ALL – 24/7 Wall St.

Posts for Ticker ‘ALL’

The 100 Hardest Working Brands In The World

There are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.

24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)

Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.

24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?

Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”. Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless. How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business. Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.

24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?

Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets. A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value. If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.

The list: Read More »

Posted on: October 20, 2009 – 5:06 pm in Research, Uncategorized, AAPL, AET, ALL, AM, AVP, AXP, BA, BBBY, BDK, BGP, BKS, BMY, CAJ, CAL, CL, COF, CPB, CVS, CVX, DAI, DD, DELL, DIS, DLM, EBAY, EK, EL, F, FDX, FUJIY, GE, GIS, GOOG, GPS, GR, GT, HD, HMC, HNZ, HOG, HRB, HRL, HSY, IBM, JCP, JNJ, K, KFT, KO, KSS, L, LIZ, LOW, LZB, MAR, MAT, MCD, MOT, MS, MSFT, NKE, NSANY, NYT, ODP, PBI, PBY, PEP, PG, PZZA, RAD, RL, RSH, S, SBUX, SCHW, SHW, SKS, SLE, SNE, SPLS, SUN, T, TBL, TGT, TIF, TM, TSN, TUP, TXN, UPS, VZ, WAG, WEN, WHR, WMT, XOM, XRX, YHOO

Top Analyst Upgrades (ALL, AMT, AAPL, CCI, ETFC, HGG, KBH, MFE, PCG, PG, SBUX, TOL, VMW)

These are this Friday morning’s top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls from Wall Street affecting shares:

Allstate (ALL) Raised to Buy at Argus.
American Tower Corp. (AMT) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Apple (AAPL) Raised to Outperform at Macquarie.
Crown Castle International (CCI) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
E*TRADE Financial (ETFC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Hhgregg (HGG) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
KB Home (KBH) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
McAfee (MFE) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
PG&E Corp. (PCG) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Procter & Gamble (PG) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Starbucks (SBUX) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Toll Brothers (TOL) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
VMware (VMW) Target raised to $32 from $23 at Auriga.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: September 18, 2009 – 8:10 am in Analyst Calls, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, AAPL, ALL, AMT, CCI, ETFC, HGG, KBH, MFE, PCG, PG, SBUX, TOL, VMW

Top Day Trader Alerts (ALL, MO, AIG, AXL, DSCO, GRMN)

These are this Friday’s top day trader alert stocks. We have more color and more detail on price and volume analysis linked through to each at VSInvestor.com:

AllState Corp. (NYSE: ALL) is holding up better than we would have expected considering a Goldman Sachs downgrade to Sell.

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) had unbelievable options trading yesterday, although it appears to be a dividend capture trade… over 1 million SEPT-2009 contracts were traded yesterday on that basis.

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is holding up rather well considering the downgrade. We have color on price channels and trading patterns on this one because of how sketchy this stock is.

American Axle (NYSE: AXL) is soaring by 17% on an upgrade, a rather tall task for a research call.

Discovery Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: DSCO) is up about 50% on an FDA review date.

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) may not be anywhere close to the old highs, but an analyst upgrade is helping it get close to challenging 52-week highs.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for top day trader alerts, top analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG
SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Posted on: September 11, 2009 – 9:03 am in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, AIG, ALL, AXL, DSCO, GRMN, MO

Top Analyst Downgrades (AIG, ALL, BBY, CLX, ERTS, ITT, NWS, SII, TYX, VIP)

These are this Friday morning’s top analyst downgrades and cautious research calls from Wall Street:

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) Cut to Underperform at Wells Fargo.
Allstate (NYSE:ALL) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Clorox (NYSE: CLX) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT) Cut to Equalweight at Barclays.
News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) Cut to Underperform at Cowen.
Smith International (NYSE:SII) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Tyco (NYSE: TYC) Cut to Equalweight at Barclays.
VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP) Cut To Hold at RBS.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: September 11, 2009 – 8:06 am in Analyst Calls, AIG, ALL, BBY, CLX, ERTS, ITT, NWS, SII, TYX, VIP

Larry Ellison: The Return Of The Dollar A Year Man

Steve Jobs worked at Apple (AAPL) for $1 a year in 2000, just before the launch of the iPod which completely changed the company’s fortunes and made him astonishingly wealthy. Lee Iaccoca worked for $1 in 1978 when he took charge of crippled Chrysler. Read More »

Posted on: August 24, 2009 – 5:01 am in Compensation, AIG, ALL, GE, MET, ORCL, SBUX

Head Of AIG (AIG) To Be Overpaid By $6,999,999

AIG has already taken in $180 billion of taxpayer money and there is absolutely no reason to believe that most of it will be returned. The insurance company is still losing money and its efforts to sell off units to raise capital have been pathetic.

Ed Liddy, former CEO of Allstate (ALL), was the firm’s CEO for the last year. He was brought in by the government to help work out the mess. He was repaid by regular beating from Congress over AIG management compensation set before he arrived. He worked for $1 a year. Read More »

Posted on: August 18, 2009 – 6:06 am in Compensation, AIG, ALL, MET

Shorts Flee Financials, Attack Industrials And Tech

Short sellers jumped out of major financial shares but piled into the stocks for major industrial firms based on data as of June 15. Shorts clearly think the restructuring of the bank industry has taken hold permanently, but that the manufacturing industry is still likely to be troubled.

The short interest in Citigroup (C) dropped 3% to 1.244 billion. Shares sold short in Bank of America (BAC) dropped 20% to 95.5 billion. The short interest in AIG (AIG) fell 4% to 228.7 million shares. Read More »

Posted on: June 25, 2009 – 3:38 am in Short Interest, AFL, AIG, ALL, BA, BAC, C, CAT, CSCO, DELL, F, INTC, JPM, KEY, MSFT, ORCL, PALM, USB, WFC, XOM

Media Digest 5/20/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

Reuters: The Treasury is keeping banks guessing about when they can repay TARP funds.

Reuters: Bank of America (BAC) has raised more than $13 billion in share sales.

Reuters: Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) financial outlook disappointed the market.

Reuters: Terminated Chrysler dealers will challenge the sale of the company’s assets.

Reuters: Obama is considering an agency to protect consumer’s financial interests.

Reuters: Microsoft (MSFT) may unveil a new search engine.

Reuters: Facebook’s CEO said an IPO is several years away. Read More »

Posted on: May 20, 2009 – 2:56 am in Autos, Banking, Compensation, Consumer Electronics, Corporate Governance, Drug companies, Earnings, Earnings Warning, Entertainment, Financial Stocks, Hardware, Housing, PC Companies, Press Digest, Retail, AIG, ALL, BAC, ERTS, GE, GM, HD, HPQ, INTC, JPM, MGM, MSFT, PALM, SKS, T, TGT

Allstate’s In Good Hands, Without the TARP (ALL)

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) has decided to not participate in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or the TARP, after a careful review by the company. Management believes the company is strongly capitalized without the government funds. The insurer has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share of common stock.
Read More »

Posted on: May 19, 2009 – 9:13 am in Dividend, Financial Stocks, Regulation, ALL

AIG (AIG) Bailout And The Price Of Doing Business

One of the things that Congress and the Administration knows but do not want to admit in public is that bailouts are messy affairs where most of what is planned does not work and one of the unintended consequences is that the process of salvaging large institutions is rarely fair. A lot of people, who should in a utopia, get nothing as the taxpayers dump money into the financial system to save it are paid very well. Others, who seem to be innocent bystanders in the process that has ruined financial firms and put tens of thousands of people out of jobs, are simply given the shaft. Read More »

Posted on: March 16, 2009 – 4:26 am in Banking, Politics, AIG, ALL, GS, JPM, MS

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ALL, AZN, ETFC, FITB, JNPR, QCOM, RF, RYAAY, SEPR, HOT, TKR, TWC, TROW, UA, VE, ZNT)

These are some of the many pre-market downgrades and negative calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Friday morning:
Allstate (ALL) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
AstraZeneca (AZN) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
E*TRADE (ETFC) Cut to Underperform at Raymond James.
Fifth Third (FITB) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Qualcomm (QCOM) Cut to Hold at Societe Generale.
Regions Financial (RF) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Ryanair (RYAAY) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Sepracor (SEPR) Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Starwood Hotels (HOT) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Timken (TKR) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
Time Warner Cable (TWC) Cut to Sell at Collins Stewart.
T. Rowe Price (TROW) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Under Armour (UA) Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Veolia Environnement (VE) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Zenith National Insurance (ZNT) Cut to Market Perform at FBR; Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Jon C. Ogg
January 30, 2009

Posted on: January 30, 2009 – 8:01 am in Analyst Calls, ALL, AZN, ETFC, FITB, HOT, JNPR, QCOM, RF, RYAAY, SEPR, TKR, TROW, TWC, UA, VE, ZNT

Bernstein Dumps Insurers (ACE, ALL, CB, CNA, TRV, XL, AIG)

Financial stocks may have enjoyed sizable bounces from their lows in November and December, but not all analysts are following them up. The insurrance sector and some of the re-insurance names have been downgraded by Bernstein. Here are the following calls we have seen from their report:

Posted on: January 6, 2009 – 7:56 am in Analyst Calls, Financial Stocks, ACE, AIG, ALL, CB, CNA, TRV, XL

Media Digest 10/23/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

According to Reuters, former Citigroup (C) CEO Sandy Weill may start a fund to invest in distressed financial companies.

Reuters writes that Amazon (AMZN) turned in a weak forecast hurting its stock.

Reuters reports that weak economic data in Japan lead to more recession fears

Posted on: October 23, 2008 – 3:01 am in Press Digest, AIG, ALL, AMZN, BA, BIDU, C, CBS, CMCSA, CS, EMC, GM, GS, MCO, MRK, MSFT, NFLX, SNE, TKTM, TVL, VIA

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ALL, DO, DOW, JCG, LULU, SONC)

These are some of the top pre-market downgrades we are seeing this Monday morning with more than two hours to the open:

Allstate (ALL) Cut to Sell from Hold at S&P Equity Research
Diamond Offshore (DO) Cut to Underweight from Overweight at JP Morgan
Dow Chemical (DOW) Cut to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan
J. Crew (JCG) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs
lululemon (LULU) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs
Sonic Corp. (SONC) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs

Jon C. Ogg
October 13, 2008

Posted on: October 13, 2008 – 6:11 am in Analyst Calls, ALL, DO, DOW, JCG, LULU, SONC

AIG (AIG): The Buffoons Take Over The Nut House

It did not take long for the bailout of AIG (AIG) to dissolve into chaos. Just two weeks after the Fed put $85 billion into the failing insurance company, the new management asked for an extra $37.8 billion.

The news is yet another example of how fast the financial system is failing. Institutions which appear to have been saved can walk into more trouble in the course of a few days.

Posted on: October 9, 2008 – 5:01 am in Financial Stocks, AIG, ALL

The 52-Week Low Club (AIG)(PRU)(ALL)(NURO)

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) Warns about more potentia write-offs and bad financial controls. Falls to $44.52 from 52-week high of $72.97.

PNM Res (NYSE: PNM) Numbers miss Wall St. estimates. Drops to $13.31 from 52-week high of $34.28.

CNA Financial (NYSE: CNA) Profits drop on investment losses. Shares sell off to $25.17 from 52-week high of $51.96.

Prudential NYSE: PRU) Industry woes and still slipping from earnings. Down to $66.76 from 52-week high of $103.27.

UBS (NYSE: UBS), Allstate (NYSE: ALL), and HSBC (NYSE: HBC) also all hit new lows.

Neurometrix (NASDAQ:NURO) Appears one of the company’s medical devices did not get approval. Falls to $5.25 from 52-week high $12.10.

Syntax Brillian NASDAQ: BRLC) Delays filing results. Drops to $1.88 from 52-week high of $9.08.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: February 11, 2008 – 3:58 pm in HI/LOW, AIG, ALL, BRLC, CNA, HBC, NURO, PNM, PRU, UBS

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ALL, GLW, DISH, GM, INTC, ITG, JNJ, PNM, RESP, UPL)

These are not the only top analyst calls impacting share prices this morning, but these are the main calls that 247WallSt.com is focusing on in pre-market trading this Friday morning:

Allstate (ALL) raised to Outperform at FBR.
Corning (GLW) started as Buy at Jefferies.
Echostar (DISH) raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Bernstein.
General Motors (GM) removed from JPMorgan Focus List.
Intel (INTC) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.
Investment Technology (ITG) raised to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) started as Buy at UBS.
PNM Resources (PNM) raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
Respironics (RESP) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Banc of America.
Ultra Petroleum (UPL) started as Neutral at Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey; just noted last night by Cramer on MAD MONEY as his natural gas stock of 2008.

Jon C. Ogg
January 4, 2008

Posted on: January 4, 2008 – 7:57 am in Analyst Calls, ALL, DISH, GLW, GM, INTC, ITG, JNJ, PNM, RESP, UPL

Pre-Market Stock News (May 11, 2007)

(AAPL) Apple’s talks about the Beatles are reportedly close to being settled.
(ALL) Allstate is going to stop selling homeowners insurance policies in California.
(ALU) Alcatel-Lucent earnings came out, forecasts 10% revenue gains; shares trading up 1.5% in overseas trading.
(AMGN) Amgen trading down another 3% pre-market after 4 downgrades after negative FDA news yesterday.
(BMY) Bristol-Myers Squibb settled the DOJ Plavix investigation.
(BOT) CBOT may now be considering the ICE bid over the CME bid according to WSJ.
(BRLC) Syntax-Brillian fell 15% after missing earnings and issuing even more shares in offering.
(CRXX) CombinatoRx noted positively in Business Week.
(DNDN) Dendreon trading down 5% after conference call.
(FL) Foot Locker shares fell almost 10% on an earnings warning.
(HELE) Helen of Troy $0.30 EPS vs $0.27e.
(JOBS) 51job traded up 7% after beating expectations.
(MOVI) Movie Gallery -$0.47 EPS vs -$0.53e.
(NVDA) NVIDIA trading up 5% after beating earnings and strong guidance.
(NWS) News Corp could reach $30.00 if it buys Down Jones according to Business Week.
(STI) Sun Trust Banks saw enough call option buying activity yesterday that it is being considered potentially as takeover speculation.
(THQI) THQ Interactive fell 4% after outlook disappointed the bulls.
(WCRX) Warner Chilcott $0.23 EPS vs $0.18e.
(WDC) Western Digital is likely to see its multiple expand according to Barron’s.
(WEN) Wendy’s largest holder is trying harder to get the company to sell itself.

Jon C. Ogg
May 11, 2007

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

Posted on: May 11, 2007 – 6:59 am in Pre-Market Activity, AAPL, ALL, ALU, AMGN, BRLC, CRXX, DNDN, FL, HELE, NVDA, NWS, STI, WDC, WEN

Will Berkshire Hathaway Lower Its Buyout Standards?

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A) may be setting its sights lower as far as the size of a merger it would pursue. Reuters has reported that Warren Buffett gave an interview to a Swiss newspaper called Finanz and Wirtschaft saying the company was primarily interested in large takeovers. Buffett said they would happily buy things in the $5 billion to $20 billion range, although potential targets are rare. Buffett did note that they were confident they would be able to conclude several larger transactions soon in the interview.

We just ran several buyout targets that we widened out to fit the bill for a "whale" of an acquisition on Monday.

If Buffett looks at smaller companies then he will have a lot more to choose from. It is somewhat surprising that Buffett has not looked at the retail and commercial banking sector since there are so many with healthy balance sheets and surpressed prices due to a temporarily inverted yield curve. He has also failed on his promise to go big into power generation operations, and there are perhaps 5 or 6 names he could easily approach in that sector.

The truth is that if Buffett stoops down into the $5 billion to $20 billion range then there will be many opportunities for him. Perhaps the largest reason for looking at larger deals is that he is probably concerned that he will be one-upped in a higher bid for any deal he considers in that $5 billion to $20 billion range.

Regardless of his comments, he needs to remove T-Bills as his single largest public investment at the current time. Being too picky and just sitting on the sidelines for too long can come across as indecisive, even if you have made yourself into one of the world’s richest men.

Jon C. Ogg
May 9, 2007

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

Posted on: May 9, 2007 – 7:22 am in Conglomerates, Mergers and Buy Outs, ALL, BF, BRK/A, CHA, DB, DOW, E, Leh, MET, MRO, OXY, REP, SNP, TRV, VLO, WM

Berkshire Hathaway’s “Whale” Acquisition; Who Could It Be?

Stocks to Watch: BRK/A, MRO, TRV, WM, ALL, LEH, CHA, REP, OXY, DOW, VLO, E, MET, BF, DB, SNP

Warren Buffett was noted this weekend as saying he is tempted to find a "Whale" of an acquisition rather than just trying to catch a big fish. Everyone knows that Buffett has called technology a widget that he wouldn’t buy, so what could this mean?

We screened stocks with some valuations that would entail Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) either selling many stakes it holds in public companies or that would require it to raise capital from the markets. In order to do this we looked at the balance sheet and decided that the company cut off mark would be somewhere in the vicinity of $35 Billion for the company to still have ample cash to operate without stretching or minimizing activities. We decided to go up to $80 Billion as the ceiling, thinking that Buffett could probably sell the idea and considering that this amount ‘could’ still occur if he stretched it big time. He has already said that Geography is not a barrier any longer.
The companies that trade at $35 billion to $80 billion have price to book value ratios of Less than 2.5, Price-to Earnings ratios of 15.0 or less, forward Price to earnings ratios of under 14.0. There are many other measures such as discounted cash flows and return on equity that we could have run, but we thought we’d see what comes up.

Companies that did not have ADR’s were screened out, even though this may not be fair. He has mostly stayed away from energy companies, but his PetroChina (PTR) stake made us leave this in. He has stayed away from banks, but since he has been aggressive into insurance we decided to keep this in there.

Here are some of the companies that showed up in the screen:
Marathon Oil (MRO), Travelers (TRV), Washington Mutual (WM), Allstate (ALL), Lehman (LEH), China Telecom (CHA), Repsol (REP), Occidental Petroleum (OXY), Dow Chemical (DOW), Valero (VLO), E N I (E), MetLife (MET), BASF (BF), Deutsche Bank (DB), China Petrolem (SNP).

Here is the problem in evaluating the companies above: If you don’t think Buffett would take on the huge additional risks in insurance or if you think he’d shy away from a bank or brokerage firm, then Buffett would need to go into the chemical companies or into energy and refining. Even if you scale down the size to say $20 Billion, you have the same type of companies in the mix, except you bring in some metal and commodity names.

What is the biggest problem in having roughly $40 Billion in cash and equivalents? It’s obviously trying to put the money to work. Buffett is not under the same pressure as private equity to put his cash to work. His track record speaks for itself, but you have to wonder about the company down the road and what its strategy will be. How far will they diversify? Will they diversify? When your holding period you evaluate a business on is "Forever" it makes for some interesting problems to have.

Jon C. Ogg
May 7, 2007