Employees Can Offset Higher Health Care Cost Increases by Taking an Active Role in Selecting Their Benefits

Moderating Increases Attributed to More Aggressive Plan Management, Deeper Emphasis on Employee Health

While Still an Emerging Trend, Onsite Services Have Higher Employee Participation, Employer Satisfaction Rates than Most Other Health Programs

U.S. Companies Maintain Base Pay, Expect Slight Decline in Variable Pay

And better than Wall Street gives it credit for.

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Employers are shifting more health costs onto employees, with premiums and deductibles for workers set to rise 9 percent in 2009, an analysis says.

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=3947753 for the full story.

Hewitt Associates, Inc. (HEW)

F3Q08 Earnings Call

Complete Story »

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=3877303 for the full story.

We maintain a Hold rating on the shares of ValueClick, Inc. (VCLK), a Westlake Village, California-based online marketing services company. VCLK is currently trading at a P/E multiple of 13.5x our 2008 earnings per share estimate of $0.71, a discount to the industry median. Although over the long-term we are very positive on online advertising growth, current economic conditions are creating significant headwinds for ValueClick and others in the industry. Rising energy prices and falling housing prices have caused consumer confidence to drop, and consumer spending has fallen as a result. With decreased consumer spending, advertisers are cutting back budgets. This has caused what we consider a cyclical decline in Internet advertising dollars. Although there is likely upside to VCLK shares over the longer-term, we[More...]

Filed under: Hansen Natural (HANS), Walt Disney (DIS), Estee Lauder (EL), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Clear Channel Commun (CCU), Economic data, Initial public offerings

We are investing in optimistic times. News -- good or bad -- seems to magically morph into an opportunity to move markets higher. In the past week, even more than usual, weak economic news was accompanied by commentary along the lines of, "it could have been worse," and other euphoric sentiments.

It is difficult to determine whether this is another short-covering bear market bounce or a real rally. But next week will bring us new information that will start to indicate where the answer lies. For now, investors are looking at the glass as half-full. Cash on the sidelines is moving in to equities, partly because there are very few other alternatives. Yields are low, commodities are risky and real estate is taboo.

Next week begins with the celebration of Cinco de Mayo, yet the markets were way ahead -- it has shifted into party mode on its own during the past few weeks. Here is a summary of key events to watch during the week ahead:

Monday, May 5

First off, the market gets a chance to react to news of Microsoft withdrawing its bid for Yahoo. It will be interesting to see how far Yahoo's stock price sinks as well as what all the market watchers think Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will do next.

Hewitt Associates (NYSE: HEW) the HR firm that has been showing amazing strength is set to report. First Call is looking for quarterly earnings of $.38 as compared to a year ago of $.23. There may be opportunity for this firm as we go into harder economic times where companies are looking for an easy solution to labor concerns.

Also reporting is Nam Tai Electronics (NYSE: NTE). It could have a good quarter since the need for computer parts is on the rise. Intel and Apple did well to show that international demand is still hot for electronics and this is one of the parts manufacturers. Through its electronics manufacturing services operations, Nam Tai makes electronic components and sub-assemblies, including liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, LCD modules, flexible printed circuit sub-assemblies and image sensors modules and printed circuit board assembly for Bluetooth headsets. First Call estimates are for $.19 as compared to year ago of $.19 per share on $163 million of revenue.

Continue reading The week in preview: Optimism reigns, but will earnings news prolong the fiesta?

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The following article is a reprint of my February 6, 2008 RealMoney column

Hewitt (HEW) is a leading global provider of human resource benefits, outsourcing and consulting services. On Tuesday the company reported $0.59 in earnings per share , beating analyst estimates by a full $0.20 per share. Given that it currently sports a healthy 9.1% free cash flow yield, I thought it was worth a further look.

Unfortunately, the full year guidance given was that Hewitt is “ maintaining our fiscal 2008 guidance despite absorbing what we expect will be about six cents per share in dilution from the divestiture of Cyborg over the balance of the year.” After a $0.20 beat in the first quarter, ideally estimates would be raised by $0.14 (or more) despite absorbing a $0.06 per share dilution.

Hewitt’s surprise was largely driven by the fact that its Human Resources Business Process Outsourcing (HR BPO) business, which accounts for 20% of total revenue, lost less money in the company’s fiscal first quarter 2008 than it did in the prior year. Still, there are contracts that the company is trying to restructure to achieve profitability that are in “sensitive” stages.

Given how much most companies hate the human resources function, one would think that those willing to take on others’ headaches would be able to earn high profits. Unfortunately, there are a surprisingly large number of companies willing to take on those headaches. In the latest 10K, management says that “The principal competitors in our HR BPO segment are technology consultants and integrators such as Accenture (ACN), Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), EDS/ExcellerateHRO (EDS) and IBM ( IBM - Annual Report ) and; companies that have extended their services into human resources outsourcing such as Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Convergys (CVG).

On the conference call, management indicated that the outsourcing business was counter-cyclical, with customers outsourcing more in downturns in order to reduce costs. Yet they seemed to contradict this statement by saying that the current market environment was causing their new contract signing pace to be behind schedule. Hewitt’s Zacks rank declined last week from 1 (best) to 2. Although the current rank still puts Hewitt in the top 20% of companies measured for earnings momentum, the cautious guidance and talk of a light pipeline are likely to result in some estimate reductions for the remainder of the year.

Despite the lower sales pipeline and ongoing restructuring of unprofitable contracts, Hewitt paid higher performance-based compensation in the fourth quarter. This resulted in first quarter free cash flow being $4 million lower than last year. The company also expects to spend more on capital expenditures this year, which will dampen free cash flow generation.

Furthermore, while earnings are improving the quality of those earnings is not. To gauge earnings quality , I measured the accrual ratio (change in net operating assets as a percentage of net operating assets) over the past several years. The accrual ratio gives an indication of the extent that earnings are driven by cash flows versus accounting choices. The closer the ratio is to zero, the better. Hewitt’s has been declining.

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Source: Zacks Research Wizard , compiled by William A. Trent

So, after looking under the hood, I see a company with falling earnings momentum, falling free cash flow yield and falling earnings quality . The only thing rising in recent quarters has been the share price. As a value oriented investor, I’d rather it was the other way around.

Disclosures: None

Zacks Investment Research has provided Stock Market Beat with a complimentary trial subscription to Research Wizard.

The following article is a reprint of my February 6, 2008 RealMoney column Hewitt (HEW) is a leading global provider of human resource benefits, outsourcing and consulting services. On Tuesday the company reported $0.59 in earnings per share, beating analyst estimates by a full $0.20 per share. Given that it currently sports a healthy 9.1% free [...]

Filed under: Stocks to Buy

The market's choppy/consolidating pattern continues, suggesting the need for an additional defensive play or two (or perhaps more). And in this category Hewitt Associates is worth a review.

Hewitt Associates, Inc. (NYSE: HEW) provides a variety of human resource-related services including payroll, organizational change management, talent consulting, reward consulting, and benefits outsourcing (medical, 301K, pensions).

Analysts expect 2008 revenue growth of 4-7% with strong gains in consulting. Benefits administration revenue should advance 3-5%. Margins are adequate. The Reuters FY 2007/FY 2008 EPS consensus estimates for HEW are $1.75 to $2.12.

Continue reading Hewitt Associates has a winning human resources formula

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