Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY) maintained Neutral but cut target to $17 at Credit Suisse.

Apartment Investment & Management Co. (NYSE: AIV) raised to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT) cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Beam Inc. (NYSE: BEAM) reiterated Buy with $74 target at Argus.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) raised to Buy but $320 target is same at BofA/ML.

Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) raised to Equal Weight at Barclays.

Diamondback Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FANG) started as Outperform with $25 target at Credit Suisse and started as Buy at Stern Agee.

Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX) cut to Hold at Jefferies and reiterated Buy at BofA/ML.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) reiterated Buy with $82 target at Argus.

Kite Realty Group Trust (NYSE: KRG) started as Buy with $6 target at BofA/ML.

L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ: ERIC) reiterated Buy with $14 target at Argus.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: RJET) raised to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Responsys Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTG) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Stein Mart Inc. (NASDAQ: SMRT) started as Outperform with $10 target at Credit Suisse.

The TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX) started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) raised to Overweight at Barclays.

United States Cellular Corp. (NYSE: USM) raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.

JON C. OGG

Alkermes PLC (NASDAQ: ALKS) raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks and started as Buy at Citigroup.

Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT) cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Constant Contact Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse, cut to Market Perform at Raymond James and cut to Neutral at Lazard.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) raised to Outperform at Raymond James.

Delek US Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DK) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Expeditors International of Washington Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPD) raised from Sell all the way up to the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Mylan Inc. (NASDAQ: MYL) raised to Buy at Canaccord Genuity.

Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE: P) cut to Neutral at HSBC.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPR) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse; cut to Neutral at Stern Agee.

St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.

The Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE: TRV) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) cut to Neutral at Nomura.

Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT) cut to Market Weight at Raymond James.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: CTB) named value stock of the day at Zacks.

Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) cut to Hold at Jefferies.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) started as Neutral at Macquarie.

Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) started as Outperform at Macquarie.

Liquidity Services Inc. (NASDAQ: LQDT) cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Manulife Financial Corp. (NYSE: MFC) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

OpenTable Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN) started as Outperform at Macquarie.

Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) cut to Neutral at Nomura.

Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) cut to Sell at Citigroup.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) raised to Buy at Jefferies.

Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) cut to Neutral ast Cowen.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) cut to Sell at Citigroup.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) started as Neutral at Macquarie.

JON C. OGG

Synnex is the smallest of several tech distribution companies including Arrow Electronics Inc. (NYSE: ARW), Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT), and Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM).

Synnex is forecasting EPS of $0.87-$0.91, lower than analysts consensus estimate of $0.95. Revenue is forecast at $2.45-$2.55 billion, again lower than the consensus estimate of $2.6 billion. Net income is expected to drop from $38.2 million in the first quarter to $33.3-$34.5 million.

The company attributed the lower forecast to a switch-over to a fee-for-service model this year. Synnex expects a hit of $80-$100 million in its gross revenue from the change.

Shares are down -14% at $37.52 in a 52-week range of $22.56-$44.25.

Tech Data posted third-quarter EPS of $1.26 on revenue of $6.59 billion, compared with consensus estimates for EPS of $1.27 on revenue $6.74 billion. The company also noted that it was “realigning” its resources in Europe and that it expects that to cost it $15 million in the fourth quarter. The company expects “flat to low single-digit sales growth” in both its Americas and Europe segments. No word on profit expectations.

Both Synnex and Arrow have provided brighter outlooks, with Arrow raising its EPS guidance to $1.25-$1.37 for the fourth quarter, solidly above the previous consensus of $1.25. Synnex raised its fourth-quarter EPS guidance above the consensus estimate $1.06 to $1.11-$1.15.

Avnet and Arrow, like Tech Data, missed third-quarter EPS estimates by a penny or two. And with the rather bleak global economics forecasts, especially for Europe, any optimism for better earnings and revenues in wholesale sales seems misplaced. Short-term help could come as a result of recent flooding in Thailand, which will lower the supply of everything from disk drives to chips and raise the prices for these items until full production returns.

Just to offer a glimpse at potential value among the wholesalers, here’s a quick look at potential upside for these five stocks based on share prices collected at mid-morning today.

Tech Data has a median target price of $53.50, and its current share price is $46.13, for a potential gain of about 15.6%. Ingram Micro’s target price is $21.00, and its current price is $17.91, for a potential gain of 17%. Synnex has a median target price of $32.00, and a current price of $28.70, for a potential gain of about 11.5%. Arrow’s median target price is $43.00 and its current price is $34.78, for a potential gain of 23.6%. Avnet’s median target price is $37.00 and its current price is $28.14, for a potential gain of 31.5%.

Every one of these upside numbers is pretty rich, and even if the optimistic earnings forecasts from Synnex and Arrow materialize this quarter, there doesn’t seem to be any reason now to expect that optimism to carry over into 2012. The European economy is about to become a shambles, and the super committee of the US Congress is about to declare failure in reaching an agreement on budget cuts which will trigger $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts to the 2013 budget. Spending contraction is not what these companies need.

Tech Data’s shares are off more than -3.7% this morning, at $46.12, in a 52-week range of $38.21-$54.25. The company’s earnings and Avnet’s announced $1 billion credit facility — coupled with an overall 300-point drop in the DJIA this morning — are dragging all these wholesalers down today, by -2.5% to nearly -4%.

Paul Ausick

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 259 points to 12,153.46 (2.18%), the NASDAQ rose more than 53 points (2.04%) to 2,678.75, and the S&P 500 rose 1.95% or more than 24 points to 1,263.85.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) started as ‘neutral’ at Nomura. Other changes included Cameron International (NYSE: CAM) reiterated ‘buy’ with $73 target at BofA/ML; Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) maintained ‘neutral’ but cut target to $14 at JPMorgan; NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) reiterated ‘buy’ with $18 target at BofA/ML; SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) reinstated as ‘neutral’ at BofA/ML; and Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) started as ‘outperform’ at BMO Capital.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE: DDS) is down more than -13%, at $47.91; D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE: DHI) is down more than -2%, at $11.42; Bacterin International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BONE) is up more than 6%, at $2.90; Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDTI) is down more than -3.5%, at $3.45; and The Howard Hughes Corp. (NYSE: HHC) is up more than 2.5%, at $47.25.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Pinnacle Data Systems Inc. (AMEX: PNS) is up more than 105%, at $2.36. The company has accepted a takeover offer from Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) worth $2.40/share.

Alimera Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALIM) is down nearly -74%, at $1.94. The company failed to get FDA approval for its eye pain drug.

pSivida Corp. (NASDAQ: PSDV) is down more than -46%, at $2.11. The company had licensed to Alimera an element of the drug that failed the FDA test.

Molycorp, Inc. (NYSE: MCP) is down more than -13%, at $33.43. The company missed earnings and revenue estimates.

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NASDAQ: HOVNP) is down more than -9%, at $1.40. The company did not have any news today, but likely suffered from the earnings report from D.R. Horton.

Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corp. (AMEX: TRX) is up more than 20%, at $2.75. The company’s shares were halted earlier, and the company issued a statement that there was no particular event responsible for the heavy trading in the stock.

Except for short-term Treasury Bill auctions, there are no events scheduled for Monday.

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Paul Ausick

We would normally group these alphabetically, but not today.  We grouped these in order of size and then we used an alphabetic order when it came to the same size of a buyback announcement.  The first group is the billions of dollars.

We then grouped the stocks by size again from the under $1 billion down to $500 million, and then we grouped the buybacks of under $500 million down to $200 million.  Usually we would cut the list off at buybacks of the $100 million and higher but the list was already too big so we cut the Buyback Kings off at $200 million for August.  Lastly, we have a chart at the very end tallying it all up…. Some $28.7 billion for just the $200 million and higher in new or expanded buyback announcements.  There were literally dozens of other buybacks that were closer to the $100 million mark and many more that were less than that.

The $1 billion and higher alone which were announced in August were as follows: Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW); CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS); Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG); Covidien plc (NYSE: COV); Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU); Discovery Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA); Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS); and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT).

The fresh buybacks we have featured are only the big buybacks which are large in size or large in percentages of the market capitalization of the underlying companies.  The best buyback announcements in August have come from the following: Ace Ltd. (NYSE: ACE); Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM); AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE: ABC); AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL); Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT); CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE); Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR); Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO); Covidien plc (NYSE: COV); Discovery Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA); Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB); Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM); Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX); Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS); Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN); JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO); Jarden Corporation (NYSE: JAH); News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA); Rowan Companies, Inc. (NYSE: RDC); Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV); and St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ).

We also saw some large and interesting buybacks in the last week of July from the likes of Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX); Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI); Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V); and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ).

The companies are using their balance sheets to take advantage of distressed situations.  Ultimately, this could even signal M&A opportunities arising.  As a reminder, companies are not under any obligation to spend a single dollar to repurchase stocks.  These buybacks actually look real, and many have a solid history of buying back shares.  Who needs activist investors when you see these billions and billions being made available to purchase stock.

Here are the companies buying billions in their own stock.

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK) has no news, but after its drop went to under 10% investors have decided that the greatest water stock in America should be close to immune to Euro-woes.  Shares are up 1.9% at $28.14.

Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT), the memory and storage distribution supermarket, is up after beating earnings and after announcing a $500 million share buyback even if guidance seems a tad soft. Shares are up 6.7% at $27.22.

Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) is still an at-risk company, but naming a new CEO gives investors hope of a turnaround.  Erik Prusch was Clearwire’s chief financial officer from mid-2009 to March 2011

Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) is bouncing big after earnings, even though guidance looked a bit light last night.  Canaccord Genuity raised the rating to BUY on value with a $39 target.  Shares are up 18% at $34.91 in mid-afternoon.

Demand Media Inc. (NYSE: DMD) is up over 5% at $9.46 after securing its Google pact.  Even though terms are not disclosed, this kills the fears that Google will treat it as a content farm.

Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE: EPD) is one of the largest MLP investment vehicles out there with a $36 billion market cap.  The new no-rate environment is forcing investors to look at yield, even if it means a ‘return of capital’ in many cases.  Enterprise is up 5% at $42.85 and its implied ‘yield-equivalent’ is about 5.6% if the last payout remains static.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) owes Jefferies a free round of solar panels after Jefferies raised the rating to BUY with a $132 price target based upon cheap valuations.  First Solar shares are up 5.7% at $105.45 on the day.

Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI) is up despite having just missed earnings estimates on Monday.  Funeral products, caskets, and other death products must be getting new clients as investors grow worried.  Shares are up 4.8% at $19.34.

Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) is up 7% at $128.37 after beating earnings expectations and even raising its guidance.

JON C. OGG

Xilinx just gave some updated guidance to its December quarter and by the sound of this all you probably figured out that it was lower.  The company said that the quarterly sales are now expected to be down in a range of 7% to 9% sequentially, even worse than the prior guidance for a decline of “flat to down 4% sequentially.” It did maintain gross margin guidance of roughly 65%.

The reasoning behind this is also going to drive away many supporters because of the comments, and some may question the credibility of the claims.  Xilinx noted, “The decreased sales guidance is primarily related to weaker than anticipated sales to a few large communications customers, specifically in the wireless segment.”

Isn’t the wireless segment supposed to be the growth segment right now?  There is a chance that this is a blip, but a cynic would say that wireless customers are going elsewhere other than Xilinx.  The claim from Xilinx is that it “expects sales growth to return to the communications segment in the March quarter based on current backlog and forecasts from its large customers.”  This is a story that may be a story alright.

Xilinx shares closed up 1% at $28.39, but shares are down about 5.4% at $28.39 in the after-hours trading session.  Its 52-week trading range is $22.75 to $29.40.

Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) is often considered “the other Xilinx” by investors although Altera’s market cap is $11.2 billion versus $7.36 billion for Xilinx.  Altera closed down 0.5% at $35.81 versus a 52-week range of $20.89 to $38.14 and its shares are down 3.3% at $34.64 in the after-hours.

We took a look through the Xilinx 10-K and the company had noted, “We expect increased competition from our primary PLD competitors, Altera Corporation, Lattice Semiconductor, and Actel Corporation from the ASIC market.

Investors should also know the following from its 10-K: “Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) distributes the substantial majority of our products worldwide. No end customer accounted for more than 10% of our net revenues in fiscal 2010, 2009 or 2008. As of April 3, 2010 and March 28, 2009, Avnet accounted for 83% and 81% of the Company’s total accounts receivable, respectively. Resale of product through Avnet accounted for 49%, 55% and 61% of the Company’s worldwide net revenues in fiscal 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively.”

We are not going to jump the gun here on deciding exactly which component of the wireless customers are pushing orders back because Xilinx is involved in many aspects of communication.  Carriers are always trying to push out cap-ex spending when they can and sometimes even when they should not.  Still, either this is a sign of broader problems or the company is losing business and not communicating that properly.  Either scenario is bad for investors.

Interestingly enough, Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC) closed up 3% at $5.93 and its last seen print was up 1% at $5.99. Actel was recently acquired by Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ: MSCC).  Microsemi closed up 1.8% at $23.75 and is indicated as unchanged in the after-hours session.

JON C. OGG