Posts for Ticker ‘A’

Is the Avago IPO For You? (AVGO, HPQ, A)

Money Stack ImageAvago Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) is today’s IPO.  The deal priced 43.2 million shares at $15.00 per share to raise approximately $621 million.  This was at the high end of the indicated price range, and this was also increased in shares from the 41.4 million shares filed in yesterday’s amendment from the 36 million shares originally indicated for sale.  Avago is a KKR and Silver Lake backed leveraged buyout of the former Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ) analog semiconductor business that became part of Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A).  Is it for you?
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Posted on: August 6, 2009 – 10:28 am in IPOs, Private Equity, Semiconductor, , ,

Agilent-Varian, Partly Transformational Move (A, VARI)

money-stack-imageAgilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is making what seem an unusual acquisition.  It is acquiring Varian, Inc. (NASDAQ: VARI) after signing a definitive agreement for the acquisition.  Agilent will pay roughly a 35% premium of $52.00 per share in cash for Varian’s outstanding stock, which comes to a price tag of roughly $1.5 billion. Both Agilent’s and Varian’s Board of Directors have unanimously approved the acquisition.
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Posted on: July 27, 2009 – 8:32 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, ,

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (A, CRA, CNQR, GLW, AZO, BHP, CERN, GOL, ORLY)

These are the top pre-market analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen with just about two hours until the market opens this Monday morning:

Agilent (A) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Celera (CRA) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Concur Tech (CNQR) Raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.
Corning (GLW) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
AutoZone (AZO) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
BHP Billiton (BHP) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Cerner (CERN) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
GOL Linhas Areas Inteligentes (GOL) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
O’Reilly Auto (ORLY) Cut to Neutral at UBS.

JON C. OGG
March 23, 2009

Posted on: March 23, 2009 – 6:50 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Early Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (A, GNTX, PFE, AA, AGN, HOG, PBH, SSS, STM, TEN)

Money_stack_picThese are some of the top early bird upgrades and downgrades we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Monday morning:

  • Agilent (NYSE: A) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
  • Gentex (NASDAQ: GNTX) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
  • Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Alcoa (NYSE: AA) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
  • Allergan (NYSE: AGN) Cut to Hold at Lazard.
  • Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • Prestige Brands (NYSE: PBH) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • Sovran Self Storage (NYSE: SSS) Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
  • STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) Cut to Sell at UBS.
  • Tenneco (NYSE: TEN) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.

Jon C. Ogg
January 12, 2009

Posted on: January 12, 2009 – 7:31 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (A, BBBY, BBY, DTV, ECL, EP, IBM, NTAP, LRCX, MOT, CRM)

These are not the only impact analyst calls affecting stocks this morning, but these are the ones that 247WallSt.com is focusing on:

  • Agilent (A) raised to Buy at Banc of America.
  • Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • Best Buy (BBY) downgraded to Underperform from Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • DIRECTV (DTV) raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Lehman.
  • Ecolab (ECL) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  • El Paso (EP) raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.
  • IBM (IBM) and Network Appliance (NTAP) both downgraded to Neutral at UBS; shares indicated down 0.5%.
  • Lam Research (LRCX) raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Lehman.
  • Motorola (MOT) downgraded to Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.
  • Salesforce.com (CRM) raised to Buy at UBS; but CRM downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs; shares indicated down almost 3%.

Jon C. Ogg
January 7, 2008

Posted on: January 7, 2008 – 7:57 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , ,

Pre-Market Stock News (June 7, 2007)

(A) Agilent reiterated guidance after completing Stratagene buyout.
(ADCT) ADC Telecom trading up 3% after posting $0.35 EPS vs $0.24 estimates.
(ANN) Ann Taylor May s-s-s -4.6% versus -3.1% estimate.
(ATVI) Activision will take $66.7 million non-cash and pre-tax charge for options back-dating.
(BEBE) Bebe Stroes May s-s-s -3% versus -2.8% estimate.
(BHI) Baker Hughes rig count rose 23 to 1,007 versus April and up from 920 in May 2006.
(BMET) Biomet’s private equity buyout raised to $46.00.
(CALL) CallWave announced the ‘industry’s first’ Visual Voicemail gadget for Google Personalized Homepage.
(CHINA) CDC Corp. appointed two new directors.
(COST) CostCo s-s-s were +7% in May, above 5.5% estimates.
(DJ) Dow Jones may have some interest from owner of Philadelphia Inquirer.
(DSCO) Discovery Laboratories initiated a Phase II clinical trial evaluating the use of Surfaxin in children up to two years of age suffering from Acute Respiratory Failure.
(ESLT) Elbit Systems awarded $110 million order by Thales UK to provide ISTAR capability for UK armed forces.
(FINL) Finish Line guided Q1 earnings below estimates and now sees a loss.
(HGSI) Human Genome Sciences shows positive final results Of Phase 2b trial of Albuferon
(IDEV) Indevus Pharmaceuticals reports positive data from Phase III NEBIDO trial for development for the treatment of male hypogonadism.
(INFN) Infinera Corp. IPO priced 14M shares at $13.00, above the 410.00 to $12.00 range.
(IMMC) Immunicon has released highlights from podium presentations made at ASCO meeting.
(JOSB) Jos. A. Banks may s-s-s +13.5% versus +4% estimate.
(JCP) JC Penney May s-s-s -2% vs +0.3% estimates.
(JWN) JW Nordstrom’s May s-s-s +6.3% versus +2.6% estimate.
(LTD) Limited Brands May s-s-s _2% vs -1% estimate.
(MSFT) Microsoft has entered a cross license pact with LG Electronics for further development of current and future product lines.
(OPTT) Ocean Power Tech awarded a $1.7 million Navy order for its PowerBuoys.
(SFD) Smithfield Foods $0.34 EPS vs $0.34e; named new CFO.
(SHRP) Sharper Image May s-s-s -8% vs -13% estimate.
(UTIW) UTI Worldwide $0.18 EPS vs $0.16e.
(WMT) Wal-Mart s-s-s +1.1% vs 1.2% estimate; sales were +1.3% after fuel.
(YANB) Yardville National gets $35.00 buyout from PNC.

Jon C. Ogg
June 7, 2007

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

Posted on: June 7, 2007 – 7:20 am in Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,