The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 168 points to 13,038.04 (-1.28%), the NASDAQ fell nearly 68 points (-2.25%) to 2,956.34, and the S&P 500 fell -1.62% or more than 22 points to 1,369.09.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) target price raised to $140 at Susquehanna; FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) raised to ‘strong buy’ at Raymond James; The Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) raised to ‘overweight’ at Barclays; Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) started as ‘outperform’ at BMO; and Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS) reiterated ‘buy’ and target price of $14 at Argus.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is down -6% at $16.98 after posting a new 52-week low of $16.80 earlier today (more solar coverage here); SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) is down -2.1% at $5.58; AES Corp. (NYSE: AES) is down -0.7% at $12.13 (more utilities coverage here); Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) is up 0.9% at $21.60; Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) is down -5.8% at $60.44 (more coverage here); The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) is down -5.4% at $355.88; Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) is down -0.7% at $38.54; and The Madison Square Garden Co. (NASDAQ: MSG) is up 3.7% at $37.87 after posting a new 52-week high of $38.38..

On Monday we get earnings from American States Water Co. (NYSE: AWR), Breitburn Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BBEP), Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH), Louisiana Pacific Corp. (NYSE: LPX), Kid Brands Inc. (NYSE: KID), Jinkosolar Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JKS), and Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: BAGL) is up 19.9% at $16.84 after posting a new 52-week high of $17.68 earlier today. The bagel maker and restaurateur reported strong earnings and said it would begin to explore strategic options.

Dolby Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: DLB) is up 17.5% at $44.22. The company reported strong earnings and has signed a deal with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). More coverage here.

Body Central Corp. (NASDAQ: BODY) is down -47.8% at $15.11. The young women’s apparel seller reported poor earnings and forecast more of the same until at least back-to-school season.

Stay tuned for Monday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 11:30 a.m. – 3- and 6- month bill auction
• 3:00 p.m. – Consumer credit report

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Paul Ausick

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 3 points to12,977.57 (-0.02%), the NASDAQ fell nearly 13 points -0.43%) to 2,976.19, and the S&P 500 fell -0.32% or nearly 4.5 points to 1,369.63.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Travelers Companies (NYSE: TRV) cut to ‘equal weight’ at Morgan Stanley; Lowe’s Companies (NYSE: LOW) raised to ‘equal weight’ at Morgan Stanley; Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI) raised to ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse; MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) maintained as ‘buy’ with $15 target price at Argus; and Monster Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: MWW) cut to ‘neutral’ at UBS.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) is down -4.2% at $42.61; Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO) is up 4.2% at $73.58 after posting a new 52-week high of $74.89 earlier today; Biofuel Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: BIOF) is up 5.5% at $0.76; and Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Inc. (NASDAQ: BAGL) is up 3.6% at $14.99.

Here’s our preview of next week’s earnings announcements.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) is up nearly 64% at $24.55 following its IPO at $15/share this morning. Move coverage here.

Shutterfly Inc. (NASDAQ: SFLY) is up 16% at $31.22. The social networking company has struck a deal with Eastman Kodak Co. (EKDKQ) to provide a stalking-horse bid for some of Kodak’s assets. More coverage here.

Vringo Inc. (AMEX: VRNG) is up more than 13% at $1.63. The social network app maker is probably getting a bump from the success of Yelp’s IPO.

U.S. Auto Parts Network Inc. (NASDAQ: PRTS) is down more than -19% at $4.00. The retail parts auto parts distributor missed consensus estimates last night.

Overstock.com Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK) is down more than -11% at $6.11 after posting a new 52-week low of $5.89 earlier this morning. The online discounter posted an unexpectedly quarterly loss this morning.

Stay tuned for Monday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 10:00 a.m. – Factory orders
• 10:00 a.m. – ISM non-manufacturing index
• 11:30 a.m. – 3- and 6-month Treasury bill auction

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Have a great weekend!

Paul Ausick

It is widely believed that McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is the king of the food sector when it comes to being defensive because of its product mix and because of its high dividend.  There are actually many other restaurant chains, some fast food and some casual dining to upscale dining, that offer close to the same sort of dividend for investors.

Our dividend screen identified the shares of six companies.  Among these companies, the highest dividend is almost 3.5%.  The lowest yielding restaurant company pays a dividend exceeding 1.8%.  Returns of equity (ROE) range from an attractive 16.7% to an eye-catching high exceeding 83%.  Except where otherwise noted, the source for all performance and financial data is Finviz.com.

Listed in alphabetical order of their ticker symbols the six restaurant chains are: Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: DRI), Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc. (NASDAQ: PFCB), Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), and Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: BAGL).

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: DRI) pays a 2.7% dividend with an earnings to dividend payout ratio of 36.7%. The company’s return of equity (ROE) is an attractive 24%. Its forward PE of 12.3 is the lowest among these six restaurant chains.  In Thursday trading, Darden’s shares closed at $46.86, down 0.32%.  Its 52-week price range is $36.27 to $52.12.   Red Lobster and Olive Garden are two of the brands here that have helped lead the charge.

Brinker International Inc.  (NYSE: EAT) pays a 2.4% dividend with an earnings payout ratio of 35.1%.  Its forward PE is 13.1 and its ROE is nearly 25%.   Brinker International shares closed at $23.20 on Thursday, down 0.56%. Its 52-week range is $13.69 to $25.96. Having Chili’s and Maggiano’s pays off and there appears to be enough earnings power here for that dividend to go higher.

• Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM) cut to Neutral at HSBC Securities.
• Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) cut to Sell at Citigroup.
• Einstein Noah (NASDAQ: BAGL) raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.
• Jefferies Group (NYSE: JEF) cut to Neutral at Wachovia.
• Macrovision (NASDAQ: MVSN) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Neustar (NYSE: NSR) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Orbitz (NYSE: OWW) cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Tenaris (NYSE: TS) cut to Hold at Citigroup.
• Wachovia (NYSE: WB) raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW) cut to Sell at Stifel Nicolaus.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Jon C. Ogg
July 18, 2007

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

1) THE ROLLER-COASTER MARKET
Thanks a lot Bill Gross.  You’re sounding more like Greenspan now that you have him on your advisory board at PIMCO.  Depending on how you look atthe sell-off, Gross either was an exacerbation or just noise.  The market recovered late Friday on rumors that US Steel (X) was in-play.  Technicians had an identity crisis because today should have needed a big gap down before the "Ah-Ha Epiphany."  If you are a bull, a chicken-bull, or a real bear, we came up with a revised list of stocks to look at depending on your flavor.

2) FOUR NEW TECH PICKS, LIKE YOU DIDN’T KNOW THEM
Cramer actually came out with a NEW FOUR HORSEMEN OF TECHNOLOGY, albeit this could have been done much sooner and Amazon.com (AMZN) was the only one that was a bit of a surprise.

3) MERGERS & PRESSURES 
Biomet (BMET) is done, deal accepted. Bye-bye.  TD AMERITRADE (AMTD) needs to tell S.A.C. & JANA Partners to take their shares and put them somewhere else.  The FTC is actually trying to stop Whole Foods (WFMI) from buying Wild Oats (OATS), amazingly enough a deal is under scrutiny.  Amgen (AMGN) tries diversifying via acquisition, but at what cost?

4) TWO BEST CULT STOCKS WITH MAJOR NEWS
CMGI, Inc. (CMGI) took a bit of a hammering this week after earnings.  If you believed it in it before earnings, then nothing has really changed and the glass may be more half-full than half-empty.  Dendreon (DNDN) priced its $75 million offering.  Since their back was against the wall and they really needed money, the terms that could have been much more expensive actually look like they got the cash for close to nothing.

5) KEY OFFERINGS
Limelight Networks (LLNW) came public, priced more share at a higher price, and still went up almost 50% on the debut date. Einstein Noah (BAGL)…it’s back, no more NWRG-PINKSHEET ticker  It wasn’t an IPO, but sort of a Re-PO.  This one will be interesting.  SIRIUS Satellite Radio (SIRI) received a $250 million term loan

6) OPEC CRIES WOLF
OPEC actually threatened that it would stop spending money for new technology and on exploration if we keep pushing for more and more biofuels.  Sounds to me like they are feeling pinched.  Oddly enough, ethanol names were looking horrible yesterday.

7) RETAIL IS SOFT, BUT SOME WINNERS
There were actually some winners in retail.  If Bed Bath & eyond (BBBY) had to stupe down to an earnings warning, you knew it was going to be a messy retail report since its buyers are supposed to be insulated from soft economics.

Have a great weekend!

Jon C. Ogg
June 8, 2007

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

The proceeds arefor restructuring and for debt repayment.  Morgan Stanley and Cowen & Co. are acting as joint book-runners on the deal, with Piper Jaffray listed as co-manager.  This one has been in the works for some time, so it will be interesting to see the full outcome.

The $90 million sold was about $10 million short of original expectations per its filing.

The original terms were for 5 million shares at a $19.00 to $21.00 range.  Here is a full summary ahead of the offering.   Earlier this week the company showed an SEC filing where its May 2007 comparable store sales "for company-owned restaurants" increased 5.8% compared to May 2006.

Jon C. Ogg
June 8, 2007

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

New World Restaurant Group, Inc. (NWRG-PINKSHEET) is back to the old Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. name and will trade under the ticker "BAGL" on NASDAQ after this awaited securities sale next week.  As a reminder, all of these security sales are subject to change.  The company has had an active filing and as of today looks like the sale date is for a late-week offering assuming no changes are made.

Einstein as of now is selling 5 million shares at an estimated $19.00 to $21.00 range in what should amount a roughly $100 million stock offering.  This will get it back into NASDAQ compliance and off the deathly Pink Sheets where most investors fear to tread.  Shares closed today at $19.25, if you count a total of 1,870 shares as a real trade.

This is not a simple deal, so be sure to read what we are noting on this and be sure to read through the prospectus link on your own if you are interested in this offering.  Anyone with an "investor’s memory" may recall that the company never went under as far as an operation, but it was definitely an investor flame-out the first time around. We look for special situation investments such as back-door plays into IPO’s or recapitalizations, and this is truly a unique offering in that this one is a bit of both. 

The company also will have what should be some instant brokerage firm coverage after the offering as well because the joint book-runners are Morgan Stanley and Cowen & Co, and the co-manager is Piper Jaffray.  Based on the diluted share percentages and a mid-point price range, this one should have an implied market cap of roughly $313 million. 

What investors need to know is that is and still will be essentiallycontrolled by Greenlight Capital LLC, a New York-based value andalternative investment firm.  As of May 9, 2007 Greenlight held 94% ofthe outstanding stock, and after the offering and a subsequent $25million debt repayment Greenlight will hold 64% of the outstandingstock.  Greenlight became the majority stockholder in September 2003 inconnection with New Worlds’s equity restructuring, acquiring beneficialownership of approximately 97% of the outstanding common stock. In June2006, Greenlight acquired additional shares of common stock through theexercise of warrants. Greenlight is not selling any of its shares ofour common stock in this offering, although it will be facing obviousdilution if you count 64% ownership and an instant ramp up in valuationdilution.

So, what are ‘new’ investors going to see out of the company? 2006revenues were $389.6 million and that has been a fairly stagnant numberthrough the last 5 years if you average the sales out.  2006 posted a$12 million loss, but it claims a $1.13 million profit in this lastquarter.  Its credit facility is going to be cheaper after the offeringand they will be clearing up that $25 million debt with Greenlight.The last quarter EBITDA was also $9.1 million.

Investors should know that same-store-sales look not as robust in therecent quarter, although that may be seasonal or from a variety offactors.  Same-store-sales grew 5.2% in 2005 after two consecutiveyears of negative s-s-s; 2006 saw 4.5% gain in s-s-s, but the April2006 quarter showed 6.2% s-s-s gains.  This April quarter in 2007 sawonly a 1% s-s-s gain.  It also has 597 restaurants at the end of thelast April period, compared to 621 units at the end of the April 2006quarter and compared to 598 units at the end of 2006.  The main drop inunits comes from company-owned stores, so it looks like this is thecompany closing down less fruitful locations or perhaps not renewingleases.

There is also a degree of leverage here as it ended last quarter with$5.1 million in cash.  At April 3, 2007 it carried $170.2 million interm loans with a $57 million mandatorily redeemable preferred stockdue on June 30, 2009 (effective 2-years out).  Based on watching theserecapitalizations over and over for years, if you buy this one you needto just automatically expect that the company will probably try toeither sell more shares or will take on debt to repay debt.  That’s notmeant as a kiss of death, but worth noting.  It also has 31% of itscompany units owned by either franchisees or licensees.  If you searchthe BizBuySell.com data base and type in the search term "Bagel" youwill find many "bagel shops" for sale; some ‘may’ be Einstein Bros. butusually they do not list the names.  You would have to call eachbusiness broker and fill out confidentiality agreements and makefinancial disclosures to find out about each one.

The company is going to repay the $25 million note to Greenlight andwill repay a $65 million credit facility to replace it with a $90million new facility under more favorable terms.  It is also planningto open more locations with the proceeds and there are some covenantswhere it is to use 50% of excess free cash flow to pay this down,subject to a $5 million cash and equivalent maintenance on its balancesheet.  So unless the company sells additional shares down the road itis going to maintain low cash positions and will have a leveragedbalance sheet.

Einstein’s current base of company-owned restaurants under includes 336Einstein Bros. restaurants and 74 Noah’s restaurants. Also, it hasfranchises of 79 Manhattan Bagel restaurants and license/franchise 97Einstein Bros. restaurants and three Noah’s restaurants. In addition,it has eight restaurants operated under its non-core brands.  It isplanning to open 11 to 15 new company-owned restaurants in 2007:Einstein’s in Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and in variousFlorida locations.  It is also looking at more Noah’s locations afteropening one in Portland, Oregon.

So, you have been shown the risks here and those need to always beconsidered.  It is going to be a leveraged company compared to manyothers such as a Panera Bread (PNRA-NASDAQ).  But all in all and allrisks aside, you can be pretty sure that this one is going to grab alot of attention.  That doesn’t mean it will go straight up of course,but this is one of the more interesting recapitalizations out there.The Pink Sheet NWRG has been a highly illiquid stock that some dayssees no trading volume and it has doubled in price over the last twomonths.  That will come to an end after this financing because therewill be many traders looking at the name.

There should also be considered some leeway to this $19.00 to $21.00range because of the fact that the NWRG stock is much lower.  Investorsshould also caution against thinking there is an instant arbitrage playhere, because these recapitalizations are never as straight forward asinvestors would hope.  This one should be coming out quite soon, sokeep "NWRG" and "BAGL" on your trading radars.

Jon C. Ogg
June 1, 2007

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

Maybe the restaurant chain didn’t die, but the stock might as well have until now.  New World Restaurant Group, Inc. (NWRG-PINKSHEET) is back to the old Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. name and will trade under the ticker "BAGL" on NASDAQ after this upcoming securities sale.  This has been in the works for some time via SEC filings (April 10 original filing date), but today the company set some terms for an offering.  Einstein is selling 5 million shares at an estimated $19.00 to $21.00 range in what should amount a roughly $100 million stock offering.  This will get it back into NASDAQ compliance and off the deathly Pink Sheets where most investors fear to tread.

This is not a simple deal, so be sure to read what we are noting on this and be sure to read through the prospectus link on your own if you are interested in this offering.  Anyone with an “investor’s memory” may recall that the company never went under as far as an operation, but it was definitely an investor flame-out the first time around. We look for special situation investments such as back-door plays into IPO’s or recapitalizations, and this is truly a unique offering in that this one is a bit of both. 

We will be posting more on this offering on Monday, so stay tuned.  This entire full note with more detail and analysis went out to our free email subscriber list.  If you wish to sign up for that list you can do so on the website yourself or you can send an email to jonogg@247wallst.com with your name and email and label it "Subscribe" in the title.

Further on in this we have identified the financials, the brokers who will cover it, the risks, the outlook, the financials, the growth plans, the ownership, control stakes, the debt and financial covenants, and more.  We will also be conducting some spot location reviews similar to what we did on Stabucks (SBUX-NASDAQ) in different geographic locations and noted a brief similarity to Panera Bread (PNRA-NASDAQ).  NWRG/BAGL is a far different entity than the others and will definitely not be the sort of stock for every single investor out there.

Have a great weekend.

Jon C. Ogg
May 18, 2007

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