BD Board Declares Dividend (Part of Warren Buffett Portfolio)

The Board of Directors of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE:BDX) has declared a quarterly dividend of 37 cents per common share, payable on June 30, 2010 to holders of record on June 9, 2010. The indicated annual dividend rate is $1.48 per share.

About BD

BD is a leading global medical technology company that develops, manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagents. The Company is dedicated to improving people’s health throughout the world. BD is focused on improving drug delivery, enhancing the quality and speed of diagnosing infectious diseases and cancers, and advancing research, discovery and production of new drugs and vaccines. BD’s capabilities are instrumental in combating many of the world’s most pressing diseases. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, BD employs approximately 29,000 associates in more than 50 countries throughout the world. The Company serves healthcare institutions, life science researchers, clinical laboratories, the pharmaceutical industry and the general public. For more information, please visit www.bd.com.

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Republic Services, Inc. Reports Record First Quarter Results

Republic Services, Inc. today reported net income of $65.0 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, including a loss on the extinguishable of debt and other charges as further described in this release, for the three months ended March 31, 2010, versus $113.0 million, or $0.30 per diluted share, for the comparable period last year.

Republic's adjusted net income for the three months ended March 31, 2010 increased $16.9 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, to $157.6 million, or $0.41 per diluted share, from $140.7 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2009. Adjusted net income excludes a loss on the extinguishment of debt, costs to achieve synergies, restructuring charges and loss on disposition of assets and impairments, net for the three months ended March 31, 2010 and exclude costs to achieve synergies, restructuring charges and loss on disposition of assets and impairments, net for the three months ended March 31, 2009. A detail of these costs and charges is contained in the Reconciliation of Certain Non-GAAP Measures section of this document.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, depletion, amortization and accretion (EBITDA) for the three months ended March 31, 2010 was $604.5 million compared to $598.1 million for the comparable period in 2009. Excluding certain costs and charges recorded during 2010 and 2009 as previously described, adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2010 would have been $619.7 million or 31.7% as a percentage of revenue, compared to $647.1 million, or 31.4% as a percentage of revenue, for the comparable 2009 period.

Revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2010 was $1,957.7 million compared to $2,060.5 million for the same period in 2009. Core price for the three months ended March 31, 2010 increased 2.2%, commodity pricing increased 1.8% and fuel charges increased 0.3%. Core volume decreased by 7.0% during the period.

"During the quarter, Republic achieved the highest EBITDA margins in its history," said James E. O'Connor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Republic Services. "Our performance is a direct result of the organization's continued focus on pricing, productivity improvements, customer service and synergy savings. Thus far, we have achieved approximately $180 million in annual run-rate synergy savings. I am especially pleased with the results of our recent $1.5 billion bond offering. Approximately $30 million of our annual run-rate synergies have been generated by refinancing debt at more favorable rates and we now expect total synergies to be in the range of $185 to $190 million."

Don Slager, President and Chief Operating Officer stated, "Our continued focus on safety resulted in a significant reduction in our risk cost during the quarter. Also, we have begun to see signs of increased economic activity, including indications of greater industrial activity, throughout the United States. Implementation of programs designed to lower costs, drive efficiency and increase productivity will allow us to generate higher returns as economic conditions improve."

Company Declares Quarterly Dividend

Republic also announced that its Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.19 per share for shareholders of record on July 1, 2010. The dividend will be paid on July 15, 2010.

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Walmart Sales Fell 2% in the Fourth Quarter

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ), the world's largest retailer, reported that sales fell 2% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year. More bad news is on the way. Walmart also forecast a "challenging" first quarter.

All of the big guns at Walmart offered their reasons for the decline. Deflation in the price of groceries, which account for 40% of sales, was one factor. Price discounts in electronics and flat screen TVs were also cited.

Tom Schoewe, chief financial officer, said customer traffic had fallen and, among other things, cited the remodeling of Walmart stores under Project Impact.

The retailer reported adjusted earnings of $4.5 billion or $1.17 per diluted share. Full-year sales increased 4.6% to $112 billion. International sales surpassed $100 billion.

Mike Duke, chief executive, said sales had exceed expectations for the fourth quarter. It ended the year with inventory down 7.8%. He expects the first quarter to be "challenging."

For the current fiscal year, the company expects diluted earnings per share to come in at $3.90 to $4.00. First quarter earnings per share are expected to be between $0.81 to $0.85.

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GE and Hitachi want to use nuclear waste as a fuel

One of the world's biggest providers of nuclear reactors, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (a joint venture of General Electric and Hitachi), wants to reprocess nuclear waste for use as a fuel in advanced nuclear power plants, instead of burying it in waste repositories such as that proposed at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

Conventional nuclear power plants in the US only harness around five percent of the energy of nuclear fuels. The reprocessing technique would separate nuclear waste into different types of fuels, some of which can be used in conventional nuclear power plants, and some of which can only be used in advanced fast neutron reactors. Reprocessing of nuclear waste to extract more useable fuel has been criticized in the US because it produces pure plutonium, which could be stolen and used to make nuclear weapons. To get around this difficulty, GE Hitachi’s proposed method produces a fuel that is much harder to steal.

The GE Hitachi process separates wastes from conventional nuclear power plants into three streams, by applying voltage to a molten salt. The first waste material consists of the products of fission, which cannot be further used as fuel and will need to be stored, but the storage time required is reduced from tens of thousands of years to a few hundred years (although a small fraction of the material will still need to be stored for over 10,000 years). The second material is uranium that does not have enough fissile material to be used in the light water uranium reactors in the US, which need enriched uranium, but it can be used by deuterium (heavy water) uranium reactors, which are used in Canada.

The final group of waste products is a mixture of transuranic elements including plutonium and neptunium. The plutonium is not separated from the other elements, and the mixture releases 1,000 times more heat and 10,000 times more neutrons than pure plutonium. This makes it much harder to steal, and therefore less of a security risk, and it is also much easier to detect. The mixture of transuranic elements can be used in nuclear reactors that use molten sodium as the coolant rather than water, and this type is used in Japan and a few other countries. GE Hitachi has designed a reactor known as the PRISM reactor that would be able to use the mixed fuel, but sodium cooled reactors have not been approved for use in the US.

A GE Hitachi spokesman said previous US administrations had little interest in re-using spent nuclear fuel, but the Obama administration is increasing support for nuclear power and looking at possibilities such as reprocessing. If adopted, the proposal would significantly decrease the amount of dangerous nuclear waste that needs to be stored.

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GE Energy, Partner Seek Smarter Way To Charge Electric Cars

GE Energy has entered into a partnership with electric vehicle plug developer Juice Technologies LLC to integrate smart-metering technology into charging devices. GE Energy, a unit of General Electric Co. (GE), has been developing products and services to help the integration of advanced energy technologies into the transmission system in a way that allows better use of power resources. The partnership with Juice is its first move into electric car charging technology.

With advanced metering technology incorporated into charging devices developed by Juice, GE hopes vehicle owners will be able to manage the charging, the same way smart meters are being deployed to help people monitor electricity use. Clemente also said utilities may eventually develop a rate system whereby electric vehicle owners would have an incentive to charge up their cars during off-peak hours, and the smart charging stations would help them control that.

GE said it will start offering the chargers with Juice's technology in the second half of this year.

GE is in talks with original equipment manufacturers in the auto industry to discuss the adoption of its meters, which it believes will be used both at homes as well as in public charging infrastructure.

Some electric vehicle developers are offering charging kits to be installed in their customers' homes. For instance, ClipperCreek Inc. delivered chargers for Tesla Motors Inc.'s Roadster and BMW AG's (BMW.XE) Mini E, and Nissan USA has a deal with AeroVironment Inc. (AVAV) to use its chargers for the fully electric Nissan Leaf.

Juice Technologies, which worked with utilities and the Ohio State University's Center for Automotive Research to develop its technology, has also developed a kit for homeowners to manage their energy consumption that is marketed under the brand PlugSmart.

Juice is backed by private individual investors as well as "a significant equity investment" by a large consumer electronics company, with which Juice is working to market its home energy management technology, said Aaron Martlage

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GlaxoSmithKline to cut 380 jobs at UK research facility

UK-based pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline is planning to reduce its workforce at the company's R&D facility in Harlow, Essex. According to reports, approximately 380 employees are likely to lose their jobs at the facility.

The company has decided to implement the job reductions following the completion of projects for pain relief, anxiety and depression drugs.

Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, was quoted by Canadian Business Online as saying: "Glaxo would discontinue research in some areas including depression and pain, and would focus more on degenerative and inflammatory diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease."

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Eaton’s Cutler Says U.S. Doesn’t Need Another Stimulus Package

Eaton Corp., the maker of hydraulics and automotive valves, said the U.S. government doesn’t need another economic-stimulus plan even as his company expects about $1 billion in related funding.

“From a pure economic view, do you need another stimulus plan? Probably not,” Chief Executive Officer Sandy Cutler said in an interview from company headquarters in Cleveland. “Every economy goes through three phases -- there’s an early phase, a mid phase and a late phase -- and that won’t be changed by a stimulus program. Part of what we are seeing now is the early- cycle businesses are recovering.”

Eaton, which also makes power meters and lighting controls, has forecast it will capture $500 million in stimulus funds this year and another $500 million in 2011. The company “immediately” began seeking opportunities to benefit from spending in the $787 billion package that passed last year while Congress was debating the legislation, Cutler said.

The company pursued projects such as rebuilding housing on U.S. military bases and improving efficiency in federal buildings.

“Buried within the stimulus packages are very specific programs that have a pretty good mapping to Eaton’s electrical businesses,” said Eli Lustgarten, an analyst with Longbow Securities in Independence, Ohio. Lustgarten recommends buying Eaton’s shares.

The U.S. should ease away from monetary and fiscal measures that have kept interest rates low and bring them back to about 3 percent, Cutler said in the Feb. 10 interview. Providing research and development credits and making more loans available to small businesses would remedy an underemployment rate of about 17 percent, he said.

Small Businesses

“When the economy starts to move up, that’s normally when your small business goes bankrupt,” said Cutler, 58. “They’ve lived off of their working capital for a year and now when they start to get their first orders in, they place the order, they go to their bank, they can’t get the loan.”

Cutler joined Eaton in 1979 and has served as CEO since 2000. He reduced the company’s reliance on truck and automotive markets to about a quarter of revenue from almost 40 percent of sales in 2004. The company has a larger presence in housing, non-residential construction and aerospace and expanded its international business to more than half of revenue from about 35 percent in 2004.

Net income last year dropped 64 percent to $383 million and sales declined 23 percent as the global recession reduced demand. The company trimmed the workforce by about 17 percent since 2008 to about 70,000 and last year imposed one week of unpaid furlough per worker each quarter. Eaton forecasts 2010 sales increasing about 11 percent, driven by higher demand, a gain in market share and favorable foreign exchange rates.

Auto Demand

The company is seeing demand increase in its auto and trucks unit as is typical early in an economic cycle, Cutler said. The global recovery will be a more muted rebound with higher-than- normal growth from underdeveloped countries, he said.

“I think 2010 in many ways is a transitional year,” Cutler said. “And I think that’s the way one has to think about it in terms of an economic recovery, because many end-markets won’t return to their 2007-2008 time period until we get out into the 2011 and 2012 time period.”

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Wabco TVS inks supply pact with Mahindra Navistar

Wabco TVS (India) Limited, part of global technology leader Wabco Holdings Inc of Belgium, a tier-I global supplier for the commercial vehicles industry, has entered into an agreement with Mahindra Navistar Automotives Limited (MNAL), a manufacturer of trucks and part of M&M Group. The pact is for development and long-term supply of air compressor technology products for braking systems and clutch servo technology products.

MNAL, a joint venture between M&M and Navistar, Inc of the US, manufactures a range of trucks and tractor-trailers that set new levels of reliability, efficiency and customer value for the commercial vehicle industry in India.

“Our commitment is to develop and deliver an entire spectrum of commercial vehicles that will benefit our customers in ways that until now are unseen and unheard of in the industry. By partnering with Wabco TVS in India for rigid trucks, we can create and sustain new value in the marketplace through technology innovation that enhances our products for local and export markets,” said Rakesh Kalra, managing director, Mahindra Navistar.

“We are proud to partner with Mahindra Navistar as they move forward to grow their position in high quality commercial vehicles in India and abroad,” said P Kanniappan, managing director, Wabco-TVS (India) Limited. “This significant new business with MNAL further leverages the well-anchored leading position of Wabco TVS in the local market and our ability to maximise value for our customers through improved vehicle safety, increased fuel efficiency and driver effectiveness,” he added. According to Leon Liu, Wabco president (Asia-Pacific), “We are passionate about partnering with MNAL as we continue to contribute to Wabco's pioneering engineering and highly reliable products while further growing our position in emerging markets through deep connectivity with customers.”

This agreement confirms Wabco’s number one position in air compressor technology globally, particularly in India. It also enlarges Wabco's already broad and successful customer base in Asia, he added.

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