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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALKS, AMP, BWA, CSCO, CLB, DD, GTIV, HIG, JASO, JPM, JWN, NSC, ORCL, PFE, STP, TSL, UAL)

Administrator — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:12:59 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen having an impact from Wall Street research calls.

Alkermes, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALKS) Removed from US 1 List but maintained Buy at BofA/ML.
Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE: AMP) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
BorgWarner, Inc. (NYSE: BWA) is Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) Reiterated Buy with $22 target at BofA/ML; Reiterated Outperform at CRedit Suisse.
Core Laboratories NV (NYSE: CLB) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.
EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD) Raised to Buy at S&P Equity Research (late Tuesday).
Gentiva Health Services (NASDAQ: GTIV) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: HIG) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Maintained Outperform but cut estimates at Credit Suisse.
Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) Value Stock of the Day at Zacks.
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna.
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (NYSE: STP) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) Reiterated Buy with $34 target at BofA/ML.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ALKS, AMP, BWA, CLB, CSCO, DD, GTIV, HIG, JASO, JPM, JWN, NSC, ORCL, PFE, STP, TSL, UAL

The Ten Best Cities For Educated Workers

247wallst — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:55:38 +0000

The job market has remained relatively stagnant since 2009. To make matters worse, the educational requirements of the average U.S. employer have increased consistently from 2005 to 2009, recently outpacing the growth of educated labor, a new report shows. This means that the average job now requires a higher level of education than the average worker possesses — a bad sign for much of America’s labor force.

Read The Ten Best Cities For Educated Workers

However, there are a number of metropolitan areas in the country that have exceptionally small education gaps, or “shortages of educated workers relative to employer demand,” according to the report “Education, Demand, and Unemployment in Metropolitan America” by the Brookings Institution. These areas tend to have a large number of highly educated workers available to meet rising demand.

As a result, these cities often have lower unemployment rates than the national average, which was 9.1% as of July 2011. “Highly educated metropolitan areas like Salt Lake City, Raleigh, Indianapolis, and Knoxville have avoided very high unemployment rates despite having high concentrations of jobs in industries that were hit hard during the recession,” Jonathan Rothwell, one of the report’s authors, told 24/7 Wall St. “The reason, in large part, is that the average worker in those areas has enough education to meet the needs of the average job.” In cities such as Boston and Madison, which are major educational hubs, a cycle is formed. They produce lots of educated people and provide lots of jobs for educated people.

There are still some cities with small education gaps that do not have exceptionally low unemployment rates. This is the result of unavoidable economic forces. San Francisco, for instance, was badly damaged when the housing bubble burst — the same crash that has hurt so much of California. San Jose’s unemployment rate remains high because its manufacturing base was hit especially hard during the recession.

24/7 Wall St. has analyzed the ten metropolitan areas in the Brookings report with the smallest education gaps. We looked at what causes these areas to have highly educated residents and how their education levels are affecting the areas’ unemployment rates. We then looked at numbers for median household income from the Census Bureau, all of which were higher than the national average of $51,425.

These are the cities where people are most qualified to work.

Filed under: General Tagged: AMP, AMZN, BA, CSCO, IBM, MSFT, SBUX, SYMC, TGT, USB

Secondary Issuers Getting Hit (AMP, ATPG, ERIC, MI, VMC)

247wallst — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:24:45 +0000

We are seeing some active trading in the stocks which raised capital via secondary offerings today. These are all down except for one and today’s hopper has Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE: AMP), ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (NASDAQ: ATPG), LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ: ERIC), Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (NYSE: MI), and Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE: VMC).

Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE: AMP) priced a 36 million share secondary offering of common stock at $25.00 per share. That $900 million gross amount of proceeds compares to a market cap of roughly $5.4 billion before the offering. Shares are down about 4% at $24.65. Its 52-week trading range is $11.74 to $49.76, but this was a $30 stock just last week.

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (NASDAQ: ATPG) priced its secondary offering of 8.75 million shares of common stock at $8.25 per share after closing at $8.64 yesterday and being north of $9.00 just two days ago.The size of this offering was increased from 7.25 million shares and it held up better than we might have guessed despite today’s drop. Shares are down by 4.5% at $8.25 and its 52-week range is $2.75 to $44.12. Before this offering, we show its market cap was around $300 million.

LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ: ERIC) is down 1% at $9.53, but the drop may be on the Barclays downgrade as this is a refinancing of a bilateral loan with the Swedish Export Credit Corporation and partially backed by the Swedish Export Credit Guarantee Board. It intends to use the proceeds of the offering to refinance bonds maturing within the current and next year and for general corporate purposes. We say the downgrade has more to do with this than anything.

Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (NYSE: MI) sold 87 million shares of common stock in a secondary offering at $5.75 per share. This is trading above the price of the offering but is off 2% at $6.00 this morning after closing at $6.14 yesterday. Its 52-week range is $2.98 to $29.97 and its market cap before this offering is listed as almost $1.6 billion.

Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE: VMC) is actually a standout stock from the group, odd considering the unusual dividend activity. Its shares are higher after pricing 11.5 million shares of common stock at $41.00 per share. Based on the trading, it is a safe bet that underwriters took the 1.725 million additional shares in the overallotment (Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, J.P.Morgan, and Wachovia). This was a deep discount, but the good news for Vulcan is that shares are up 7.5% at $45.90.

Jon C. Ogg
June 12, 2009

Posted in Secondary Offering, Trading Alert Tagged: AMP, ATPG, ERIC, MI, VMC

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (AMP, AAPL, DVAX, FCX, GMT, LNC, PCX, X)

247wallst — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:52:08 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades from Wall Street this Wednesday morning:

Ameriprise Financial (AMP) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
Apple (AAPL) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Dynavax (DVAX) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Freeport-McMoran (FCX) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
GATX (GMT) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Lincoln National (LNC) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
Patriot Coal (PCX) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
US Steel (X) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
October 22, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, AMP, DVAX, FCX, GMT, LNC, PCX, X

Berkshire Hathaway Dumps Ameriprise (AMP, BRK.A, BRK.B)

247wallst — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:56:12 +0000

Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE: AMP) was the stand out stock in Warren Buffett’s holdings today. Beakshire Hathaway inc. (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) held some 661,742 shares and listed as worth some $36.4 million back at the end of 2007. NO MORE….

Ameriprise was not in the holdings listed. today. It was really a small position anyhow.

Jon C. Ogg
May 15, 2008

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Holdings A-G (BRK-A, BRK-B, AXP, AMP, BUD, BNI, KMX, KO, CMCSA, CDO, COP, COST, GCI, GSK)

247wallst — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:56:50 +0000

These are the new combined holdings (alphabetically A-G) from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) for the period ended December 31, 2007:

American Express (NYSE: AXP) 151.6 million shares for a value of more than $7.8 Billion.
Ameriprise (NYSE: AMP) 661,742 shares listed as worth some $36.4 million, why even bother…
Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) 35.56 million shares totaling some $1.87 Billion.
Burlington-Northern-Santa Fe NYSE: BNI) 60.828 million shares worth some $5.06 Billion.
Carmax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) 21 million shares worth some $414.7 million.
Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) 200 million shares for some $12.27 Billion.
Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) 12 million shares for some $217.4 million.
Comdisco (NYSE: CDO) 1.53 million shares for some $14 million, why even bother….

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) 17.5 million shares for some $1.546 Billion.
CosctCo Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) 5,254,000 million shares for some $366 million.
Gannett (NYSE: GCI) 3,447,600 shares for some $134.45 million.
General Electric (NYSE: GE) 7.777 million shares for some $288.3 million.
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) 1.51 million shares for $76.1 million.

Buffett’s Full List of holdings alphabetically H-P
Buffett’s Full List of holdings alphabetically S-Z

Jon C. Ogg
February 14, 2008