Since opening its first restaurant in 1993, Chipotle (CMG-$214.00) has elevated a simple menu of burritos, tacos, and salads into meals that legions of loyal customers find zesty and more sophisticated in flavor.By not straying from chairman and founder Steve Ells‘ original vision of making good, affordable Mexican food, Chipotle has emerged the market leader in the $4 billion Mexican-themed, fast-casual, dining segment, with 1,023 units opened in 33 states and Toronto, Canada (2) as of September 30.Moving forward, can the national burrito chain continue its impressive store and sales-comp growth rates as competitors, such as Taco Bell, aggressively pursue discount pricing strategies to grab traffic gains at expense of the Denver-based Mexican food-operator? Read More at CBSi....Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.
According to Nokia’s (NOK-$9.86) internal estimates, overall industry cellphone volumes in third-quarter 2010 grew 14 percent year-on-year and eight percent sequentially to 364 million units. The company’s aggregate market share declined 400 basis points from last year to 30 percent, as aggressive price discounting from low-cost Asian competitors, and surging worldwide popularity for Apple (AAPL-$320.36) iPhones and smartphone devices equipped with Google’s (GOOG-$590.30) Android operating system continue to muscle in on the Finnish handset maker’s markets.
Will handsets equipped with Nokia’s Symbian operating system, such as the new N-8 smartphone, help to turn the tide?
Read More at CBSi ….
Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.
Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) founder and president Peter LaBarbera asks: “Isn’t it just as inappropriate for a ‘gay’ male TSA agent to pat down male travelers as it is for a normal, heterosexual male TSA agent to pat down female travelers?”
“The reality is, most traveling men would not want Barney Frank to pat them down at the airport security checkpoint,” says LaBarbera. “Neither would it be fair to assign Ellen DeGeneres to pat down female travelers.”
Rather than worry about sexual orientation, should “Americans for Truth” organization devote more of its attention to other lies being spun on Capitol Hill to American airline travelers? Read More at CBSi….
Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.
The global leader in sales of thin-film solar panels, First Solar (FSLR-$133.05) had to delay panel shipments last quarter due to capacity constraints. Complicating production problems, the utility-scale PV market is anticipated to surge next year, growing five-times faster than the rest of the industry, according to a recent analysis from IMS Research. With a growing backlog — 2.2 GW in North America alone — this new demand supports management’s recent decision to nearly double production, from 1.4 GW to more than 2.7 GW come 2012.
In a related development, Apollo Solar Energy (ASOE-$3.70) will provide an estimated $110 million of 5N (”five-nines,” or 99.999%) ultra-high purity tellurium — feedstock for cadmium telluride (CdTe), the semiconducting compound coating First Solar’s thin-film PV panels.
Tellurium is a relatively rare element, with more than 90 percent of global production recovered as a byproduct of copper mining and processing. Will the contract with Apollo Solar address First Solar’s need to secure forward supplies of its core photovoltaic? Read more at CBS Interactive …. Editor David J Phillips does not hold a financial interest in any stocks mentioned in this article. The 10Q Detective has a Full Disclosure Policy.
