Reuters: The Nielsen survey shows consumer confidence up in the US for the first time since 2007.
Reuters: Obama’s financial reforms are advancing in Congress.
Reuters: The pay czar said his authority should not be expanded.
Reuters: Obama’s “too big to fail” bill would curb bailouts. Read More
After the close on Monday came a little-known IPO filing from a life insurance operation called Symetra Financial Corp. It turns out that the Bellevue, Washington-based insurer has no terms for the sale but listed a sale of up to $575 million in the initial public offering filing. This is not the first attempt to come public, but it turns out that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) and White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. (NYSE: WTM) effectively control the company.
Read More
These are the top ten analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen from Wall Street firms early this Monday morning:
Allergan (AGN) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Burger King (BKC) Cut to Neutral at JP Morgan.
Franklin Resources (BEN) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Gap (GPS) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Genzyme (GENZ) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Huron (HURN) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank; Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer; Cut to Underperform at Baird.
3M (MMM) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Sovran Self Storage (SSS) Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
Wendy’s (WEN) Raised to Buy at UBS.
United Therapeutics (UTHR) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Jon C. Ogg
August 3, 2009
These are the top analyst upgrades and positive research calls from Wall Street this Monday morning with about two hours until the market opens:
Franklin Resources (BEN) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
KLA-Tencor (KLAC), Novellus Systems (NVLS) and Lam Research (LRCX) were all three Raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Nordstrom (JWN) Raised to Neutral and off Conviction Sell List at Goldman Sachs.
Oshkosh (OSK) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.
Seagate Tech (STX) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill.
Western Digital (WDC) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill.
Sprint (S) Raised to Buy at Auriga.
JON C. OGG
These are the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street firms early this Thursday morning with more than two hours until the market opens:
Finish Line (FINL) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
FMC Technologies (FTI) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
Foot Locker (FL) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Franklin Resources (BEN) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Goldman Sachs (GS) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
KeyCorp (KEY) Raised to TopPick at RBC.
NASDAQ (NDAQ) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Nokia (NOK) Started as Outperform at Baird.
NRG Energy (NRG) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Vimpel Communications (VIP) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
JON C. OGG
These are some of the top pre-market analyst calls with upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street firms this Thursday morning with more than two hours until the market opens:
AutoDesk (ADSK) Started as Neutral at Janney Montgomery Scott.
Avery Dennison (AVY) Started as Underperform at Baird.
Caterpillar (CAT) Cut to Sell at UBS.
Discover Financial (DFS) Started as Outperform at FBR.
FEI Co. (FEIC) Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Franklin Resources (BEN) Started as Outperform at Wachovia.
Nordstrom (JWN) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Parametric Technology (PMTC) Started as Buy at Janney Montgomery Scott.
Schlumberger (SLB) Started as Neutral at HSBC.
Veeco Instruments (VECO) Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
JON C. OGG
These are the early bird analyst calls from Wall Street that we have seen early this Wednesday morning with about 3 hours until the market opens:
JON C. OGG
These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and negative calls we have seen from Wall Street this Thursday morning with about two hours until the open:
JON C. OGG
Being in the mutual fund and institutional money management business is almost as bad as being in commercial banking. Several companies in the industry have lost half of their assets between redemptions and the falling value of portfolios which have dropped with the market.
If the market continues to fall some of the public companies in the fund business will begin to lose large amounts of money. Their portfolio management, back office, marketing, trading, and administration costs can only be chopped by so much.
Based on their share prices, two fund companies are doing much worse than their peers. Shares in Alliance Bernstein (AB) and Janus (JNS) are trading off almost 70% over the last year.
These are not all of the research calls affecting shares of stock, but these are some we have our eyes on this Monday:
Jon C. Ogg
September 22, 2008
There were more downgrades in financial stocks, but these were the larger names that saw estimates or ratings cut by analysts this morning:
Jon C. Ogg
September 10, 2008
A fed filing today from FRANKLIN RESOURCES INC. (NYSE: BEN) indicates that Chairman of the Board Charles Johnson sold 400,000 on June 13 in two transactions at $104.78. The value of the transaction before fees was $41.912 million.
Normally this might show up as a huge flag because of the size, but after looking further at that filing he still holds more than 35.4 million shares in direct ownership and holds more than 9 million more in his IRA, 401K, and in spouse’s Trust.
Franklin Resources has a market cap north of $25 Billion and trades over 1.8 million shares on an average daily volume.
Jon C. Ogg
June 16, 2008
These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Thursday morning:
Jon C. Ogg
June 12, 2008
There was some interesting news over at Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN) today. The company manages the Templeton Dragon Fund, Inc. (NYSE:TDF), a closed-end mutual fund run by legendary emerging market investment manager Mark Mobius which invests at least 45% of its total assets in Chinese equities.
The fund announced today that the votes at the Fund’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders held on May 30, 2008 have been tallied. Shareholders approves the election of directors, but the voted down a shareholder proposal to consider approving and submitting for shareholder approval at a future shareholder meeting a proposal to convert the closed-end status of the fund to an open-end fund.
The Fund currently has total assets in excess of $1.2 billion, and while that is big in size it is small compared to Franklin Templeton’s $617+ Billion in assets under management as of April 30, 2008. It won’t have any impact at all on franklin Resources, but this will at least in theory keep one more fund from raising several billion that could have run up more Chinese shares. It also allows the fund managers to work within size constraints without having to make investment decisions based largely upon inflows and redemptions.
Jon C. Ogg
June 2, 2008
These are not all of the analyst calls affecting shares, but these are the initial calls we are focusing on early this Friday morning:
Jon C. Ogg
April 18, 2008
Jon Ogg is a producer and editor of the Special Situation newsletter and the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247Wallst.com.
Goldman Sachs has issued a call on its asset manager universe, and says it’s time to go on the offensive. Its rating on the group is now attractive. The bulge bracket brokerage leader has also made some key calls in the financial sector this morning.
In the call it has raised the following to Buy from Neutral:
There were actually some downgrades as well, with the following downgraded to Neutral from Buy:
It has maintained a Neutral rating on NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ), although it raised estimates by $0.10 for both 2008 and 2009.
Jon C. Ogg
April 8, 2008
Late Friday there was an interesting form "RW" filed with the SEC for a "withdrawn securities registration." There was an original filing to bring Templeton Russia/Eurasia Fund public via an initial public offering in what was probably a closed-end mutual fund.
What is odd is not the withdrawal of a closed-end fund. It is the date: originally filed with the Commission on October 6, 1997. As per the filing:
Before this was filed, Templeton had already brought its Templeton Russia and East European Fund Inc. (NYSE: TRF) public in 1995 and that may have been the first investment vehicle that gave liquid trading possibilities for U.S. investors to invest in Russia (and Eastern Europe). It had also brought its Templeton Dragon Fund Inc. (NYSE: TDF) public in 1994 as one of the first vehicles that allowed U.S. investors a chance to invest in Chinese companies.
All of these closed-end funds are run by Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN), which now operates as Franklin Templeton Investments. These funds also fall under the umbrella of Mark Mobius, who is considered one of the modern fathers of emerging market investing and who was given credit for saying, "invest when there is blood in the streets."
This other fund looks like it was probably filed on the heels of the successful launch of these other two investment vehicles. There may have been worries that there would be too much overlap in the structure or allocation of these funds. Or it could have been the other classic reasoning: the paperwork got lost or forgotten about.
You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other mergers, private equity, secondaries, IPO’s and more.
Jon C. Ogg
April 6, 2008
Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he can be reached via email at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
Goldman Sachs has lowered estimates on many financial services players this morning:
Jon C. Ogg
January 10, 2008
ABK cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
ADVNA cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
BBY started as Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
BEN cut to Mkt PErform at FBR.
BG cut to Neutral at HSBC.
CC started as Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
CPS cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
ELX cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
ETEL cut to Mkt Perform at JMP Securities.
EXBD raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
FADV cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
FVE raised to Buy at Jefferies.
GIS raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
HES raised to Buy at B of A.
KND raised to Buy at Jefferies.
LVLT cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
LTM cut to Mkt Perform at Piper Jaffray.
MBI cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
NILE raised to Hold at Citigroup.
ORCC cut to Sector Perform at CIBC.
PENN cut to Hold at Jefferies.
POWI cut to Hold at Citigroup.
RRI started as outperform at Wachovia.
SE started as Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
STD raised to Buy at Citigroup.
STLD cut to Neutral at UBS.
TRID too 3 downgrades: Jefferies, Deutsche Bank, and Oppenheimer.
TSM raised to Overweight at HSBC.
USU started as Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
WCG raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Jon C. Ogg
October 26, 2007
AAP raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
ALDN cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
ALY started as Outperform at Wachovia.
BEBE cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
BEN cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
BHP raised to Buy at Citigroup.
CPO started as Buy at BB&T.
CRZO started as Buy at Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey.
FIF raised to Outperform at Piper Jaffray.
HAS cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
JNPR cut to Neutral at UBS.
OCNF started as Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald.
OHI started as Neutral at UBS.
OPWV cut to Underweight at JPMorgan; cut to Underperform at CIBC.
ORBC started as Mkt Perform at Piper Jaffray.
REG started as Neutral at Baird.
SFLY started as Strong Buy at JMP Securities.
SWIR raised to Outperform at CIBC.
SLR raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
TELK cut to Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
TRMP cut to Underperform at Bear Stearns.
WRI started as Outperform at Baird.
XEC cut to Neutral at UBS.
Jon C. Ogg
June 5, 2007
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