Moodya?s, Ford Motor, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Vodafone and NTT Docomo

CHICAGO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Zacks.com Analyst Blog features: Moodya�s Corporation (NYSE: [ MCO ]), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: [ F ]), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (NYSE: [ MTE ]), Vodafone (Nasdaq: [ VOD ]) and NTT Docomo (NYSE: [ DCM ]).

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Here are highlights from Thursdaya�s Analyst Blog:

Moodya�s Upgrades Ford

Moody's Investors Service, operated by Moodya�s Corporation (NYSE: [ MCO ]), has raised the corporate family rating and probability of default rating of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: [ F ]) from B2 to B1. The rating agency believed the automakera�s business restructuring model, along with a recovery in the U.S. automotive industry, will improve the companya�s operating and financial results in the long term.

Ford has revealed a profit of $1.76 billion or 46 cents per share (before special items including sales of Volvo cars) in the first quarter of 2010, outperforming the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 31 cents per share. The profit showed a $3.55 billion improvement from a loss of $1.79 billion or 75 cents per share (before special items including sales of Volvo cars) in the first quarter of 2009.

Sales in the quarter escalated 15% to $28.1 billion. Excluding sales of Volvo cars in 2009, sales increased more than 30%. The improvement in results was attributable to strong sales of new products, betterment in global Automotive operations and higher profits at Ford Credit.

Analysts are strongly optimistic about Forda�s results. Over the last 30 days, all of the 12 analysts covering the stock have raised upward earnings estimates of the company for 2010. For 2011, 9 out of 11 analysts have revised upward estimates, while none have revised them downward.

Indian 3G Auction: The Aftermath

The prolonged 3G spectrum (radio airwave) auction in India was finally wrapped up on May 19, 2010, according to the countrya�s Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The auction, which started on April 9 and lasted for 34 days with 183 rounds of aggressive bidding, has fetched a staggering INR667.19 billion (US$14.6 billion), overwhelming the governmenta�s initial estimate of INR350 billion (US$7.6 billion).

The DoT has auctioned 71 3G spectrum licenses in the 2.1 gigahertz (GHz) band in Indiaa�s 22 telecom service areas (acirclesa) with all the circles receiving bids. Three slots of spectrum have been auctioned off in each of the 17 circles while four slots were auctioned in each of the remaining 5 circles.

One block of 3G spectrum has been reserved for the state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (NYSE: [ MTE ]) in Delhi and Mumbai and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in 20 remaining circles. These operators now have to pay the government a sum equivalent to the highest bids in the respective circles where 3G services are available.

The limited number of available license slots has propelled the bid price for a single bandwidth slot to a whopping INR167.5 billion (US$3.6 billion). The highest bid was recorded in the nationa�s capitala" Delhi, where a 3G license costs INR33 billion (US$714 million). This is close to the floor price of the auction which was set at INR35 billion (US$758 million). Delhi is followed by Mumbai, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu circles.

Nine carriers had bid for the 3G auction including the major privately-held firms Bharti Airtel, Vodafonea�s (Nasdaq: [ VOD ]) Indian arm Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Tata Teleservices, the Indian partner of NTT Docomo (NYSE: [ DCM ]).

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Moodya?s, Ford Motor, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Vodafone and NTT Docomo