Midmorning Positive EPS Surprises for U.S. Companies, Feb. 29

The following U.S. companies reported positive surprises or matched expectations today. This list ranks percent surprises of actual earnings to earnings estimates.

Earnings estimates provided by Bloomberg.

TICKER                                             EST
SYM     COMPANY               Q11    Q10   % CHG    Q10   % CHG   Q/E
========================================================================
FCH     FELCOR LODGING      -0.03  -0.04    25.0  -0.28    89.3   Dec
AYR     AIRCASTLE LTD        0.43   0.18   138.9   0.26    65.4   Dec
CRI     CARTER’S INC         0.63   0.60     5.0   0.44    43.2   Dec
END     ENDEAVOUR INTERN    -0.16   2.25      NM  -0.27    40.7   Dec
SURW    SUREWEST COMMUNI     0.11   0.14   -21.4   0.08    37.5   Dec
CNP*    CENTERPOINT ENER     0.26   0.31   -16.1   0.19    36.8   Dec
GPX     GP STRATEGIES        0.31   0.18    72.2   0.24    29.2   Dec
EPCT    EPICEPT CORP        -0.05  -0.06    16.7  -0.07    28.6   Dec
NXTM    NXSTAGE MEDICAL     -0.08  -0.13    38.5  -0.09    11.1   Dec
TICKER                                             EST
SYM     COMPANY               Q11    Q10   % CHG    Q10   % CHG   Q/E
========================================================================
AH      ACCRETIVE HEALTH     0.17   0.09    88.9   0.16     6.3   Dec
COST*   COSTCO WHOLESALE     0.90   0.79    13.9   0.87     3.4   Feb
ITT     ITT CORP             0.36   2.72   -86.8   0.35     2.9   Dec
SPLS*   STAPLES INC          0.41   0.39     5.1   0.41     0.0   Jan
TIE*    TITANIUM METALS      0.16   0.13    23.1   0.16     0.0   Dec
ISIS    ISIS PHARM          -0.17  -0.14   -21.4  -0.17     0.0   Dec

* - Company in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index

To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Soong in New York at at csoong@Bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alex Tanzi at at atanzi@Bloomberg.net