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Analysts Fight Over Anglo American (AAUK)

247wallst — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:50:27 +0000

Anglo American plc (NASDAQ: AAUK) is seeing exact opposite calls on the positives and negatives this morning. We have seen the stock’s rating raised to the revered “Conviction Buy List” at Goldman Sachs based on rising EBITDA on rising prices and exposure to high-margin businesses and a note that shares have been overlooked. However, the stock was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse. If you want to throw in another mix, Nomura said that the company could be vulnerable to an acquisition from Xstrata over the next year.

Shares closed at $12.46 for ADR’s yesterday and are indicated up at $12.80 in pre-market trading with about an hour and forty-five minutes until the market opens. Its 52-week trading range is $6.21 to $35.64.

JON C. OGG
MAY 22, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls, Metals Tagged: AAUK

Early Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (CBY, CNP, DLTR, PHG, SFD, AGU, AIB, AAUK, IRE, CETV)

247wallst — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:10:19 +0000

These are the early bird analyst calls with upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street this morning with about two and a half hours until the market opens:

Cadbury (CBY) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
CenterPoint Energy (CNP) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Dollar Tree (DLTR) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Philips (PHG) Raised to Neutral from underweight at HSBC.
Smithfield Foods (SFD) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Agrium (AGU) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Allied Irish Banks (AIB) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Anglo American (AAUK) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Bank of Ireland (IRE) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Central European Media (CETV) Cut to Underweight at Thomas Weisel.

Jon C. Ogg
February 26, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AAUK, AGU, AIB, CBY, CETV, CNP, DLTR, IRE, PHG, SFD

Anglo American is Digging a Big Hole (AAUK, RTP, ACH, AU, ABX, NEM)

247wallst — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:49:35 +0000

The bigger they are, the more noise they make when they fall. British miner Anglo American plc (NASDAQ:AAUK) has canceled its dividend for the fourth quarter, suspended its $4 billion share buyback program, and fired 19,000 people, about 10% of its workforce.

Anglo American, like its counterpart Rio Tinto plc (NYSE:RTP), got crushed by falling commodity prices and enormous debt levels resulting from recent acquisitions. Rio Tinto got a bailout of sorts from Chinese aluminum giant Aluminum Company of China (Chinalco) (NYSE:ACH), which agreed to pay $19.5 billion for an additional 9% stake in Rio Tinto giving the Chinese company an 18% stake in the mining company. That deal faces a problem from Australian regulators because it raises the issue of foreign ownership of more than 15% of the company. Anglo American has no such deal in the works, but with more than $11 billion in debt, it would certainly not turn down a similar offer out of hand.

Unlike gold miners like AngloGold Ashanti Ltd (NYSE:AU), Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX), and Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE:NEM), which are rising on the increased demand for gold, commodity miners like Anglo American and Rio Tinto have taken heavy hits from a depressed economy that has quenched the thirst for iron ore and copper.

Anglo American shares are trading down 13% in early trades this morning, and shares of Rio Tinto are off nearly 5% due to the weakness of Anglo American’s results. Gold miners AngloGold and Newmont are up about 4%.

Paul Ausick
February 20, 2009

Posted in Commodities, Labor & Unions, Metals Tagged: AAUK, ABX, ACH, AU, NEM, RTP

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (MDRX, AAUK, EBAY, HNZ, SOLR, ITG, NVO, SI, SCR, PCU, STP, VISN)

247wallst — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:03:59 +0000

These are most of the general analyst calls we have seen with downgrades or negative implications this Wednesday morning in the early pre-market trading hours:

Allscripts-Misys (NASDAQ: MDRX) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) Started as Sell at Collins Stewart.
HJ Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
GT Solar (NASDAQ: SOLR) Started as Buy at Kaufman Brothers.
Investment Tech (NYSE: ITG) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Novo-Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Siemens (NYSE: SI) Cut to Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Simcere Pharmaceutical Group. (NYSE: SCR) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Southern Copper (NYSE: PCU) Cut to Sell at UBS.
Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) Cut to Underperform at FBR.
VisionChina Media (NASDAQ: VISN) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.

There were also many financial downgrades and some downgrades specific to the oil patch this morning as well. As you can see by the few upgrades noted earlier, the pace of downgrades is still greatly exceeding upgrades.

Jon C. Ogg
January 14, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AAUK, EBAY, HNZ, ITG, MDRX, NVO, PCU, SCR, SI, SOLR, STP, VISN

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (BKD, SNH, AMZN, AAUK, CENX, EBAY, PRGS)

247wallst — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:27:03 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen from Wall Street this Friday morning with more than two hours until the market opens:

Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Senior Housing (NYSE: SNH) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) Cut to neutral at UBS.
Century Aluminum (NASDAQ: CENX) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Progress Software (NASDAQ: PRGS) Cut to Hold at Needham.

Jon C. Ogg
December 19, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AAUK, AMZN, BKD, CENX, EBAY, PRGS, SNH

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (AAUK, ACI, BBT, CETV, FCL, JKHY, MEE, WCG)

247wallst — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:36:00 +0000

These are some of the top upgrades or positive calls we are seeing from analysts this Thursday morning:

Anglo American (AAUK) Raised to Strong Buy at S&P (late Weds. call).
Arch Coal (ACI) Raised to Buy at UBS.
BB&T Corp. (BBT) Raised to Buy at S&P.
Central European Media (CETV) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Foundation Coal (FCL) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Jack Henry (JKHY) Cut to Hold at Needham; Cut to Neutral at D.A. Davidson.
Massee Energy (MEE) Raised to Buy at UBS.
WellCare Group (WCG) Started as Buy at B of A.

Jon C. Ogg
August 21, 2008

Pre-Market Stock News (June 6, 2007)

247wallst — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:13:13 +0000

(AAUK) Anglo American’s CEO will become a non-executive member of the board of directors at BP (BP).
(ACAD) Acadia Pharmaceuticals traded up over 10% after Jim Cramer touted the stock as a speculative play for trading the upcoming data on its schizophrenia and Parkinson’s treatment.
(ACOR) Acorda Therapeutics Starts Second Phase 3 Trial of Fampridine-SR in MS
(AMTD) TD AMERITRADE was notified that JANA and S.A.C. funds have secured an interest of roughly 8.6% stake to pressure the companies to enter a merger.
(AZN) AstraZeneca CFO leaves to join Goldman Sachs.
(CROX) Crocs is launching a fashionable line of high heel and flats for women to appeal to fashion conscious women.
(CSC) Computer Sciences Corp. may look to acquire iSoft Group plc in the UK.
(ETFC) E*Trade trading up 3% on AMERITRADE news.
(FCS) Fairchild Semiconductor reaffirmed Q2 growth targets.
(GSK) GlaxoSmithkline defends Avandia saying it does not increase heart risks.
(KFY) Korn Ferry $0.37 adjusted EPS versus $0.34 estimates.
(MAIR) MAIR Holdings -$0.06 EPS vs -$0.05e.
(PNRA) Panera trading down $7.00 on an earnings warning of $0.38-0.40 vs $0.47-0.51e.
(PLUG) Plug Power named new CFO.
(PRU) Prudential lays off 420 in a research phase out, will cease covering all equities immediately.
(RUS) Russ Berrie rejected an $18.00 buyout as an undervalued deal.
(SCHW) Charles Schwab traded up 1% after the AMERITRADE news.
(SIRI) Sirius Satellite Radio announced a $250 million term-loan from Morgan Stanley.
(STAR) Starent priced a 10.5 million share IPO at$12.00, above the $9.00 to $11.00 range.
(WFMI) Whole Foods is facing a deal blockage by the FTC over a ‘natural foods market disruption’ according to FTC.

Jon C. Ogg
June 6, 2007

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