Posts for Ticker ‘TSS’

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (APKT, FITB, GNTX, NYM, PLD, ROK, TSS, VRAD)

These are not all of the downgrades, butthese are some of the standout calls early this Tuesday morning:

  • Acme Packet (APKT) Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
  • Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
  • Gentex (GNTX) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
  • Nymagic (NYM) Cut to Underperform at KBW.
  • ProLogis (PLD) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
  • Rockwell Automation (ROK) Started as Sell at Societe Generale.
  • Total System Services (TSS) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Virtual Radiologic (VRAD) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.

Jon C. Ogg
September 30, 2008

Posted on: September 30, 2008 – 7:01 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , ,

Early-Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (DKS, IDXX, MA, WIT, ACS, ADP, CHT, FMCN, NT, PTI, TSS)

These are some of the upgrades and downgrades we are seeing from Wall Street this Tuesday morning:

  • Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
  • IDEXX Laboratories (IDXX) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • Mastercard (MA) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

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Posted on: August 19, 2008 – 6:32 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , ,

Total Systems Services Finally Its Own Company (TSS, SNV)

Total Systems Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS), also called TSYS, is finally getting the completion of its spin-off of majority outside ownership so that it will be its own company.  Synovus (NYSE: SNV) has announced the distribution ratio for the previously-announced spin-off of the shares of TSYS common stock currently owned by Synovus.

On December 31, 2007, Synovus will distribute 0.484 of a share of TSYS common stock for each share of Synovus common stock outstanding with a record date of 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on December 18, 2007.  Instead of receiving fractional shares for amounts of less than one TSYS share, Synovus shareholders will receive cash.

Synovus currently owns 80.6% of TSYS. The distribution of the 159,630,980 TSYS shares owned by Synovus will be made to Synovus shareholders on December 31, 2007 and will be done on a tax-free status to Synovus and its shareholders.

Synovus Financial closed at $24.10 yesterday and its 52-week trading range is $21.91 to $33.82.  TSYS shares closed at $26.72 yesterday and its 52-week trading range is $25.48 to $35.05.

You can join our own open email distribution list to hear about spin-offs, break-ups, merger-arb spreads, reorganizations, restructurings, and other key special situations.

Jon C. Ogg
December 19, 2007

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

Posted on: December 19, 2007 – 9:02 am in Shareholder Issues, Value Investing, ,

Big List of Private Equity Targets in Financial Services

There is a recent boutique research report from earlier in the week showing a list of potential private equity targets from a specialty brokerage firm that I was very positive on from even before its IPO: Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW).  The truth is that this company is probably only behind Goldman Sachs (GS) as far as its knowledge of what is going on in the North American financial services sector, and the argument is that KBW is considered the number one firm as far as independent coverage of the financial services sector.  It is too bad the company did not get this out at the end of last year to include many other names that have been gobbled up, but it really feels as though every firm is ‘cramming for finals’ in the M&A world with the private equity superstars.

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Posted on: May 31, 2007 – 9:32 am in Bait Shop, Banking, Financial Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, Private Equity, Research, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cramer’s Got 2 More Financial Service Buyout Picks (TSS, ADP, ADS, BSG, FDC, SNV)

Cramer came on MAD MONEY saying he thinks that Total Systems Services (TSS-NYSE) is one that can be taken over next in a sector and $40.00 would be a fair price based on Alliance Data prices.  Synovis (SNV) is the parent and Third point is now being an activist investor.  The earnings growth of 18% is reason enough to own this.  The only issue he has in the sector is that Automatic Data Processing (ADP) might be acquired first.  Alliance Data Services (ADS) was just acquired, First Data (FDC) is going private, and even Bisys Group (BSG) got gobbled up.  We’ll see, but investors need to keep in mind that some of the premiums in this sector have been pidly.  ADS was nearly a 20% stock jump, but BSG was a horrible low-premium buyout.

Jon C. Ogg
May 21, 2007

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

Posted on: May 21, 2007 – 5:53 pm in Cramer, Financial Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, , , , , ,