Daily Archives: November 19, 2007

Memo To Asia Investors: Big Pressure At The Open

Market in Japan and China should expect big pressure at the open on concerns over US credit markets, a lending freeze in China, and rising oil prices. .Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo exchanges are all likely to have large drops early.

On US exchanges, bell-weather Baidu (BIDU) dropped 2.4%. China Mobile (CHL) fell 5%. China Petroleum (SNP) was off over 6%. Aluminum Corp of China (ACH) dropped 7%. HSBC (HBC) dropped almost 3%.

Among Japanese shares trading on US exchanges today, Sony (SNE) slipped 2%. Toyota (TM) was off 1.3%. Canon (CAJ) fell 1.6%. NTT Docomo (DCM) fell 1.2%.

If an early sell-off turns into a rout, look for Asia exchanges to drop 3% or more by the close.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 6:38 pm in International Markets, , , , , , , , ,

Sears (SHLD) Moves Into Restortation Hardware (RSTO) Moving Shares Up 18%

According to MarketWatch, big retailer Sears (SHLD) has bought 5.3 million shares of specialty shop manager Restoration Hardwas (RSTO) Sears picked up the shares for $30.2 million. RSTO is up 18% after hours.

Restoration Hardware Inc. agreed to be sold to a private equity firm Catterton Partners for $6.70 a share, or about $267 million. RSTO shares have traded above $7.25 after hours.

Looks like a bidding war.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 6:20 pm in Mergers and Buy Outs, ,

Not Enough Good News At Focus Media (FMCN)

Wall St. expected good things from Chinese company Focus Media (FMCN) First Call had a limited range of projections from only a few analysts, but the recent quarter was expected to show $0.44 EPS on $129.4 million in revenues.  Next quarter is expected to show 0.49 EPS on revenues of $142.6 million.

Total revenues grew 149.6% year-over-year and 33.6% quarter-over-quarter to $151.4 million. Net income for the third quarter was $46.6 million, up 72.6% year-over-year and 23.6% quarter-over-quarter.  Fully diluted net income per ADS for the third quarter of 2007 was $0.37.

Focus said that it estimates its total revenues for the forth quarter of 2007 will range from $160 million to $170 million. Fourth quarter 2007 net income excluding share-based compensation expense and intangible assets amortization expense resulting from acquisitions (non-GAAP) is expected to be between $62 million and $64 million or $0.48 to $0.50 per fully diluted ADS

The market seems a little upset about the reported EPS figure. Shares in Focus Media, which where down 3.5% in the regular session traded off another 4% after hours.

So much for dreams of a new 52-week high.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Take this opportunity to read the 24/7 Wall St. New Media newsletter and follow our opinions on media companies in the US and abroad.

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 5:12 pm in Earnings,

EchoStar (DISH) Falls Over 7% After Hours

A number of rumors about an AT&T (T) buy-out of satellite TV provider Echostar (DISH) took the stock up 19% today to $47.49.

But, it may all have been too good to be true. DISH fell 7% after hours. Perhaps Wall St. figured out that AT&T can have a partnership with EchoStar with without owning it, or that the phone company’s fiber-to-the-home business will eventually compete with EchoStar and DirecTV (DTV).

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 4:48 pm in Mergers and Buy Outs, , ,

H-P Still Blowing PC’s Out The Door (HPQ)

H-P (NYSE:HPQ) has posted Q4 2007 earnings of $0.86 EPS on revenues of $28.29 Billion. Mark Hurd & Co. is guiding EPS to $0.80 and revenues to $27.4-$27.5 Billion in revenues for Q1 2009, and it guided Fiscal 2008 FY08 non-GAAP diluted EPS in the range of $3.32 to $3.37 and revenues of $111.5 Billion.  These are all above plan from First Call:

  • Estimates were $0.82 EPS on $27.39 Billion in revenues for this last report, and this will mark H-P’s fiscal 2007 year-end. 
  • Estimates for next quarter are $0.77 EPS and $26.99 Billion in revenues;
  • Estimates for fiscal 2008 are $3.26 EPS on $109.46 Billion in revenues.

KEY INTERNALS:

  • The board is also setting an $8 Billion approval for share buybacks.
  • HP generated $3.6 billion in cash flow from operations for the quarter.
  • Inventory ended the quarter at $8.0 billion, down 4 days over the prior year.
  • Accounts receivable increased $2.5 billion over the prior-year period to $13.4 billion, up 3 days over the prior-year period.
  • Accounts payable decreased $315 million over the prior-year period to $11.8 billion.

PER UNIT METRICS:

  • When adjusted for the effects of currency, revenue in the Americas grew 9%, revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa grew 12%, and revenue in Asia Pacific grew 14%. Revenue from outside of the United States in the fourth quarter was 67%. 
  • Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue grew 30% year over year to $10.1 billion, with unit shipments up 31% on a year-over-year basis.
  • Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) revenue grew 4% year over year to $7.6 billion.
  • Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS) reported revenue of $5.2 billion, up 10% over the prior-year period.
  • HP Services (HPS) revenue increased 7% year over year to $4.4 billion.
  • HP Software revenue doubled over the prior-year period to $698 million.
  • HP Financial Services (HPFS) reported revenue of $657 million, an increase of 21% year over year.

Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive officer said, “Strong performance across our businesses was highlighted by sharp improvement in our software segment.  We have added over $12 billion of new revenue this year. While we still have more work to do, HP is well positioned to make further progress in the marketplace.”

H-P shares closed down 2.58% at $49.44 on 1.5-times average volume.  Shares are up about 0.5% today at $49.58 in after hours trading.  Obviously the conference call comments can change this later, but 24/7 Wall St. would have guessed a better after-hours reception.  If we could take away any pre-conference call conjecture that would be keeping a lid on the reaction (besides a crummy market) is that the currency effect was too high, because we only showed an "ouside of currency impact" number to show the true relation as far as the company’s business as a whole.  Its chart may also be what is getting in the way with the 50-day moving average $1.00 higher. 

But outside of that, 24/7 Wall St. would give H-P a passing score without hearing all the conference call comments in 45 minutes.  The report should be good enough for those who are worried about a tight consumer, mainly because the guidance is raised ahead and we didn’t feel the company had to blow the doors off the hinges to keep Wall Street happy this time around.

Jon C. Ogg
November 19, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers. 

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 4:24 pm in Earnings, PC Companies, Software, Technology Companies,

The 52-Week Low Club (WB)(CFC)(WM)(TWX)(GM)

GENESCO (GCO) Broken buy-out. Down to $29.04 from 52-week high of $54.15.

Unisys (UIS) No new news. Old line computer maker working on transformation to services. Down to $5.13 from 52-week high of $9.70.

Journal Register (JRC) Newspaper chain with falling revenue and too much debt. Down to $2.00 from 52-week high of $8.60.

Novastar  (NFI) Bad news in mortgage markets takes it down again. Falls to $1.45 from 52-week high of $125.64.

Freddie Mac (FRE) Mortgage disease. Drops to $36.66 from 52-week high of $69.85.

CountryWide Financial (CFC) Falls to $10.25 from 52-week high of $45.26.

Washington Mutual (WM) Down to $18.25 from 52-week high of $46.38.

Wachovia (WB) Big banks not good business anymore. Drifts off to $37.53 from 52-week high of $58.80.

Sprint (S) Housing problems must be hurting cellular business. Down to $14.67 from 52-week high of $23.42.

Time Warner (TWX) Fear of recession hurting ad spending. Down to $16.71 from 52-week high of $23.15.

GM (GM) Housing and fuel concerns hit car stocks. Falls to $26.57 from 52-week high of $43.20.

Acacia Resh (ACTG) Loses patent dispute with Microsoft (MSFT). Down to $9.89 from 52-week high of $17.92.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 4:07 pm in HI/LOW, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Consumers Seen Cutting Holiday Spending

According to Reuters "a survey conducted by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) found that 35 percent of U.S. adults surveyed plan to spend less during the holidays this year than the previous year, up from 32 percent last year."

The main reason given for potential cuts in spending was higher fuel prices.

Blame OPEC and mortgage banks for this along with everything else.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 3:13 pm in Economy

Focus Media Earnings, The Envy of Lamar (FMCN, LAMR)

Chinese advertising giant Focus Media Holding Ltd.(NASDAQ:FMCN), is set to report earnings after the close.  First Call has a limited range of from only a few analysts, but this quarter is expected to show $0.44 EPS on $129.4 million in revenues.  Next quarter is expected to show 0.49 EPS on revenues of $142.6 million.  If the company offers any long-term projections, it is expected to show $1.93 EPS and revenues of $635 million for fiscal Dec-2008.

For whatever it’s worth, Focus Media just sold 13.72 million ADR’s in a secondary offering, of which 5 million came from the company and 8.72 million were from existing shareholders.  Shares are down over 1% at $58.55 today ahead of earnings, and the 52-week trading range is $29.32 to $66.30.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) is the U.S. counterpart, although Lamar has been a serial underperformer over the last year.  Also, Focus is thought of more as audiovisual television displays in China, while Lamar offers billboards, posters, bulletins, buses, digital boards, and more.  If you want to compare Focus to Lamar, here is how it compares on simple forward valuations based on estimates:

Stock    MKTCAP  08P/E    09REV$
FMCN    $7.5B    30.31    $635M
LAMR    $4.75B    89.9    $1.29B

We used to have Focus Media as a more strategic acquisition candidate for a hypothetical Special Situation Investing Newsletter play, but three things were and are in the way:

  • it grew too fast,
  • Chinese companies are for all practical purposes not really able to be acquired in the same manner as a traditional company, and…
  • valuations. 

But if this trend continues with Focus Media outperforming and the woes at Lamar continuing, it would not be a stretch to think of Focus making the cross-Pacific jump and making a play for Lamar.  Stranger things have happened, and even a highly skeptical regulatory environment would have a hard time saying that a deal of that sort was a risk to national security.

Jon C. Ogg
November 19, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers. 

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 2:50 pm in ADR, China, Earnings, Entertainment,

For Yahoo! (YHOO) And Microsoft (MSFT), The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Percentage of U.S. Searches Among Leading Search Engine Providers

Domain

Oct.-07

Sept.-07

Oct.-06

www.google.com

64.49%

63.55%

60.94%

search.yahoo.com

21.65%

22.55%

22.34%

search.msn.com

7.42%*

7.83%*

10.72%*

www.ask.com

4.76%

4.32%

4.34%

Note: Data is based on four week rolling periods (ending Oct. 27, 2007, Sept. 29, 2007, Oct. 28, 2006) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet users.

* – includes executed searches on Live.com and MSN Search.

Source: Hitwise

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 1:19 pm in Internet, , ,

Analyst Calls For China Sunergy Lower (CSUN)

China Sunergy Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ:CSUN) is seeing shares trade lower after today’s disappointing earnings.  Lazard Capital Markets’ Sanjay Shrestha has maintained his "Sell" rating today with a whopping $6.00 target ($7.59 today, down 5.5%).  This is an important call as far using "analyst research" as a potential binary impact rather than a one-off incident that is news rather than noise.  Shrestha covers many alternative energy stocks and he is one of the more bullish, yet realistic, analysts in the sector.

China Sunergy reported 3Q revenues of $48.9 million, below consensus of $63 million… "and our estimate of $55 million" and down 12.9% from $56.2 million in 2Q; EPS for the quarter was $(0.11), versus consensus of $(0.07).  Gross margin deteriorated again sequentially… "Most importantly, the company’s core business (core cells sales) gross margin was 1.5% versus 5.9%."  Cash burn was about $24 million, with cash balances at $76 million. "The company stated on the call that it will need to access the capital markets in the near future."

Shrestha concludes, "We are maintaining our SELL rating with a $6 price target, which reflects a 15x multiple on our 2009 EPS estimate of $0.40…. CSUN is currently trading at about 18x our 2009E EPS and we believe this discount to the group (26x) is warranted given the company’s limited near- and intermediate-term competitive positioning.  Given its capital and raw material position, we expect shares will meaningfully under perform the group."

This traded north of $15.00 after the May IPO and in late August shares sunk as low as $5.00.  By mid-October shares were in the teens again.  Despite the burgeoning solar and alternative energy hype, this stock is beginning to look like one of the less promising names out there.  It now needs to go by the beloved anacronym "HYPE-PO." Before today, Banc of America also had a SELL rating and Jefferies had a HOLD rating. We noted Cowen & Co. research also covered this with a cautious "Neutral" rating when the stock was above $13.00.

Jon C. Ogg
November 19, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers. 

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 1:16 pm in Alternative Energy, Analyst Calls, Earnings,

H-P To Set Next 60-Day Tone For PC’s & Tech (HPQ, DELL, LXK, INTC, AMD, MSFT)

As far as investors are concerned, today’s Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) announcement is perhaps the single largest investment event for investors who have been trying to figure out if they can really hide their investment bucks in PC-related companies or not for the rest of the year.

First Call has estimates at $0.82 EPS on $27.39 Billion in revenues, and this will mark H-P’s fiscal 2007 year-end.  Estimates for next quarter are $0.77 EPS and $26.99 Billion in revenues, while expectations for fiscal 2008 are $3.26 EPS on $109.46 Billion in revenues.

Options may be a hard judge with the 2% drop today, but options traders appear to be braced for a move of up to $2.20 to $2.45 in either direction.  The average analyst buy target is still north of $55.00.  With shares under $50.00, this one is under the 50-day moving average of $50.80 and still well above the 200-day moving average of $45.77.  H-P’s chart has been at a crossroads since it dropped out of that 18-month uptrend band over the last month, so the reaction to today’s earnings has a real shot at setting the trend for more than just a few days.

The U.S. is seeing a weak consumer.  But if you use the Internet regularly (that’s you if you are reading this), you will know that if you haven’t upgraded your PC to the new dual core processors and the 2MB DRAM and graphic chipsets that Web 2.0 eats up your PC like no tomorrow.  So it is possible that the new-dual core PC’s (or at least the fastest single cores) will be a necessity rather than an option.  The company has also turned itself into an enterprise IT consultant and software provider via recent acquisitions, so there’s going to be a little bit for everyone today.

H-P is the largest PC-maker now, so it will likely have ripples either way.  In PC’s, Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) has turned itself back into a competitor again after losing the pole position.  Goldman Sachs recently made a key change on its Conviction Buy List: removed H-P and added Dell.Lexmark (NYSE:LXK) competes in printer sales.  If any weakness came into the sector over the last few weeks you cannot have a weakening PC market with a strengthening processor market, so watch Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and AMD (NYSE:AMD).  Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) traded to new multi-year highs after earnings in October, and it is still by far the only benchmark for O/S sales (Vista AND XP) in PC’s.  The food chain can go on and on from DRAM makers, contract manufactures, circuit boards, graphic chipsets, flat screen makers, and hard drives…. so in tech-land, H-P may be one of the single largest events for tech traders over the next two weeks going into the holiday season.

Jon C. Ogg
November 19, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com and he produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers. 

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 12:22 pm in Earnings, PC Companies, Software, Technology Companies, , , , , ,

How Investors Should View Honda’s Fuel Cell Car (HMC, F, TM, BLDP, ZAAP)

The promise of fuel cell cars has been a long arduous prospect for investors and for green-tech consumers alike.  Last week marked the more official unveiling of Honda Motor’s FCX Clarity, the coming fuel cell car that will be released in the U.S. during the summer of 2008.  24/7 Wall St. wanted to review what this will mean for Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE:HMC) as far as its stock is concerned. 

Honda_fcx_picThe truth is that will be phenomenal, but it will not be an investable event until 2009 or later.  The reason is that this FCX Clarity is only going to be released on a limited basis in California in summer of 2008 (only to customers currently residing in the Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine areas who meet additional qualification criteria will be eligible to take an FCX Clarity home) because refueling fuel cells can’t be done just anywhere.  Not yet, anyway.  The good news is that these will be leased for 3-years for $600/month.  The bad news is that it is going to be years and years before this is readily available countrywide and many metro areas do not even know when alternative energy fuel stations will be proposed.

This is exactly why any politician offering the American public a four year fix to our energy problem is selling rhetoric you shouldn’t listen to.  It is going to be 2012 to 2016 before the U.S. will see any noticeable difference, and anyone who believes that any full system-wide fix happening before 2020 is probably more optimistic than realistic.  You are hearing this from someone who believes that green investing and green businesses are already becoming big business.  But there are also financial and logistical realities.

Electric cars and electric scooters are already available from an OTC-Bulletin Board traded company called ZAP! (OTC-BB:ZAAP). Daimler’s (NYSE:DAI) "smart" vehicle is said to be available in 2008, although ZAP has a lawsuit against Daimler.

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a huge success with its hybrid offerings.  The Prius is for all practical purposes sold out at Toyota dealerships and used car dealers tell us that any Prius gets sold site-unseen and shipped out to California.  It was surprising that Toyota even bothered advertising it, as they don’t need to spend the cash.

Ford (NYSE:F) also has hybrids sell out basically as they come on the lot.  The hybrid tech is licensed from Toyota.  I have test driven a Ford Escape hybrid and was impressed, although the recycled interior is taking it a bit far (after all leather is recycled cow skin, and burping cows emit carbon.. look it up).  There are many other hybrid vehicles on the road, but the fuel cell is the ultimate goal with zero-emissions.

Ballard Power (NASDAQ:BLDP) was long thought of as the fuel cell stock play, and this has been a "watch stock" on our alternative energy sector tag on the 24/7 Wall St. site.  In fact, I have been covering that stock on and off since 1996 or 1997 when this was just a future technology.  But now Ballard has sold off its automotive fuel cell business to Ford and to Daimler AG (NYSE:DAI) in return for its stakes held by both companies.  Now Ballard will only focus on fuel cells for the industrial sector usage.  It will still develop the bus market, but the future of Ballard in the consumer auto markets will be that of a manufacturing one without the intellectual property.  The market gave this one a quick "thumbs up" vote, but shares have come right back down.

Honda’s market cap is currently around $123 Billion, and it is hardly followed by analysts in the U.S.   The ADR shares trade under $34.00 today and its 52-week trading range is $31.29 to $40.82.  24/7 Wall St. commends Honda for getting this commercially launched in the U.S., but we caution investors looking to play this for another year or two should be investing in "HMC" only the merits of what cars they offer today rather than their future fuel cell cars for the U.S. consumer. 

Jon C. Ogg
November 19, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter and can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.  24/7 Wall St. also publishes "The Business Day in Global Warming" and you can subscribe directly to that on an RSS feed if you are only interested in green investing news by setting your RSS readers to the following link: http://www.247wallst.com/alternative_energy/index.html

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 11:23 am in ADR, Alternative Energy, Autos, Cult Stock, OTC, , , , , , , ,

Broker Uprising At Merrill Lynch (MER)

The brokers at Merrill Lynch (MER) are tired of the lack of respect that they have had over the last several years. Stan O’Neal,  the former CEO, treated them and their chief like dirt.

Now that Merrill is in trouble. the retail sales staff at the firm is making the point that it has been an anchor during the storm which has washed over the company. And, they want some credit for that in the form of having the head of the private client group being named to a senior job at the parent. According to Reuters "twenty-one Merrill brokers recently wrote a letter to the board requesting that Robert McCann, head of the global private client business, be considered as a president or co-president of the company."

New CEO John Thain will have to figure this one out fairly quickly because there are almost certainly other large departments who want to see their top person sitting down the hall from the chief.

With Thain’s Goldman Sachs (GS) background, the private client group should not hold its breath.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 10:57 am in Uncategorized, ,

McClatchy (MNI) Investors Hit The Exits On Gannett’s (GCI) Bad News

Gannett (GCI) reported grim numbers for October, and debt-laden newspaper chain McClatchy (MNI) took it hard. Shares of the Sacramento-based newspaper chain hit a 52-week low of $15.07, down well over 60% since the beginining of the year.

The market is concerned that MNI may have trouble making its debt service as it moves into 2008. The firm recently took at $1.37 billion goodwill write-down, and Moody’s said it may cut its debt rating on the company again.

According to Reuters: The publisher faces "ongoing pressure on the company’s cash flow from declining advertising revenue that contributed to a $1.5 billion write-down of newspaper assets in the third quarter, and the resulting challenge to reduce leverage to the ranges originally incorporated in the ‘Ba1′ rating," Moody’s said in a statement.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 10:46 am in Old Media, ,

Silicon Alley Insider Passes PaidContent As Lead Media Blog

Silicon Alley Insider has passed PaidContent.org as the leading media industry blog, just four months after going into business.

According to Alexa.com, an online traffic rating service, Alley Insider ranked 13,472 among all websites last week. PaidContent ranked 18,157.

Measurement service Compete.com shows Alley Insider passing PaidContent in people count last month. Alley Insider had almost 146,000 people counted to PaidContent’s 127,000.

Douglas A. McIntyre

24/7 Wall St picks up content from time-to-time from Alley Insider and sometimes uses PaidContent as a source.

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 10:38 am in Media

GM (GM) Hits 52-Week Low

Just a couple of months after hitting a 52-week high at $43.20, GM (GM) touched a new 52-week low today at $27.94. Maybe it was word that some auto industry experts think car sales could fall over 10% in 2008, which would demolish that GM North America turnround plans. Or, perhaps it was more news that oil prices are moving higher and default rates on homes will probably rise through the end of the year.

It was a short respite.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 10:14 am in Autos,

Gannett (GCI) Hit With Another Big Advertising Drop

Gannett (GCI) reported that total pro forma operating revenues for the period ended November 4, 2007 declined 6.8 percent compared with the same period in 2006

Pro forma classified revenues were down 9.7 percent in the tenth period. Real estate revenues declined 13.5 percent, employment revenues were 10.4 percent lower, and automotive revenues were down 13.4 percent

Pro forma national advertising revenues in October were down 2.3 percent. At USA TODAY, advertising revenues were down 6.1 percent on paid ad pages of 369 versus 419 last year

Gannett said its websites had 22.7 million visitors in October, 14% of the national total, but that did not help much

Douglas A. McIntyre

Get a Free Trial Subscription to the "24/7 Wall St. New Media Newsletter" and follow stocks like Gannett, Google, AT&T, Viacom, and more.

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 8:43 am in Old Media,

Pre-Market Stock News (November 19, 2007)

Below is the top pre-market news that 24/7 Wall St. is looking at today:

  • Knight Capital (NITE) is acquiring EdgeTrade inc. for $29.5 million cash and 2.3 million shares of common stock.
  • Lowe’s (LOW) 0.43 vs 0.41 est, but lowered guidance for next quarter.
  • Melco PBL (MPEL) trading lower after Barron’s noted that Macau casinos are bubble valuations.
  • Natrol (NTOL) being acquired by Plethico Pharmaceuticals for $4.40 per share.
  • Pharmion (PHRM) being acquired for $72.00 by Celgene.
  • Quanex (QX) is Spinning-off its building products unit and will merge the remaining company with Gerdau at $39.20 per share.
  • Radvision (RVSN) former chairman has bought roughly $2 million in stock.
  • Tween Brand (TWB) $0.46 EPS as expected, but lowered guidance.
  • Western Union (WU) renewed its agreement with Kroger.
  • Wynn Resorts (WYNN) trading lower after Barron’s noted that Macau casinos are bubble valuations.
  • Xerox (XRX) is resuming its quarterly dividend as part of its ongoing perpetual turnaround plan.

Jon C. Ogg
November 19, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 8:33 am in Pre-Market Activity

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AFL, BBY, CAT, C, DISH, FNM, LEAP, QCOM, WLP, YHOO)

There are many other impact analyst calls this morning, but these are the TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS that 24/7 Wall St. is focusing on:

AFLAC (AFL) raised to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.
Best Buy (BBY) raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
Caterpillar (CAT) raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Citigroup (C) was cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Echostar (DISH) raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Fannie Mae (FNM) cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
Leap Wireless (LEAP) cut to Equal Weight from Overweight at Lehman.
Qualcomm (QCOM) raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
WellPoint (WLP) raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
Yahoo! (YHOO) raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Jon C. Ogg
November 19, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 8:07 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

McDonald’s (MCD) Knifes Starbucks (SBUX) Again

It is not bad enough that Consumer Reports said the McDonald’s (MCD) coffee tastes better than Starbucks (SBUX). Now, the fast good chain says it will introduce morning drinks that are so good that customers will come in for a cup of Joe even if they don’t want a Big Mac.

"We want to move from beverages as an accompaniment to being a beverage destination," Don Thompson, president of McDonald’s USA according to the AP. Adding "restaurants will offer lattes, mochas, cappuccinos and espressos with a choice of different flavorings and milk. Industry watchers say the drinks cost about 50 cents less than at Starbucks."

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2007 – 8:04 am in Food, ,