Posts for Ticker ‘SGR’

Tempering Expectations Ahead of Base Earnings (AA, CVX, SGR)

It is still too soon to be counting the last revisions for major technology companies reporting calendar Q2-2009 earnings season.  But the trend set at the end of last week and being continued today is one of caution.  The last earnings season had the bar set extremely low.  But now investors seem to be demanding more than just hanging on to a notion of “not as bad” or “close enough to live with” for earnings reports.  This seems to be the case this week for large base economy and infrastructure players such as Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), and even Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR).
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Posted on: July 6, 2009 – 12:46 pm in Earnings, Metals, Oil & Gas, , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (AGN, CHU, ENDP, FLR, GD, LMT, MDZ, NETL, NUVA, SGR)

These are the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street this Tuesday morning:

Allergan (AGN) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
China Unicom (CHU) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) Started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Fluor (FLR) Started as Outperform at Baird.
General Dynamics (GD) Started as Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
Lockheed Martin (LMT) Started as Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
MDS Inc. (MDZ) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
NetLogic (NETL) Raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.
Nuvasive (NUVA) Raised to Buy at Needham.
Shaw Group (SGR) Started as Outperform at Baird.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: June 2, 2009 – 6:36 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (MDRX, BDX, ED, CRXL, CSX, RTN, SGR, SNN)

Money_stack_picThese are the early bird upgrades and positive analyst calls we have seen from Wall Street this Friday morning:

  • Allscripts-Misys (NASDAQ: MDRX) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
  • Becton Dickinson (NYSE: BDX) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  • Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
  • Crucell (NASDAQ: CRXL) Raised to Buy at RBS.
  • CSX (NYSE: CSX) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  • Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
January 9, 2009

Posted on: January 9, 2009 – 7:23 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , ,

New Nukes for Florida (PGN, SGR, SCG)

Nuclear_power_picWestinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba Corporation, has signed an engineering, procurement, and construction contract with the Florida subsidiary of Progress Energy, Inc. (NYSE:PGN) to build two new nuclear power plants in Florida. The Shaw Group, Inc. (NYSE:SGR) will partner with Westinghouse on the contract.

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Posted on: January 6, 2009 – 9:10 am in Nuclear, Utilities, , ,

Brokerage Firms Again Downgrading Each Other (C, GD, GS, JEF, KBW, LEH, MS, NCC, SGR)

These are some of the top analyst downgrades or negative calls we are seeing this morning, and you’ll notice that brokerage firm stocks are again the targets of many downgrades:

  • Citigroup (C) Cut To Underperform From Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  • General Dynamics (GD) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Goldman Sachs (GS) Cut to Underperform from Buy at Merrill Lynch.
  • Jefferies (JEF) Cut to Sell at B of A.
  • Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW) Cut to Sell at B of A.
  • Lehman (LEH) Cut to Underperform from Hold at Merrill Lynch.
  • LSI Industries (LYTS) Cut to Underperform at Baird.
  • McDermott (MDR) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Morgan Stanley (MS) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.
  • National City (NCC) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann.
  • Shaw Group (SGR) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.

Obviously there are a few calls thrown in here that aren’t brokerage firms or investment banking firms, but the brokers are back to killing each other again for the third day this week.

Jon C. Ogg
August 14, 2008

Posted on: August 14, 2008 – 6:31 am in Analyst Calls, Brokerage Firms, , , , , , , , ,

Shaw Group Digs In Ahead of Earnings (SGR)

Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) is set to report earnings today after the close.  We have First Call estimates as being $0.63 EPS on $1.89 Billion in revenues.  Estimates for next quarter are $0.73 EPS on $1.94 Billion revenues, which also marks the company’s year-end.  If the company dares to offer any Fiscal August 2009 targets, First Call has estimates at $3.27 EPS on $8.49 Billion (represents expected growth of 42% on EPS and 18% on revenues).

Shaw is in an interesting position with such a pullback that has been witnessed.  This company is the true vertical winner for any and all energy plant infrastructure on a global basis whether you want to build or retool plants from top to bottom in fossil fuels or nuclear plants.  At $55.83, shares are down literally 30% from their 52-week highs.

Options are a bit hard to use because the strike prices are so wide, but options traders appear to only be pricing in a move of $2.35 to $2.90 in either direction.  Interestingly enough, some options speculation has take place this afternoon in the JUL08 $60.00 Calls that expire at the end of next week.

Analysts have an average price target in the mid-$60’s and there really hasn’t been any meaningful analyst shift in quite some time as analysts did most of their downgrades in 2007.

One of Shaw’s key issues is that its past has never entirely been forgiven  despite an exponential rise over the last five years.  This is partly because of a sporadic history of late when it comes to earnings, which makes it a wonder that options traders are only looking for a 5% or 6% max move.  As of the second reading in June, Shaw had 4.19 million shares listed in the short interest, which is about 2.2 days-to-cover.

Jon C. Ogg
July 9, 2008

Posted on: July 9, 2008 – 1:55 pm in Earnings, Infrastructure,

Cramer’s Green Picks For Each Presidential Candidate (FSLR, COMV, SGR, NRG, COMV)

On CNBC’s MAD MONEY this evening, Jim Cramer said that as part of his green week and in picking alternative energy stocks, he wanted to identify which stocks would win under the alternative energy projects under each presidential candidate.

On the Democratic side, he said he wanted to identify which stocks would win under both Hillary Clinton and under Barack Obama.  He noted how the alternative and renewable energy policies are pages and pages on their websites. These were the following:

  • For solar power, he’s still gung-ho booyaah-ing First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR).
  • For a smart electric grid play, he thinks Comverge (NASDAQ: COMV) is the play.
  • Lastly, he thinks agriculture stocks are the winners with all their lobbying.  But…. these aren’t green companies.

On the Republican side, Cramer identified the picks he thinks will do well under John McCain.  He also noted that his policy on alternative energy is less detailed and only one web page on his website.  These picks are as follows:

  • McCain has been a pro-nuclear fan, and his main pick is Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) as the builder and designer of nuclear facilities.  His second pick was NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) as the main nuclear power promoting utility in the U.S.
  • Cramer also said that McCain also believes in a smart grid, and that pick is also Comverge (NYSE: COMV).

Last night, Cramer went over his picks that he thinks will win in natural gas and on Monday night he returned to talk about his old picks in alternative energy stocks with Buy, Hold, or Sell recommendations on those.

Jon C. Ogg
April 23, 2008

Posted on: April 23, 2008 – 5:36 pm in Alternative Energy, Cramer, , , ,

Cramer Revisits Green & Alternative Energy (FSLR, FWLT, SGR, BWA, WFR, FTEK, TTEK, OMG)

Because of Earth Day and because of a strong performance, Jim Cramer came on CNBC’s MAD MONEY tonight after a week off and said he wanted to revisit which ones to buy and hold now that the entire portfolio he gave is up some 76.8% (or up about 35% on an ex-First Solar basis).  Down below you can see the updates from the past to see what he said, but first are the ones he reviewed:

  • First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) up over 300%, but it doesn’t need subsidies. He thinks the new administration will bring it in.  The payback is cheaper and faster because it doesn’t need silicon.  Cramer noted that this was to solar what Intel was to chips.  He wants to stick with it.
  • Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) has risen 97% and is his favorite infrastructure play, which should work even higher.  Cramer thinks this one can be bought now without a pullback.
  • Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) is the play on nuclear energy and he would stick with this one.
  • BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE: BWA) was play for clean emissions, but he thinks this one should be dumped.
  • MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) is also up big but Cramer thinks this should be dumped because of recent execution problems.
  • Tetra Tech (NASDAQ: TTEK) was a water play that rose only about 1.6%, but it is becoming the right place because of rapidly deteriorating domestic infrastructure.  It now has a wind energy company.  He thinks you can buy it now.
  • FuelTech (NASDAQ: FTEK) has come back off since he said SELL, but now you can reload on it.  He said sell it once, and he thinks it is going up on increasing efficiency of coal plants. He also likes that insiders have been buying stock recently.
  • OM Group (NYSE: OMG) is an emissions play, but now that it has recovered you can take profits in OM Group or just sell it.

Here was the summary for Cramer’s "original" Alternative Energy & Green Stocks if you want to compare then to now.

We have been highlighting some of the smaller green tech and alternative or renewable energy picks in our own weekly "10 Stocks Under $10" newsletter.  Of those picks, our Capstone Turbine Corp. (NASDAQ: CPST) is up roughly 150% and the only "selling" we have yet to note is perhaps some profit taking to lock in a portion of your gains, but we think this one is heading higher.  Our other pick has only been on the list in the under $10.00 newsletter for a few weeks, and it is already up about 30% since.  We actually just raised our expectations on this one.

Jon C. Ogg
April 21, 2008

Posted on: April 21, 2008 – 5:35 pm in Alternative Energy, Cramer, , , , , , , ,

Backward & Forward, Cramer In 2007 To 2008

2007 was one volatile year and for now it appears that will be the norm for at least the start of 2008.  Everyone’s favorite market pundit or least liked pundit is obviously Jim Cramer.  If you love Cramer or can’t stand him it really doesn’t matter.  He signed a new multi-year deal with CNBC recently.  Here are some of his major calls this year that will still be referred to in 2008:

Here were Cramer’s TOP 9 STOCKS FOR 2007, with a call broken down for each one.  Borat would say HI FIVE on some and NOT SO NICE on others, as would be expected.  Cramer’s 14,582 year-end DJIA target…..Friday’s close was 13,365.87……although we did hit 14,279.96 on OCT11, 2007.  Cramer also gave a batch of price targets on most of theDJIA components:

Cramer’s Stock Picks FOR 5-YEARS OUT:

SOME LISTS: His list of recession proof stocks compared to ours.  We are updating our
Defensive Stocks For The First Half Of 2008" currently.  Cramer gave a huge list of companies he expects to benefit from the alternative energy traders (SGR, FWLT, BWA, OMG, FSLR, FTEK, WFR, TTEK, ZOLT, BP, SPWR, CY, CPST, ITRI)… Jim Cramer pondered which US companies China would want to acquire, about 3 months before sovereign funds started buying into US companies.  Cramer’s mortgage winners and losers…… Here were his MAJOR BULL MARKET STOCK PICKS(MHS, CVS, AGN, CELG, GENZ, CEPH, RIG, HAL, EMR, CAT, CMI, UTX, KO,PEP, CL, GS, SKS, VFC, UNP, CSX, BA), some of which are DJIAcomponents.  Cramer produced a "MUST OWN" list of stocks, many of whichare up significantly and some are down (WHR, BDK, ATI, BGC, HON, ASD, JCI, MDR, FWLT, CAT, TEX, DE, QCOM)

Cramer spent lots of time on International stocks that most US investors might not cover on their own.  He made a big call on Mercadolibre (MELI) (also BIDU, GOOG) with some emphasis on buying immediately, right before it made a huge run up.  Cramer’s Hidden Video Game Investment Perfect World (PWRD, ATVI, ERTS, VIA) was one he said could run more than 50% for 2008.  Cramer made 5 TOP CHINESE PICKS (CEO, CHL, SSW, FMCN, BIDU, GMR).  We’ll see in 2008 if any of his Canadian OIL TRUSTS get acquired in 2008 (BTE, CNE, PGH, PVX, PWE, AAV, GDI).  Cramer also went over his top picks from Europe for American investors (TOT, SI, ABB, PHG, BF)

ON TECHNOLOGY:  Cramer’s NEW HORSEMEN OF TECH…. will the list change in 2008???  Did Cramer Say $1,000.00 on Google, Or Is It $600.00? That was in May 2007.  Cramer Gave Monster Price targets to Baidu.com (BIDU, GOOG).. will these targets change in 2008? Cramer was very positive on all the GPS stocks,although we’d expect that Cramer will change his tune in 2008 now thatthe holiday madness is behind us (GRMN, UA, CROX, NVT, TRMB, SIRF).

Would it be fair not to include the Barron’s attack on Cramer from summer for those of you that criticize his every word?

ON WARREN BUFFETT…. Cramer noted that BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT in Canada may be the next Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK/A) NYSE: BAM). Cramer reviewed 10 Warren Buffett stocks for analysis and then reviewed 10 More Warren Buffett stocks:

Will his buyout of ALCOA (AA) prediction come true in 2008??? Cramer gave a list of stocks that had bought back so much stock that they might be taking themselves private.

Join our free email distribution list for other Cramer calls or for updates we send out regarding IPO’s, spin-offs, restructuring, reorganization, activist investors and more.

Happy New Years from the 247WallSt.com team!

Jon C. Ogg
December 31, 2007

Posted on: December 31, 2007 – 8:01 am in Cramer, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shaw Group’s SEC Inquiry Ends (SGR)

The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) has just announced that it has received notification from the Securities and Exchange Commission that the SEC’s Division of Enforcement has completed its informal inquiry.  The company first announced this inquiry in June 2004.

The Division of Enforcement does not intend to recommend any enforcement action.  This had been a hanging chad so to speak, although after having dug around into the scope of this we had surmised that nothing of any consequence would really come from this.

Shaw Group shares closed at $59.77 Thursday, and while it hasn’t yet traded it appears that shares are indicating up around $60.50 initially.  The 52-week trading range is $28.60 to $77.30.

Jon C. Ogg
December 28, 2007

Posted on: December 28, 2007 – 8:59 am in Infrastructure, SEC,

Cramer’s Alternative Energy & Green Stocks (SGR, FWLT, BWA, OMG, FSLR, FTEK, WFR, TTEK, ZOLT, BP, SPWR, CY, CPST, ITRI)

On tonights MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer wanted to pitch in on covering the green-tech stocks.  He says he has no politics on his calls because he is just looking at these as opportunities to make money.  Cramer’s green stocks are up 68% on average since he covered that Massachusetts ruling back in April.  His stocks from back then and here are his reviews now:

  • Shaw (SGR) up from $30 by 146% in nuke power infrastructure he thinks it can still double.
  • Foster Wheeler (FWLT) up 99% and being driven by non-green demand, it’s still a favorite but for another reason.
  • Borg Warner (BWA) is up 38% and still has legs in cleaner engine parts, Cramer thinks it goes higher.
  • OM Group (OMG) is actually down on refining cobalt and he said he’d have given up if last quarter wasn’t good.
  • First Solar (FSLR) was up big today on a $1 Billion contract.  Its up 170% since his recommendation and he thinks it can go higher with analysts racing each other to raise targets.  It reports Wednesday but he says it is expensive and he’s look at it speculatively.
  • Fuel-Tech (FTEK) is one that Cramer would rather sell than OM Group.
  • MEMC (WFR) is an arms merchant for solar makers in making wafers for solar panels; too good to pass it up; it’s cheap and he thinks out of all green stocks that this one is still bargain.  MEMC is his TOP PICK in the alt-en sector.
  • Tetra Tech (TTEK) is his play on the water group and he likes the last buyout with an international footprint.

He doesn’t see a single one where he thinks the run is over.  In a call-in he was also positive on Zoltek (ZOLT).  As far as BP’s (BP) initiatives in a call-in, he thinks it is an after-thought and right now it doesn’t add up right.  SunPower (SPWR) in a last call-in is one that he’s been behind and he thinks Cypress Semi (CY) is the play off it.

Another alternative energy stock an analyst said could double is Capstone Turbine (CPST) today in an unrelated report.  That was Lazard, and its analyst also defended Itron (ITRI) on recent weakness.

Jon C. Ogg
November 6, 2007

Posted on: November 6, 2007 – 6:26 pm in Alternative Energy, Cramer, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hoku Production Award (HOKU, SGR)

Hoku Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOKU) has announced that its Hoku Materials subsidiary entered into an Engineering Services & Technology Transfer Agreement for Dynamic Engineering to provide design and engineering services, and a technology license, for Hoku Materials to build a trichlorosilane production and purification unit at its planned polysilicon production plant in Pocatello, Idaho.

The agreement announced today provides for Dynamic to provide the basic engineering package and related services for the TCS production component of Hoku’s planned polysilicon plant, which will be integrated by Stone & Webster Inc., a subsidiary of The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE:SGR), and Hoku’s engineering, procurement and construction management firm, into the overall polysilicon production facility, and will be constructed by JH Kelly, Hoku’s general construction contractor.

Shares are up over 15% in early pre-market trading at $10.60 on the headlines despite no terms being disclosed. The 52-week trading range is $2.52 to $14.55. Other items of interest in HOKU:

Jon Ogg
October 9, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the "Special Situation Investing Newsletter" and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: October 9, 2007 – 7:22 am in Alternative Energy, Cult Stock, ,

Market Trades For Super-Bulls, Chicken-Bulls, and Outright Bears

Stock Tickers: AAPL, GOOG, RIMM, BA, UTX, ATI, RTP, RIO, FLR, SGR, PEP, KO, BUD, CAG, HNZ, CPB, HRL, K, GIS, KFT, MCD, MRK, PFE, ALO, PYX, HME, WTR, SNH, SRZ, PG, CL, MO, RAI, CLX, NVO, BRK/A, FLO, DLM, PSQ, DOG, SSO, SH, BIL, IEI, TLT, TLH

There is more than enough bantering back and forth out there about the week’s sell-off in reaction to long-term interest rates and the Bill Gross predictions for potentially higher rates longer-term.  So, if you are a super-bull then you’d want to use the leadership stocks to pile surplus cash into thinking the world didn’t really change.  If you are a chicken-bull (want to buy but not overly aggressive and still cautious) then you want to buy defensive stocks.  If you’re a bear, well at least you get the 5% interest.  We wanted to provide at least a partial list of the bull and bear go-to picks ahead of the weekend when many will be doing extra amounts of reading.

Aggressive Bullish Picks

IF this was just an unwarranted sell-off that came because of a rate spook and if Mr. Gross is wrong, then you go hard and fast into what has been working before.  Aerospace, Infrastructure, Metals & Mining, very selective Tech.  So out of selective tech the two most obvious names are Apple (AAPL) and either Google (GOOG) or Research-in-Motion (RIMM).  In Aerospace the go-to names are Boeing (BA) and United Tech (UTX).  In metals its Allegheny Tech (ATI), Rio Tinto (RTP), and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce ‘CVRD’ (RIO).  In infrastructure the go-to names are Fluor (FLR), Shaw Group (SGR).  This week Jim Cramer gave his New Four Horsemen of Technology and booted the old ones.

Defensive Stock Plays For Chicken-Bull

Because this sell-off is for a different reason, we have eliminated the power companies because of the tie being so geared toward higher rates.  We’ve also pulled out the debt collection companies because they ran so much after the last sub-prime scare.  Here was the first line of 20 defensive stocks back in February from the mini-Asian meltdown and here was the list of second-line defensive names.   This still leaves plenty of options, and we added in a few more.

First Line Defensive Stocks: Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Anheuser-Busch (BUD), ConAgra (CAG), Heinz (HNZ), Campbell Soup (CPB), Hormel (HRL), Kellogg (K), General Mills (GIS), Kraft (KFT), McDonalds (MCD), Merck (MRK), Pfizer (PFE), P & G (PG), Colgate-Polmolive (CL), Altria (MO), Reynolds American (RAI), and Clorox (CLX).

Second-Line Defensive Stocks:  Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/a), Flowers Foods (FLO), Del Monte Foods (DLM), Novo Nordisk (NVO), Alpharma (ALO), Playtex (PYX), Home Properties (HME), Aqua America (WTR), and Senior Housing (SNH), Sunrise Senior Living (SRZ).

The Bearish Trades

If you are still bearish or are completely bearish, then you’ve got Treasuries and all of the inverse ETF funds.  Some of the negative market ETF trades that move invesrely are the SHORT QQQ PROSHARES (PSQ), SHORT DOW30 PROSHARES (DOG), ULTRA S&P500 PROSHARES (SSO), SHORT S&P500 PROSHARES (SH), and more.  For short-term rate ETF’s you have the fairly new STREETTRACKS SERIES TRUST Lehman 1-3 MO T-BILL (BIL).  The more liquid interest rate ETF’s that actually trade are the iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treas Bond (TLT), iShares Lehman 10-20 Year Treas Bond (TLH), iShares Lehman 3-7 Year T-Note (IEI), and more.

As a reminder, defensive stocks still tend to get hit when the market gets so bad that they throw out the baby with the bath water, but they usually start to fall less and less and are usually the first stocks that traders commit money to at the turns.  Defensive doesn’t mean immune.  Also, all of these are merely part of a partial list and the list could have easily been 3-times the size.   

Jon C. Ogg
June 8, 2007

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

Posted on: June 8, 2007 – 2:14 pm in ETF, Economy, HI/LOW, Shareholder Issues, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,