24/7 Wall St. » AOC

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (AOC, BAC, CR, DOV, FSLR, HPT, MMM, MMC, MA, SPWRA, TROW, V, WU)

247wallst — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:55:33 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades we are seeing in early hours of pre-market trading this Tuesday morning:

AON Corp. (AOC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs
Bank Of America (BAC) Raised to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James
Crane Co. (CR) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs
Dover Corp. (DOV) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs
First Solar (FSLR) Raised to Market Perform at FBR
Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia
3M (MMM) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs
Marsh & McLennan (MMC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs
MasterCard (MA) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan
SunPower Corp. (SPWRA) Raised to Market Perform at FBR
T. Rowe Price (TROW) Raised to Market Perform at KBW
Visa Inc. (V) Raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray
Visa (V) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan
Western Union (WU) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan

Jon C. Ogg
October 14, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AOC, BAC, CR, DOV, FSLR, HPT, MA, MMC, MMM, SPWRA, TROW, V, WU

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AOC, AVAV, CMED, CC, DKS, FCX, INTC, MNI, ODP, DGX)

247wallst — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:11:36 +0000

These aren’t the only analyst calls out there today, but these are the TOP 10 research notes that 24/7 Wall St. is looking at:

Aon Corp. (AOC) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs
Aerovironment (AVAV) started as Buy at Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey.
China Medtech (CMED) started as Outperform at Bear Stearns.
Circuit City (CC) cut to Neutral from Overweight at J.P.Morgan….this actually goes down as the most worthless research call of the week (and maybe this month) as they have had an Outperform rating since December 21, 2006 when shares were over $19.00…congratulations!
Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) removed from Goldman Sachs Conviction Buy List.
Intel (INTC) started as Neutral at Robert W. Baird.
McClatchy (MNI) started as Underperform at Bear Stearns.
Office Depot (ODP) raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse; downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns.
Quest Diagnostics (DGX) started as Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
November 21, 2007

Big List of Private Equity Targets in Financial Services

247wallst — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:32:00 +0000

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.

PROCESSING: Fidelity National Information Services (FIS); FairIsaac (FIC); ChoicePoint (CPS). On a side note, Total SystemsSolutions (TSS) is Jim Cramer’s pick in the sub-sector. RATINGS: Moody’s (MCO). INSURANCE BROKERS (P&C): Marsh and McClennan (MMC), AON Corp. (AOC). INSURANCE: AFLAC (AFL), Conseco (CNO), and American Safety (ASI). MONEY MANAGEMENT: Legg Mason (LM), Janus Capital (JNS), Waddell & Reed (WDR), Federated Investors (FII), National Financial (NFP). LOANS, STUDENT LOAN: Nelnet (NNI).

We have our own list of targets in this financial services sector for our newsletter subscribers. Some of these companies make sense, and there are many others elsewhere in overlapping segments in financial services that may actually make more sense.

Jon C. Ogg
May 31, 2007

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