AutoZone reported an increase in first-quarter net income of 20.1% from a year earlier to $172.1 million, or $3.77 a share. Net sales rose about 12.7% to $1.79 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $3.40 a share on sales of $1.71 billion. Domestic same-store sales increased 9.5% in the quarter. AutoZone shares rose 1.5% to $265.75 in premarket trading Tuesday.Sprint Nextel says it plans to spend between $4 billion and $5 billion to upgrade its U.S. network plan for U.S. customers. Sprint estimates the financial benefit of the investment for a seven-year period to be between $10 billion and $11 billion. Shares of Sprint have risen 3.1% to $4.30 in premarket trading Tuesday.
AGL Resources will buy Nicor in a cash and stock deal with an enterprise value of $3.1 billion. The merger creates one of the top U.S. natural gas distributors. Nicor shares rose 7.9% to $50.45 in premarket trading Tuesday while AGL shares fell 0.8% to $36.85.
Molycorp, a rare-earths company, is reportedly in talks with Japan's Sumitomo Corp. for the Japanese trading firm to buy a stake in Molycorp. Molycorp was up 0.5% to $33.03 in premarket trading Tuesday. The stock rose 18.2% to $32.86 on Monday after reports of a deal with Sumitomo surfaced.
Ahead of its participation in an analysts meeting in New York Tuesday, 3M said it expects to earn $6.17 to $6.37 a share, excluding pension expenses, in 2011. Analysts expect 2011 earnings of $6.20 a share. The company expects 2011 sales of $29 billion to $30.5 billion vs. the consensus target of $29.15 billion. 3M shares have tacked on 0.7% to $87.50 in early trading Tuesday.
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