Daily Archives: January 8, 2007

Cramer’s #1 Overlooked IPO of 2006

Cramer also wanted to review some IPO’s of 2006 that didn’t work out well at all to see if they were overlooked. His #1 overlooked IPO is Optium (OPTM).  Because of all the telecom equipment providers this has been lumped in with the bad ones.  It came public in October 2006 and it is a supplier of Fiber to the home and Triple Play.  Cramer said almost every other company in the group has dropped and it has held it down even though this company can win in broadband shortage.  He likes their transceiver business to manage optical networks.  The company is competing against JDS-Uniphase (JDSU) and it took away much of the JDSU old digital transmission management.  Cramer thinks they understand all the weaknesses and the industry well enough to forge ahead.  After Cramer touted this stock, it popped almost 7% in after-hours to over $25.00.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 6:48 pm in Cramer, IPOs, Research, Telecom

GE Finally Listens: Plastics For Sales

After years of investors and the press saying that GE (GE) would have to resturcture to get its stock moving North again, perhaps the deaf ears are open.

GE is selling is large plastics business and hopes to get $10 billion. In an odd twist the unit will be auctioned. GE does not want to be seen as playing favorites with the private equity folks. The Justice Department is starting to show concern about that sector.

The plastics unit had revenue of $5 billion in the first three quarters and an operating margin a little over 10%. GE did about $127 billion in total revenue over that period.

With its stock finally rising from $32 six months ago to about $38 now, GE management has to show that modest growth and a strong balance sheet are not all the company has to show on Wall St.

Investors want the dogs let out. And, they should hope Universal NBC is next.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 6:27 pm in Mergers and Buy Outs

Cramer’s Scientific Instrument Purchase for Tomorrow Morning

Tonight Cramer said tonight on his MAD MONEY show on CNBC there is no reason to wait for the J.P.Morgan Biotech conference, because he already has the stocks to play.

Thermo Fisher (TMO) presents at 11:00 AM EST tomorrow, and Cramer said he would buy it around 10AM ahead of its prsentation.  They are the one-stop shop for all the scientific instrument and analytic needs now.  Itrecently merged with Fisher Scientific and has over 350,000 customers in over 150 countries.  After tomorrow Cramer thinks you’ll see waves of analyst coverage coming into the stock.  This has the arms dealer model where it sells instruments and equipment to everyone in the field and it has a small group of analysts that cover it.  He likes its ability cut costs and likes its pricing power.  He thinks they have also been conservative in guidance.  He thinks that they could have quarterly upside for a while.

Prior to TMO, Cramer picked Gilead (GILD) as one to buy into the conference.  Here is the full commentary on Gilead from Cramer.

In a call in Cramer panned Ligand Pharma (LGND) and said he wasn’t worried about a small portion of insider ownership in Genentech (DNA) and Amgen (AMGN) because they are so huge.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 6:24 pm in Biotech, Cramer, Pharmaceuticals

Cramer’s Biotech Pick Ahead of the J.P. Morgan Biotech Conference

Tonight Cramer said tonight on his MAD MONEY show on CNBC there is no reason to wait for the J.P.Morgan Biotech conference, because he already has the stocks to play.

This makes for many short-term and long-term trades for the year, and that is why it is imprtant.  He has a jump on it. His #1 biotech pick going into and coming out of the conference is what he is focusing on.

Gilead (GILD) is his top pick ‘ahead of the conference" but it isn’t his top biotech pick for 2007.  He said it has the best portfolio of HIV drugs on the market and a great flu and avian flu portfolio.  Cramer thinks that investors are nervous and have been since it lost 10% in October and the street isn’t sure if it like it.  They also bought his top biotech pick for 2006, Myogen.  He said it is too large to be acquired and the pulmonary focus of Myogen was different than the infectous disease treatments that Gilead focused on.  That scared the institutions away according to Cramer.  The HIV cocktailing treatment is great to him.  He also likes Myogen’s hypertension treatment and other future hepatitis treatments.

Gilead traded up 1.5% to $65.25 in after-hours trading after Cramer commented on it.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 6:10 pm in Biotech, Cramer, Pharmaceuticals

Juniper Networks Fills Its COO Position

Juniper Networks (JNPR-NASDAQ) is filling more of its vacant management positions.  Juniper named Stephen Elop as its Chief Operating Officer.  He served as president of worldwide field operations at Adobe Systems (ADBE) after the Adobe buyout of Macromedia in 2005 and he oversaw Adobe’s global sales organization, field marketing, partners, customer care and professional services.  Elop was Macromedia’s President & CEO at the time that Adobe acquired it.

It is good to see that Juniper has made more and more efforts to fill the long-vacant holes it has had in its structure with someone who is well thought of in the industry.  The personal observation only thing that really be said is that he might not know the ins and outs of competing with the likes of a Cisco (CSCO), Motorola (MOT), and other router makers.  This may also signal that if investors have been hoping for a buyout thatthe company is going to have to go it alone.

JNPR shares closed up 1.5% at $20.23 today, up more than $8.00 from the lows of $12.09 after its implosion last year, and is within about 10% of the $22.63 high seen in the last year.  Its market cap is back to %11.45 Billion, so anyone holding the shares now has already likely been holding the stock for its continued turnaround rather than in hopes that a buyer was coming to gobble up a distressed tech company.  Back in December the company said it would take a $900 million non-cash charge against earnings related to its options probe from 1999 to 2003.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 5:45 pm in Management Change, Technology Companies, Telecom

FDA Fast Tracks Stem Cells for Crohn’s Disease

Osiris Therapeutics (OSIR) was notified that its PROCHYMAL received FDA ‘Fast Track’designation, expediting thedevelopment of the stem cell treatment for Crohn’s Disease that fails to respond to standard therapies.   This takes it to Phase III clinical trials, which will be the last trial stage prior to seeking FDA Approval if resukts are successful.  OSIR shares are up almost 5% at$26.30 in after-hours and shares traded 3-times normal volume; the 52 week trading band is $9.84 to $27.93. OSIR is a recently public company that is up some 150% since the August IPO and its market cap is $685 now million before the after-hours pop.  Jefferies just downgraded this on valuation to a Hold last week, so much of this may already be refelcted in today’s prices.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 5:23 pm in Biotech, FDA, Pharmaceuticals

US Stock Market Wrap (JAN 8, 2007)

DJIA    12,423.49; Up 25.48 (0.21%)
NASDAQ    2,438.20; Up 3.95 (0.16%)
S&P500    1,412.84; Up 3.13 (0.22%)
10YR-Bond    4.66% ; Up 0.014
NYSE Volume    2,667,748,000
NASD Volume    1,880,169,000

Time Warner (TWX) rose 0.6% to $22.37 as the tracking stock for Time Warner Cable (TWC) is closer and after unveiling an AOL Video pact with Sony at CES.

Gap Inc. (GPS) rose 7% to $20.26 after CNBC’s DAVID FABER reported that the company had hired Goldman Sachs to review strategic alternatives for the company.  Paul Pressler still needs to go.  Pressler still needs to go, and here is what Cramer said on it on STOP TRADING Today on CNBC.

Wal-Mart (WMT) fell 0.8% to $47.00 after Goldman Sachs cut its Buy rating down to a Neutral.  Lee Scott needs to go and the latest ad campaign is just going to draw more fire.

NCR Corp (NCR) rose a sharp 3.4% to $43.79, but had been up 6%, after the company unexpectedly announced it woul;d split off its Teradata unit.  Here was our backdoor-paly note on it this morning.

RadioShack (RSH) rose 11% to $18.76 after the company announced its same store sale would be lower in Q4 and in the first half of 2007, but said cost cutting and realignments would make profits higher for Q4.  We noted some data here on this today.

Houston Exploration (THX) rose 4.1% to $50.69 after Forest Oil announced it would acquire the company.

Level 3 Communications (LVLT) rose 2.5% to $6.08 after Jim Cramer named it his #1 Top Speculative Stock for 2007 on Friday’s MAD MONEY.

Royal Caribbean (RCL) managed to close up 0.95% at $43.78 despite the fact that someone tried to smuggle C4 on board one of their cruise ships.

CA Nacional Tele de Venezuela (VNNYSE/ADR) fell 14% after Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was announcing he’d nationalize the industry in Venzuela.

Therma Wave (TWAV) rose 28% to $1.61 after KLA-Tencor announced it was acquiring the stock for $1.65 per share.

United Surgical Partners (USPI) rose 11% to $30.58 after receiving a $31.05 buyout offer from Welsh carson Anderson & Stowe, but the shares have traded as high as $40 in the last year.

IBM (IBM) rose 1.5% to $98.90 after UBS raised its rating to a Buy and gave a new $118 price target.

General Dynamics (GD) rose 4.5% to $78.00 on a Cowen & Co. upgrade.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 4:19 pm in Market Close

As Forecast Ad Spending Shrinks, Web Portals Face Peril (YHOO)

Advertising revenue is now slated to grow only 2.6% in the US this year, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The more surprising number from their annual report is that internet display advertising will grow only 13%. That could make life difficult for large web portals like MSN, Yahoo! and AOL.

In the third quarter of 2006, AOL’s ad revenue grew 46% to $151 million. Yahoo!’s revenue was up 18%  in Q3 06 to $1.58 billion. Domestic revenue rose 14% to $1.054 billion. So, Yahoo!’s results are not far off the 2007 forecast growth rate.

If traffic to the largest web portals only grows at the rate of the internet as a whole, it would not be surprising to see reveue growth rates at these properties in the 15% to 20% growth range. Q4 numbers will probably be all Wall St. needs to see to determine whether ad based internet stock are going to have a reasonable 2007.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached  at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 4:09 pm in Internet

Cramer Cautionary on Gap and on Tanker Stocks

On today’s STOP TRADING segment on CNBC, Cramer discussed Gap (GPS).  He said that is exciting of a potential deal, but the fundamentals are so aweful that they could be able to not sell anything.  Cramer would sell GPS shares after the 10% pop from Faber.

Cramer also doesn’t like many oil tanker names because dividends are suspect.  Nordic Ameican Tanker (NAT) has a 12% dividend, but Cramer thinks it is suspect at some point and these stocks could discount operations quickly if anything goes south.  Some of the companies have already signalled that the dividends could be cut and to wonder why the forward shipping rates are already coming down.

General Dynamics (GD) was noted positively by Cramer as it is up $2.74 today.  He thinks the company’s caution last month was just setting the bar low for itself.

It sounded like Cramer was going to discuss Yahoo!’s (YHOO) Mobile Search initiatives at CES tonight on MAD MONEY, so we’ll see if he does.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 2:46 pm in Cramer

Previewing Alcoa Earnings; Chances of a Buyout?

Tomorrow earnings season will be kicked off by the first DJIA reporting-component Alcoa (AA).  Investors often try to read too much into the metals sector AND into the markets based on Alcoa’s earnings, and this is odd if you think about how plagued the company has been.  Metals companies have actually been at-risk in the most recent weeks anyway, and Alcoa has a history of being fragmented out of a real metals sampling because of a perpetual underperformance.

Back in December, Jim Cramer said that Alcoa (AA) would be taken private this time next year since it never participated in the huge run seen in almost all other metals companies in the last two years.  As far as what the street think, well it’s $28.50-ish level is at the lower part of the $26.39 to $36.96 trading range seen over the last 52-weeks.

This will probably be the first financial update that shows progress in its 6,700 job layoff plans announced in November, and the company enjoyed what appears to eb about 4% higher aluminum prices in Q4 versus Q3.  There is of course the dollar-related risk at the company since it has so much overseas production, although businesses should be able to hedge this. 

Wall Street is expecting $0.65 EPS on sales of roughly $7.6 Billion.  Ahead of the earnings tomorrow, the street expectations for 2007 are for only a 2% rise in annual earnings to $2.93 EPS on revenues that are flat to down minimally to a level of $29.75 Billion.  At a rounded $28.50 price this gives the forward earnings a sub-10 P/E before restructuring and other incidental charges and an implied 0.83 times revenues.  These numbers are cheap to the market, but are deemed at risk and are actually in-line with many metals companies that have had earnings issues.  Now you just have determine if they are cheap to a potential buyer. 

It wouldn’t be cheap to acquire the company because even at the lower part of the range it has a $24.75 Billion market cap.  The company also carries roughly $21 Billion in liabilities, so acquiring an Alcoa (AA) wouldn’t be a low-dollar proposition at all.  US Steel (X) has also been subject of the rumor mill in recent months, although US Steel (X) market cap is only $8.4 Billion now and it also has a single-digit P/E ratio.

Alcoa gets a lot of attention because it is one of the first and because it is a DJIA component stock, but remember that it is deemed as an uncorrelated stock to the market.  When it comes to global buyouts, being defined as a "cheap" stock really depends on your context and what sort of valuation group you are talking to.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2006

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 2:26 pm in Cramer, Earnings, Mergers and Buy Outs, Metals

Gap Hires Goldman Sachs for Alternatives

David Faber on CNBC just reported that Gap Inc. (GPS) has hired Goldman Sachs to explore strategic alternatives.  The stock has a 37% control from the founding family, so he said it is unclear if the company can be bought.

Just last week Faber telegraphed light talk that the company’s CEO Pressler is close to being forced out, and he is one of the top 10 CEO’s that need to go according to our own reports last month.

That can’t be more true.  That also kept the shares up last week after it showed disappointing results. Shares just jumped more than 5% after being flat to down slightly.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 2:05 pm in Uncategorized

RadioShack’s Mixed Message Isn’t So Mixed

This morning RadioShack was lost with the rest of the news out there, but the stock is surprisingly higher on what would be negative news if we weren’t talking about a company in turnaround mode.  The company said that calendar Q4 sales were down 7.8% on a same-store-sales basis, but the Christmas 5-weeks from Thangsgiving to December 31 showed a drop of 2.5% after breaking out the sales of prepaid wireless card airtime.  Including those numbers same store sales would have been down 5.5%.  The reclassifying of these numbers changed the results.

Julian Day, the turnaround CEO, has also said he won’t chase unprofitable business operations, so youcan expect a drop in same-store-sales during the first half of the year.  The company said it would exceed its $51 million in Q4 2005, and the street is reading into this is a flooring out period.

Day is also going to resume conference calls after earnings reports after the prior CEO had dropped them.   Day is the reason this has been on a Watch List for the BAIT SHOP of takeover candidates, although a Watch List is not an official endorsement.  Day has succeeded where others haven’t: if he can keep the profits up, Wall Street is being forced to accept weaker top-line numbers.  That’s what happens when you have a strong turnaround manager in place. 

Shares are up 11% at $18.65 on almost 10 million shares today.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 1:47 pm in Earnings, Management Change, Mergers and Buy Outs, Retail, Wireless

Cramer Thinks Energy Still Has Risk

Cramer thinks it’s too soon to buy energy stocks in today’s version of his Wall Street Confidential on TheStreet.com.  Energy and commodity stocks are cratering; now even drug stocks are going up even with the Democrats making their threats. Cramer doesn’t trust the bounce here in energy stocks.  Cramer said he was blind-sided at the Conoco (COP) news and it was worse than Nabors (NBR) since NBR is a natiral gas play.

In healthcare, Caramrk (CMX) is supposed to be out for shareholders.  He has sold CMX holdings now and if CVS  (CVS) stock doesn’t go up it will have a hard time closing.

Cramer makes many more calls and updates here on his video segment if you want to watch the video on TheStreet.com.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 1:29 pm in Cramer, Oil & Gas, Pharmaceuticals

24/7 Wall St. 2007 Price Targets: Sun Micro, $4.50

Over the next week 24/7 Wall St. will set mid-year price targets (June, 30, 2007) for the sixty most widely traded stocks. These targets will be based on past price performance, industry activity, forward projections of financial performance, outside analyst opinions, and research conducted for doing past articles on these firms. The price targets assume flat markets over the next six months. In other words, if the Nasdaq moved up 25% between now and mid-year, the target share price targets would probably be too low. If the market moved down by 20%, they would probably be too high

Sun Microsystems (SUNW). A number of investors have become convinced that Sun is probably out of the woods. With the stock moving from just below $4 to $5.65 over the last year, they have voted with their pocket books. It was a bad bet.

Sun has cut costs, by perhaps too much. The company’s revenue has grown, but much of this is from its purchases of SeeBeyond and Storage Technology.

Sun has gained some market share in its key server market. But, larger companies in this part of the industry, including IBM and Dell, may be willing to live with lower margins to keep share. And, Sun cannot afford to play that game.

To help jump start interest in the software that runs on Sun’s servers and to improve total cost to customer, the company has turned to Linux open source products. Linux depends on a large community of programmers around the world that do not have the clear direction that a corporation my need to keep on the cutting edge with its products. Ther are also question about whether Linux intellectual property infringes on patents from companies like Microsoft.

Sun’s growth does not appear to be reaching beyond the revenue it bought through acquistions. If that becomes more apparent in the next quarter or two, the stock will give up most of its gains.

Factors that could move the stock above forecast: Sun has had recent market share gains in the server segment. If it can continue to take away from Dell, IBM, and HP, the market should have a positive reaction.

Factorss that could push the stock below forecast: The market expect Sun to start making money soon. If its show loses in the next quarter, investors may well lose patience.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 1:13 pm in Hardware

24/7 Wall St. 2007 Price Targets: Oracle, $16

Over the next week 24/7 Wall St. will set mid-year price targets (June, 30, 2007) for the sixty most widely traded stocks. These targets will be based on past price performance, industry activity, forward projections of financial performance, outside analyst opinions, and research conducted for doing past articles on these firms. The price targets assume flat markets over the next six months. In other words, if the Nasdaq moved up 25% between now and mid-year, the target share price targets would probably be too low. If the market moved down by 20%, they would probably be too high

Oracle (ORCL). The market fell in love with Oracle again in 2006. After trading below $14 most of the previous year, the big enterprise software company’s shares jumped to close to $20. The huge sums that the company paid for PeopleSoft and Seibel seemed to be forgotten as Oracle turned in strong numbers, especially in the second calender quarter of 2006. In the quarter after that, reported in mid-December, Oracle’s revenue rose 26% to $4.16 billion, but the company’s critical licensing business grew slower that Wall St. wanted and the stock dropped 5% in a day.

Wall St. is now concerned that Oracle may grow through expensive acquistions, but growth from within, of "organic" growth may be much less robust than the markets had hoped. And, competitors are trying to make sure that Oracle’s organic growth is as slow as possible. Microsoft has introduced its own database products and is gaining share compared to Oracle. Oracle also makes a great deal of money selling support for its own products. But, some companies have come into the market and will offer support for lower prices.

The markets have also been tempted to rule-out a comback by Oracle’s largest rival, SAP. And, that may be a mistake. SAP said recently that it expects double-digit growth over the next year, lead by progress in the US markets. And, there is only some much double-digit growth to go around.

Factors that could move price above forecast: With doubts about Oracle’s organic growth, a quarter in which the company showed progress in revenue from beyond its acquisitions would do a lot to move aside Wall St. fears.

Factors that could move the price below forecast: Oracle’s competitors are getting bigger and stonger. IBM needs growth in the enterprise software area to keep its turnaround on track. SAP claims that it will grow as fast as Oracle will. Microsoft has a group of software aimed straight at Oracle’s revenue sweet spot.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 12:53 pm in Software

24/7 Wall St. 2007 Price Targets: IBM, $105

Over the next week 24/7 Wall St. will set mid-year price targets (June, 30, 2007) for the sixty most widely traded stocks. These targets will be based on past price performance, industry activity, forward projections of financial performance, outside analyst opinions, and research conducted for doing past articles on these firms. The price targets assume flat markets over the next six months. In other words, if the Nasdaq moved up 25% between now and mid-year, the target share price targets would probably be too low. If the market moved down by 20%, they would probably be too high

International Business Machines (IBM). For five years, IBM has done worse than stand still. It is down about 20%. Ditto for two years, Stock flat with most indices up 15% to 20%. Only in the last three months has the stock really begun to outperform the market.

Can it last? There are a growing number of believers. UBS recently upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "buy" based on improvements in its core business and the company’s move further into the software business.

There is some concern that IBM’s big services business has begun to slow, but software has picked up that slack. In the third quarter, the software business was up 12% to $4.4 billion. Even with improvements like this and the recent increase in its stock price, IBM still trades at a large P/E discount to SAP and Hewlett-Packard.

A look at the first three quarters of 2006 shows IBM’s hardware business shrinking. It global services renenue is flat. But, the software business continues to grow.

Given its size, IBM is not likely to grow quickly, but its software business should improve margins, and that may be enough to life the stock. A bit.

Factors that could improve stock price above forecast: IBM’s fortunes are tied to global IT spending. If that picks up more than expected in Q1 07, the stock should benefit. IBM is also working on its cost structure. An improvement in gross marging would help the stock.

Factors that could move the stock value below forecast. Hardware sales have been IBM’s weak point recently. If sales of large computers and servers slow down, or IBM loses share to HP, Sun, or Hitachi, the shares will come under pressure.

Douglas A. Mcntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 12:16 pm in Hardware

Vonage Tries To Save Itself (VG)(ELNK)

Vonage has probably been kicked around as much as any public company. After an IPO at $17, the shares moved to $6.30 and has been under $7 for some time

Maybe the company’s latest move will actually help climb back out of its hole. Vonage has linked up with Earthlink to offer high-speed internet access with its voice over IP service. The Earthlink broadband is a WiFi product that is still being roled out.

One of the knocks on Vonage has been that it competes against cable companies that can offer VoIP, broadband, and TV. Vonage can only offer phone service, which probably does put it at a disadvantage.

The trouble with the partnership is that it really does very, very little for Vonage. The Earthlink product is in its infancy and may not be in large cities for a number of years.

Suppose they gave  party and nobody came.

The move certainly won’t do much to help Vonage’s troubled shareholders.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 10:32 am in Internet

Upcoming Spin-Off: NCR & Teradata

NCR Corp (NCR-NYSE) has made a somewhat surprising move this morning, and its shares are up 4% in applause of the deal.  NCR hired J.P.Morgan to separate into two independent publicly traded companies through the spin-off of the company’s Teradata Data Warehousing business, via a 100% tax-free spin-off to NCR shareholders.  This is roughly one-third of the company, so it far from a minimal spin-off of a company that they are just going to jettison to get it off the books.

Teradata had revenues of $1.5 billion and operating income (excluding pension expense) of $309 million in 2005 and is one of the leaders in the enterprise data warehousing market. Teradata enables organizations to gain a single, integrated enterprise view of their business.

NCR will be the same company sans-Teradata: automated teller machines (ATMs), retail self-checkout systems, automated bill payment systems, self-check-in/out kiosks, point-of-sale technologies and customer-support services. Combined, these businesses had revenues of $4.5 billion in 2005.

Bill Nuti, president & CEO of NCR, said, "This separation is a logical strategic step for NCR. We believe it will benefit our customers, business partners, employees and shareholders. Teradata and the new NCR operate in different markets each with solid prospects for the future, but they have markedly different business models. Both new companies should benefit from sharper management focus on their unique business opportunities. Each new entity should be able to more effectively pursue their specific growth and research and development agendas, while designing employee incentive plans that are more directly aligned with their own performance and growth objectives. In addition, NCR investors should benefit from increased transparency and clarity, which will allow them to more appropriately value the merits, performance and future prospects of both companies."

Bill Nuti will serve as president and CEO of NCR, and Mike Koehler, currently senior vice president of the Teradata Division, will serve as president and CEO of Teradata. Additional information on management and Board composition will be communicated in the future.  This spin-off is subject to certain conditions, including final approval by NCR’s Board of Directors, receipt of a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service with respect to the spin off, the absence of any material changes or developments and the filing and effectiveness of registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Approval by NCR shareholders is NOT required and the spin-off ratio will be set at a future date within the six to nine months before it becomes effective.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2007

If you would like to subscribe to email lists for special situations outside of our normal web posts for spin-offs, IPO data, backdoor plays into upcoming IPO’s, BAIT SHOP updates of M&A candidates, and other scenarios please send an email to jonogg@247wallst.com and label the email SUBSCRIBE.  We value privacy and do not share our private email distribution lists with any outside parties.

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 9:46 am in IPOs

pre-Market Stock Notes (JAN 8, 2007)

(ABT) Abbott Labs diagnostic instrument with Celera (CRA) approved in Canada.
(BA) Boeing gets order for soem $3 Billion in China.
(BBBY) Bed Bath & Beyond positive in Barron’s.
(BBI) Blockbuster sold Rhino video game rental unit to GameStop.
(BCRX) BioCryst names new CEO.
(BRLC) Syntax-Brillian trading up 9%aftersaying last quarterrevenues were well above plan.
(CMX) Craemark rejects ESRX bid in favor of lower bid from CVS.
(CRAY) Cray won Army order for 2 supercomputers.
(GE) GE is buying Vetco Gray, a Houston oil & gas equipment supplier for $1.9 Billion.
(GME) GameStop is acquiring the Rhino video game rental unit of Blockbuster.
(GOL) GOL LINHAS AEREAS lowered guidance.
(HGSI) Human Genome Sciences sees 2007 sale sup 50%.
(HZO) MarineMax lowered 2007 guidance.
(ILSE) Intralase gets $25 buyout offer from Adv. Medical Optics.
(LVLT) Level 3 up 4% more on Cramer calling it his #1 speculative stock; filed to sell 5.1 million shares for holder.
(NCR) NCR will split its Teradata unit to NCR holders.
(NDAQ) NASDAQ is maintaining the bid for the LSE without hiking it as of now.
(QGLY) Quigley showed positive bronchitis studies.
(PVCT) Provectus Pharma receives Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for its lead anti-cancer agent.
(RAD) Rite-Aid noted as runner-up for 2007 top speculative stock for 2007 by Jim Cramer.
(RSH) Radio Shack sees Q4 sales down almost 8%.
(SGEN)  Seattle Genetics in licensing pact with Genentech(DNA) for the development and commercialization of SGN-40, a humanized monoclonal antibody.
(SPSN) Spansion filed to sell 11.7M shares of stock.
(SVNT) Savient Pharma up as #2 runner-up for top speculative stock of 2007 from Jim Cramer.
(SVVS) Savvis filed to sell 6.6M shares of stock.
(THX) Houston Exploration gets $1.5 Billion buyout from Forest Oil.
(TLAB) Tellabs trading down 7% pre-market after warning.
(TWAV) Therma Wave gets $1.65 buyout from KLAC, trading up 25%.
(TWX) Time Warner AOL in AOL Video distribution pact with Sony; traded up after Cramer said that is way to play Cable tracking stock.
(TYC) Tyco positive in Barron’s.
(USPI) United Surgical Partners merging with Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, for about $1.39 billion or $31.05 per share.
(VG) Vonage  will sell w-fi in Earthlink deal according to WSJ.
(WMT) Wal-Mart downgraded to Neutral at Goldman Sachs, stock down 1.3%.
(YHOO) Yahoo! set to increase mobile search functions according to WSJ; expands pact with RIMM.

by Jon C. Ogg

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 8:36 am in Pre-Market Activity

Analyst Calls (JAN 8, 2007)

by Jon C. Ogg

ALL cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
APPB cut to Underperform at Bear Stearns.
ARMHY cut to Hold at Deutsche bank.
AXS raised to Hold at Citigroup.
CEG started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
DB cut to Hold at Citigroup.
EBAY maintained Underperformat Piper Jaffray.
EMC reitr Buy and tgt raised to $16 at AGEdwards; raised to Buy at UBS.
FAST cut to Hold at BB&T.
GD raised to Outperform at Cowen & co.
IBM raised to Buy at UBS.
INCY raised to Outperform at Piper Jaffray.
INTC added to Model Portfolio at B of A.
KBR started as Neutral at UBS.
LVLT targetraised to $8 per share from JPMorgan.
MCHP raised to Buy at Soleil.
MSCC cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
NEM cut to Underweight at Prudential.
NTAP raised to Buy at UBS.
NYX reitr Underperform at Piper Jaffray.
ONNN raised to Overweight at Lehman.
PFCB cut to Underperform at Bear Stearns.
PSO cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
RCL added to conviction buy list at Goldman Sachs.
SPR started as Buy at Merrill Lynch.
TIVO raised to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
TLAB reitr Underperform at Jefferies.
TMK cut to Underweight at Lehman.
UBS cut to Hold at Citigroup.
WMT cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Posted on: January 8, 2007 – 8:16 am in Pre-Market Activity