Posts for Ticker ‘LH’

Top Analyst Upgrades (CBS, LH, LXK, MS, ODP, PII, DGX, TLAB, WINN)

These are the few top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research notes from Wall Street firms early this Friday morning with about two hours until the market opens:

CBS (CBS) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Laboratory Corp. (LH) Started as Outperform at RBC.
Lexmark (LXK) Raised to EqualWeight at Barclays.
Morgan Stanley (MS) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Office Depot (ODP) raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Polaris (PII) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Quest Diagnostics (DGX) Started as Outperform at RBC.
Tellabs (TLAB) Started as Buy at Auriga.
Winn-Dixie (WINN) Raised to Outperform at FBR.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: May 29, 2009 – 6:35 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ANR, NILE, ENER, IFX, LH, NVS, SOV, TSCO, WY, YGE)

These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Monday morning in pre-market trading:

  • Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  • Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE) started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Energy Conversion (NASDAQ: ENER) started as Equal Weight at Lehman Brothers.
  • Infineon (NYSE: IFX) cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Laboratory Corp. (NYSE: LH) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  • Novartis (NYSE: NVS) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • Sovereign Banc (NYSE: SOV) raised to Outperform at KBW.
  • Tractor Supply (NASDAQ: TSCO) raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Jon C. Ogg
June 2, 2008

Posted on: June 2, 2008 – 6:37 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

The Week of Stock Buybacks & Repurchase (COH, FIC, MIR, AVCT, HOT, AGO, HEES, CBG, TER, FDO, RWT, LH, VIGN, CSCO)

Coach (NYSE:COH) has decided that the recent stock crush is a good opportunity to announce a $1 Billion share buyback plan. This represents roughly 30 million shares, or 5-times average volume; $12 Billion market cap.

Fair Isaac (NYSE:FIC) approved a $250 million share buyback plan, compared to a market cap of $2 Billion.

Mirant Corp. (NYSE:MIR) had one of the more impressive buybacks and share retirement plans announced, although its shares fell 8% because of losses.  Mirant’s total return plan is some $4.6 Billion, which includes $1 Billion in open market purchases and a $ 1Billion accelerated buyback plan.  This has been under review for the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.

Avocent Corp. (NASDAQ:AVCT) added 3 million shares to its stock repurchase program; Avocent has repurchased 11.2 million shares of the 12 million shares previously approved. The buyback equates to $75 million more in buybacks if completed, compared to a $1.25 Billion market cap and it represents about 8 days of trading volume.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:HOT) raised its dividend and added $1 Billion to share buybacks, compared to a $10.5 Billion market cap.  This one has also been under review for the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.

Read More »

Posted on: November 9, 2007 – 12:39 pm in Stock Buybacks, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Early Research Calls 8/20/2007

Merriman upgrades Taser (TASR) from neutral to buy.

Lehman (LEH) upgrades Motorola (MOT) from equal weight to overweight.

Sun Trust starts Penn Virginia with a buy and $54 price target.

Cowen upgrades Lab Corp (LH) from neutral to outperform.

RBC starts VMWare (VMW) at sector perform.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: August 30, 2007 – 6:29 am in Analyst Calls, , , ,

Mixed Short Interest in Drug & Medical Stocks (June 2007)

As you will see, the short interest changes in medical and drug stocks of the active NYSE-listed names was a bit of a mixed bag.  GlaxoSmithkline (GSK) saw the lagest increase, but its short interest is not representative of its real size or activity because it is an ADR and less active here compared to U.K. trade volume.  We ranked hese in terms of percentages with the largest increase in short interest first.

STOCK (Ticker)                JUNE07      MAY07     Change
GlaxoSmithkline (GSK)     7.74M         4.15M       +86%
Boston Scientific (BSX)   32.07M       24.06M       +33.3%
Wyeth (WYE)                          3.3M       10.37M       +28.3%
Labcorp (LH)                       4.11M         3.21M       +28%
Bristol-Myers (BMY)          26.95M       23.85M      +13%
Schering-Plough (SGP)   16.79M      15.27M       +9.9%
Medtronic (MDT)                16.11M      15.19M        +6%
Pfizer (PFE)                        54.48M       52.12M       +4.5%
Quest Diagnost. (DGX)    18.00M       17.54M       +2.6%
Merck (MRK)                       22.82M       22.55M       +1.2%
Eli Lilly (LLY)                       13.77M       14.07M        -2.1%
J&J (JNJ)                             15.37M      16.16M        -4.9%
Zimmer Holdings (ZMH)     3.89M         4.13M        -5.8%
St. Jude MEdical (STJ)        6.53M         7.13M         -8.4%
Genentech (DNA)                 6.87M         8.16M        -15.9%
Abbott Labs (ABT)              11.74M       16.39M        -28.3%

Jon C. Ogg
June 24, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: June 24, 2007 – 12:16 pm in Biotech, Drug companies, Medical, Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Short Selling Up in Drug & Medical Stocks

Some sectors showed mixed results in the short selling, but the Big Pharma and medical instruments and related companies saw an increased activity in short selling in May versus April.  Below is the actual posting from April to May:

STOCK (Ticker)                        MAY07    APR07    Change
Pfizer (PFE)                               52.12M    50.28M    3.6%
Merck (MRK)                             22.55M    18.68M    20.6%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)    16.16M    14.47M    11.7%
Abbott Labs (ABT)                   16.39M    14.90M    10%
Wyeth (WYE)                            10.37M    9.61M       7.9%
Eli Lilly (LLY)                            14.07M    10.95M    28.5%
Bristol-Myers (BMY)                23.85M    18.75M    27.2%
Schering-Plough (SGP)        15.27M    14.09M      8.3%
Medtronic (MDT)                      15.19M    13.81M     9.9%
Boston Scientific (BSX)          24.06M    21.65M     11.1%
St. Jude MEdical (STJ)             7.13M    5.85M        21.8%
Quest Diagnost. (DGX)          17.54M    16.57M     11.1%

lower short interest…..

GlaxoSmithkline (GSK)            5.15M    4.66M    -11%
Genentech (DNA)                      8.16M    8.76M    -6.8%
Zimmer Holdings (ZMH)          4.13M    5.00M    -17%
Labcorp (LH)                              3.21M    3.34M    -3.9%

Jon C. Ogg
May 22, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: May 22, 2007 – 4:36 pm in Drug companies, Medical, Pharmaceuticals, Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,