” services sector (repair and maintenance, personal and laundry services, religious organizations, and civic and professional organizations).
Declines were experienced in mining and logging, information, leisure and hospitality, and financial-activities sector.
Dividend investors are enjoying fatter payouts again, to the tune of $10 billion per year.
The reason? More than one-quarter of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have increased their quarterly payouts over the past 5½ months, with just two cutting dividends.
But President Barack Obama and Congress are almost certain to approve higher taxes on dividend income.
In fact, investors in the top tax bracket could see dividend taxes more than double next year to 39.6 percent, up from the current 15 percent. For most taxpayers, a more likely scenario is a rate of around 25 percent, rather than 15 percent.
Whatever increase Washington settles on, it will change the math for dividend-paying stocks and mutual funds with a strong dividend tilt in their portfolios. They’re big draws for retirees and others who prefer a steady income stream, not just potential paper gains from appreciating stock prices.
Still, market pros say the recent surge in companies reversing dividend cuts appears to have staying power. Here are five things to know about dividend investing:
1. It can only get better, and it is: When stocks tanked in late 2008, companies that had reliably raised quarterly dividends year after year suddenly cut them, opting to hold on to extra cash to ride out the recession. It was a matter of survival for many, especially bailed-out banks that had been among the most dependable dividend payers.
This year’s turnaround has been sharp, particularly last month. The list of 25 companies announcing increases in April included IBM, Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.
2. Watch the taxman: Expect a quick end to the historically light tax bill dividend investors have faced in recent years. Taxpayers in all but the lowest two brackets currently pay 15 percent on dividend income.
Obama proposed an increase to 20 percent. But a proposal that cleared the Senate Budget Committee last month would go further, with steeper increases for those in the middle tax brackets, and a 39.6 percent rate for those in the top rung. The House is expected to begin debate this month.
The outcome: A $1 dividend paid this December would leave an investor with 85 cents after taxes. But in January, when the new rates would take effect, it could be closer to 70 cents or 60 cents, depending on your income.
3. Expect bank dividends to come back — if you’re patient. Financial stocks like Bank of America and Citigroup have historically been among the most reliable dividend payers, but that changed in 2008. The market meltdown hit bank stocks especially hard, and they cut dividends deeper than those in other sectors.
Many financial companies are still restricted from paying dividends as a condition of government bailouts. But even those no longer facing restrictions are cautious. They’re uncertain how tougher financial regulations will crimp business.
4. Dividends could be safe harbors if the market drops again. Dividend-paying companies typically have more cash on hand and steadier income than growth-oriented companies that instead plow profits back into their operations.
5. Dividends are solid long-term. Even after 2009, dividend stocks still have a good long-term record. S&P 500 stock prices ended up the last decade slightly below where they started, after the dot-com bubble burst early on, and the more recent subprime mortgage mess sent stocks tumbling. S&P stocks lost an average 2.7 percent per year over the decade, while dividends returned nearly 1.8 percent.
Urban Outfitters Inc. said Thursday it fashioned a first-quarter profit of $53 million, a 72 percent increase.
The net income, equal to 31 cents a share, compared to $30.8 million, or 18 cents, a year earlier.
Performance was helped by greater store productivity, e-commerce and international expansion and new brands, the company said.
Sales for the three months ended May 6 totaled $480 million, an increase of 25 percent. On a comparable basis, measuring the same stores as a year earlier, sales were up 16 percent.
Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) sells clothing and household accessories. It has 157 Urban Outfitters, 142 Anthropologie and 35 Free People locations.
The Small Business Administration is making low-interest "economic injury loans" to small firms on the Louisiana coast that have been hurt by last month’s BP oil spill.
Under its Economic Injury Disaster Loans program, SBA is offering 30-year loans of up to $2 million, at a 4% interest rate, to affected businesses. The April 20 spill, which is still leaking oil, led to a ban on fishing along Louisiana’s southeast coast.
Gov. Bobby Jindal officially requested the loans Tuesday, saying in a letter to the SBA that thousands of commercial fishermen in six parishes could suffer economic injury as a result of the spill.
"The closure of these vital fisheries will have a devastating impact to the economy of southern Louisiana," said Jindal.
Small businesses can begin applying for the loans today, Mills said, and they can also request deferrals on existing SBA disaster loans. The money can be used to to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that can’t be paid because of the spill’s impact.
"Many small businesses in the Gulf region earn their living by fishing in the waters on the coast," said SBA Administrator Karen Mills, in a conference call Thursday instant payday loan no telecheck.
Jonathan Swain, the SBA’s assistant administrator, said the agency has a loan reserve of $7.2 billion for its disaster assistance program. Of that, so far only $190 million has been allocated to 38 different disaster areas around the country, including the flooded areas of Tennessee.
"We have the resources necessary to meet the needs [of businesses hurt by the oil spill,]" he said. "We don’t expect that all of the funds will be needed."
SBA also encouraged local small businesses to file claims with BP (BP), and said that borrowers may be required to use any claim payments to help repay the SBA loans.
"We have the tools, and we want to be there to help people with what they need," Mills said. "There are expenses they would have been able to pay if this disaster had not occurred."
Thirty-eight states assess a tax when you sell a home.
Missouri’s real estate agents want to make sure their state never makes it 39.
The "Vote YES to Stop Double Taxation Committee" — funded by state and national real estate trade groups — said it submitted "tens of thousands" of signatures Sunday to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would prohibit transfer or sales taxes on real estate in Missouri.
Spokesman Scott Charton would not say exactly how many signatures the group submitted, but said it was "very comfortable" that it had more than the roughly 160,000 needed to qualify to put an amendment on the ballot.
The measure is preventative. Neither the state nor any cities or counties in Missouri now have a transfer tax. But real estate groups worry that, in a budget crunch, state or local lawmakers may start taxing home sales in a bid to raise revenue.
"As state, county and city revenues decline, politicians are tempted to impose new transfer taxes — just as Missouri citizens are struggling to make it," the group said in a news release. Elizabeth Mendenhall, president of the Missouri Association of Realtors, described transfer taxes as "unfair double taxation," because Missourians also pay property taxes every year.
Still, such taxes are hardly unusual.
They’re in place in 38 states and the District of Columbia, generally at less than 1 percent of the purchase price. Illinois taxes sales at 0.1 percent, though some municipalities, like the city of Chicago, assess taxes of their own. In some cities, the funds are used to pay for open space or affordable housing programs.
But they don’t exist in Missouri. And real estate agents, already battered by the weak housing market, hope to keep it that way.
General Motors has made a final payment of $5.8 billion to the U.S. and Canadian governments, paying off the last of its $6.7 billion in loans, the company said Wednesday.
"I am very pleased to announce that, as of today, General Motors has repaid, in full and with interest, the loans made last July by the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada," said GM chief executive Ed Whitacre, speaking at a plant in Fairfax, Kan., where GM builds Chevrolet Malibu and Buick LaCrosse sedans.
Whitacre also announced that GM would make two big investments for production of the next-generation Malibu: $136 million in the Fairfax facility, which will become the primary production point for the car, and $121 million in its Detroit-Hamtramck plant, which will provide additional production at times of peak demand.
GM has already begun manufacturing the Chevrolet Volt electric car in Hamtramck, where it also makes the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS large cars.
On Tuesday night, the automaker wired $4.7 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department and $1.1 billion to Canada.
"GM’s ability to pay back our loans ahead of schedule is a sign that our plan is working," Whitacre said.
But the loan money is only a fraction of the financial support that the federal government gave to GM over the past 12 months to stop it from going out of business.
Overall, GM received $50 billion in federal help. In return, the government got $2 billion in preferred stock and 61% of the company’s privately held common shares.
Taxpayers could recoup money from a possible sale of GM stock to the public in the future.
A White House report issued shortly after GM’s announcement was upbeat on the progress that both General Motors and Chrysler have made since coming out of bankruptcy but noted that the government would likely not make a profit on the funds it had invested.
"Overall, the investments made by the prior and current administration in GM, Chrysler, and GMAC will likely result in some loss, but the U.S. Treasury anticipates it to be much lower than forecast last year," the report said.
Mark Reuss, president of GM’s North American operations, said in an interview with CNNMoney.com that he was "positive" that GM’s stock would ultimately be profitable for taxpayers.
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