Financial Mines

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Archive for January 29th, 2013

Shares in Stamford’s Crane pop 5 percent Tuesday

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 by:Rob Varnon
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Crane Co. CEO Eric Fast. file photo from 2005

Shares in Stamford-based Crane Co. jumped in Tuesday trading the day after the industrial products maker posted a record earnings for 2012 and forecast another record for 2013.

Crane shares were trading up 4.88 percent to $50.96 just after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. The company announced the night before net income for the fourth quarter $45.6 million, or 79 cents per share, compared to a loss of $125 million,or $2.16 a share, a year ago. For all of 2012, Crane posted EPS of $3.72, a record.

Net sales at the company topped $629 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $619 million a year ago. Executives said this is the second year in a row for record earnings at Crane and with large backlogs in aerospace and other product lines, the company said it expects 2013 to keep that streak alive.

First five days of tax season and 1,225 residents have state refunds

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 by:Rob Varnon
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More than 15,500 Connecticut residents got the jump on tax season and have already filed their returns, the state Department of Revenue Services said this week.

Tax season officially opened in Connecticut on Jan. 22 and by Jan. 27, the DRS had issued 1,225 refunds. Most were done electronically, according to the department. On Tuesday, the DRS also said the IRS had pushed about 12,000 filings through to the state,  though the IRS is not actually processing federal returns until Jan. 30.

Last year at this time, the DRS said 8,700 people had filed their returns, so people are getting their taxes in early.

This could provide a pop for retail or residents could use it to continue to pay down debt as consumers across the country have been doing for more than a year.

Some Connecticut taxpayers might experience a slight delay in getting their returns as the department has adopted new rules on verifying people’s identities.

But it isn’t like the delay the IRS has experienced this season.

America’s taxman has claimed the fiscal cliff negotiations forced it to delay processing federal tax returns. The IRS was also dealt a legal blow earlier this month when a federal judge ruled it didn’t  have the authority to regulate non cpa, attorney tax preparers. Anyway, the IRS has promised it will eventually send out refunds.

For more information on Connecticut taxes, visit www.ct.gov/drs