24/7 Wall St. » BIDU

Did Baidu Earnings Confusion Cause Exponential Options Trading Volume? (BIDU)

Administrator — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:57:54 +0000

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) has seen quite a bit of stock options trading today, and it was a day in which stock trading was more active than normal as well. We do not have the final figures in yet for total contracts versus historical volume but the options trading volume was more skewed to CALLS over PUTS and much was in the shorter dated expirations. Most was in February and in the weeklies rather than the March options, although a glance at the March options showed more than 15,000 CALLS and the $135 and $140 strike prices for March had more volume today than there were contracts in the open interest. For February, we tallied up more than 70,000 CALLS with six of the strike prices having traded more contracts than the entire float.

Many investors believed that the company’s earnings report was going to be today but we do not yet have any formal date for its earnings release.

Is it possible that today’s trading bump in CALL and PUT options was simply a calendar mistake? This seems odd, but in today’s world and with the way reporting has been out of China the best rule is to not be surprised by anything there any longer.

Baidu’s stock (or ADR) closed down 0.5% at $130.73 and its 52-week trading range is $100.95 to $165.96.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, ADR, China, Internet, Options, Trading Alert Tagged: BIDU

Expected Share Price Gains on Some Internet Stocks (GOOG, YHOO, AOL, LNKD, MWW, DMD, RATE, TST, BIDU)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:43:45 +0000

Over the past month, a number of internet stocks have received new target prices from analysts. We’ve seen five targets rise: Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), LinkedIn Corp. (NASDAQ: LNKD), AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL), Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), and Bankrate Inc. (NASDAQ: RATE). Two have seen target prices drop: Demand Media, Inc. (NYSE: DMD) and Monster Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: MWW). Two others that we keep an eye on, Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and TheStreet Inc. (NASDAQ: TST) have remain unchanged.

It’s no surprise that Yahoo’s target price hasn’t changed, given the maelstrom surrounding the company and its bevy of potential suitors. TheStreet’s dividend yield, currently 6.3%, virtually guarantees investor satisfaction, even though the share price is down more than -9% in the past month.

Among those with higher target prices, Google’s median target price rose to $730.00, up just slightly from its previous level of $727.50, and LinkedIn’s median target price rose $4.00, from $88.00 to $92.00. In the past month, Google’s share price is off less than -1%, while LinkedIn’s has fallen -35%. The potential upside on Google stock is 25.1% and the potential upside on LinkedIn is 59.8%.

LinkedIn’s share price suffered from the end of the lock-up period that prevented insiders from selling shares. Another batch of locked up shares are due to be released in February, and there won’t be much improvement in LinkedIn’s share price until that date is passed.

AOL’s median target price has risen $1.00, from $17.00 to $18.00, and Baidu’s target has gone up from $191.00 to $192.40. Current share prices for both are lower compared with a month ago, and the implied upside on AOL stock is 30.3% while the implied upside on Baidu is 52.9%. Bankrate’s target has risen from $21.50 to $22.00, and its share price is also up more than 9% in the past month. The potential upside on Bankrate shares is 21.2%.

Demand Media’s median target price fell from $15.00 to $12.00, although its current share price is 7.7% higher than a month ago. The potential upside in Demand Media’s shares is 72.7%. Monster Worldwide’s target price fell from $15.00 to $11.75, and its current share price is -22.1% lower than it was a month ago. The potential upside at Monster is 69.1%.

With the exception of TheStreet, none of these companies pays a dividend.

We explained a while ago why we think that Baidu is a better play than Google or even Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), and nothing but a few decimal points have changed since then. The company’s potential more than justifies its high upside.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Internet, Value Investing Tagged: AOL, BIDU, DMD, GOOG, LNKD, MWW, RATE, TST, YHOO

24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Calls of the Week (AVP, BBBY, FSLR, KND, NFLX, POT, RSH, RGLD, SIRI, S, TLAB, WFM, CSCO, BIDU)

Administrator — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 11:01:56 +0000

Each morning 24/7 Wall St. issues its list of some of the key analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms. We review these calls and other calls made throughout the week to see which stand out the most. Some are great calls that were greatly insightful. Other calls may be relevant well into the future, and some calls turn out to be total duds that were very painful for the analysts who made them (and the traders that listened). After reviewing and filtering all of these research reports, we end up with the top analyst calls of the week.

This weeks top analyst calls were in the following stocks: Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP); Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY); First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR); Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE: KND); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT); RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH); Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD); Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI); Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S); Tellabs Inc. (NASDAQ: TLAB); and Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM).

We have a runner up call in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and we also have a highlight on Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) despite some valuation concerns.

We have compiled the ratings news and relevant data around the reaction to each or around the implications on each. Color has also been provided if relevant on the name.

Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) had an awful post-earnings week due to a drop and due to an SEC investigation. On Friday came news that Citigroup was reiterating a “Buy” rating as the worst is likely price in. The problem is that Citi highlighted more negative than positive and it cut the target to $22 from $29 in the call. Around $19.00, that is not really enough upside even if the stock is now getting “cheap.” Avon was cut to “Neutral” by UBS on Friday.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) rarely pulls back very much, Shares were down over 3% on Friday because Morgan Stanley initiated coverage with a quite boring “Underweight” rating. Interesting considering that its client base never spends like there is a recession. On Wednesday Bed Bath & Beyond was reiterated at “Buy” and the target was raised to $70 at Argus.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) may have taken more downgrades after its CEO firing/resignation SNAFU, but at least one analyst is defending the position. Argus came out and lowered the price target to $90.00 but the firm is maintaining its “BUy” rating. This one has gotten so ugly that perhaps there is some value. We just hate trying to think about former high-flying stocks as “value” because it means things went really bad. Interestingly enough, shares bounced more than 20% from the lows of the week.

Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE: KND) may have been beaten up too much during the malaise around healthcare reimbursement rates. We would caution that earnings are due this coming Thursday (NOV 3). In July this was above $20.00 then the reimbursement rate woes came on at the time as a bad sell-off. Zacks has finally said enough is enough and named it the Value Stock of the Day this last Thursday as the research shop sees this trading well under ten-times next year’s earnings estimates.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Research, The Week Tagged: AVP, BBBY, BIDU, CSCO, FSLR, KND, NFLX, P, POT, RGLD, RSH, S, SIRI, TLAB, WFM

24/7 Closing Bell (AMD, FSLR, POT, PAAS, S, OXY, CVX, CSTR, MRK, BIDU, WY, IPG, SWC, ALGN, STMP, CPSI, CODE, DRIV)

Paul Ausick — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:04:59 +0000

Markets opened slightly lower this morning and spent the morning trying to decide on a direction. The Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index rose more than expected, but even that was not enough to charge up investors. In the early afternoon, advances were leading declines on the NYSE, while the status was just the reverse on NASDAQ. Both oil and gold prices were slightly lower after rising sharply yesterday. So far this month, markets are up a solid 13%.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly more than 21 points to 12,230.35 (0.18%), the NASDAQ fell about -1.5 points (-0.05%) to2,737.15, and the S&P 500 rose 0.03% or about 0.47 points to 1,285.06.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including a raise for Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) to ‘outperform’ at Wells Fargo. First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was maintained at ‘buy’ but the target price was cut to $90 at Argus; Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) cut to ‘sector perform’ at Scotia; Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) cut to ‘sector perform’ at CIBC; Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) raised to ‘outperform’ at Macquarie; and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) raised to ‘outperform’ with a new target price of $135 at Credit Suisse.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) is up 0.3%, at $109.99, two pennies short of a new 52-week high; Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) is down about -7.6%, at $48.91; Merck (NYSE: MRK) is up 2.3%, at $35.10; Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is up 4.33% (our coverage here), at $144.38; Weyerhaeuser Co. (NYSE: WY) is up 1.6%, at $18.23; and The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG) is up 11.6%, at $9.94 (our coverage here).

Several other standouts from today follow …

Stillwater Mining Co. (NYSE: SWC) is up more than 27%, at $12.65. The company beat earnings estimates this morning, and has reiterated its production estimates for platinum and palladium for 2011. Stillwater recycled 133,500 ounces of platinum, palladium, and rhodium in the third quarter, up 70% from the same period a year ago.

Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN) is up more than 34%, at $23.94. The company posted solid earnings for the third quarter and announced a $150 million stock buyback program. Align manufactures and sells Invisalign teeth straightening products.

Stamps.com Inc. (NASDAQ: STMP) is up more than 25%, at $32.48 — a new 52-week high — following an outstanding earnings report. Stamps.com raised its non-GAAP EPS estimate for the second time this year, to $1.20-$1.40. The company originally estimated non-GAAP EPS of $0.85-$1.05.

Computer Programs and Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CPSI) are down more than -28%, at $51.10. The company missed both revenue and EPS estimates for the quarter, and the fourth-quarter outlook is also weak. The company’s $1.44/share dividend takes some of the sting out of the poor results.

Spansion Inc. (NYSE: CODE) is down more than -25%, at $10.46, after posting a new 52-week lower earlier today of $9.17. The company released a weaker fourth-quarter forecast and announced the closure of its plant in Kuala Lumpur as part of its effort to cut costs.

Digital River Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV) is down more than -19%, at $18.52. The company’s third-quarter earnings were short of expectations and the fourth-quarter forecast was lowered.

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

9:45 a.m. — Chicago Purchasing Managers Index
3:00 p.m. — USDA farm prices

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Market Close Tagged: ALGN, AMD, BIDU, CODE, CPSI, CSTR, CVX, DRIV, FSLR, IPG, MRK, OXY, PAAS, POT, S, STMP, SWC, WY

Baidu, Better For Now Than Apple & Google Combined (BIDU, AAPL, GOOG)

Administrator — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:55:58 +0000

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is proving that it was far too oversold during the September market tank. The company is surging after earnings and it needs to be noted that the ADR is still well under its 52-week that was put in above $160 in July. What is happening is that Baidu is proving it may still be better than Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) for upside and better than Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) as well.

After Baidu’s earnings report, it is not that Baidu is the best search engine but that westerners will think it is the only search engine in China. The results are being driven by strong ad sales and the company even noted that large customers were spending more than the company expected when the government was seeming to have the brakes on the growth engine of China. Profits rose 80% to $295 million, or $0.84 EPS. The revenue gain was 85% to more than $654.7 million.

Now that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is out of mainland China (search site Google.cn still redirects to Google.com.hk), Baidu is closing in on almost 76% market share of search versus close to 64% when Google was there in early 2010. Baidu has launched many new services recently as it seeks to diversify itself from only search, but the company still is far more focused on web properties than Google has been. Does that make it “better than Google?” It all depends upon whom you ask.

As far as why Baidu is better than Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) that is simple… we named Baidu as one of thirteen tech stocks with more upside than Apple. At the time, its upside was 42% but its ADR was trading closer to $132 versus $144 today. We still have an implied upside of 30% for Baidu versus about 24% today for Apple.

Are there some concerns? Sure. We have always had “value” issues with Baidu. Baidu is a China-only play for the most part. Google is now more than half-international in sales and still growing on that front. We saw guidance for Q4 revenue was almost 85% from the fourth quarter of 2010, but that pace cannot be sustained ahead even in the great market that China is. Thomson Reuters sees just over 50% revenue growth in 2012 versus about 80% in 2011. Baidu also trades at about 32-times expected 2012 earnings versus just over 13.5-times for Google and versus almost 12-times for Apple. Baidu is also worth $50 billion in market capitalization, so a 30% upside would imply a $65 billion value and that would be just above yet another all-time high.

Apple is down 0.1% at $404.11 and Google is down 0.3% at $596.90, but Baidu is up 4% at $144.00. There are concerns and things to consider, but you can still argue that at least for today Baidu is better than Apple and Google.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: ADR, China, Earnings, International Markets, Internet Tagged: AAPL, BIDU, GOOG

Media Digest (10/28/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:16:31 +0000

Spain’s unemployment rate rose to 21.5% last quarter. (MarketWatch)

EU officials not expecting China to invest in the region’s bailout, despite reports to the contrary. (Reuters)

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) to keep its PC unit. (Reuters)

MF Global (NYSE: MF) loses clients because of reports of its poor performance. (Reuters)

Samsung smartphone sales move ahead of Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) and the Korean company says it expects a strong Q4. Samsung had 23.8% of the global smartphone market in the third quarter, 9 points higher than Apple. (Reuters)

Water use is growing faster than the world’s population, according to the World Resources Institute. (Reuters)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and potential bidders are at odds over a complex nondisclosure agreement. (Reuters)

Baidu’s (NASDAQ: BIDU) earnings rise sharply as search revenue in China climbs. The local search engine now has 80% of the market. (Reuters)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) sets up a surveillance system in India to help the government track BlackBerry use. (WSJ)

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) will not charge customers who use their debit cards for purchases. (WSJ)

Ahead of IPOs, the heads of Groupon and Zynga set up share systems that will give them more voting rights. (WSJ)

Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) may try to find a buyer. (WSJ)

Poor results put Avon’s (NYSE: AVP) CEO Andrea Jung under pressure. (WSJ)

The NYSE and Nasdaq increase their competition for IPO listings. (WSJ)

Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) is close to a deal to buy EMI. (WSJ)

Chrysler posts a $212 million quarterly profit. (WSJ)

A study by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire shows relocations in the U.S. have slowed. (NYT)

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) loses both voice and cable subscribers. (FT)

France may have to make more budget cuts to keep its AAA rating. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, AVP, BIDU, BRCD, HPQ, JPM, MF, RIMM, TWC, WMG, YHOO

Expected Price Gains for Internet Stocks (GOOG, YHOO, AOL, BIDU, DMD, LNKD, MWW, RATE, TST)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:54:08 +0000

As the internet has developed over the past 15 years or so, a variety of business models have appeared — and some have disappeared. Revenue models are also different, running from advertising to subscription to content provider types. The dominant revenue model is advertising and the leaders there are Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) in display advertising and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). AOL (NYSE: AOL) and China’s Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) are other major ad driven sites.

LinkedIn (NASDAQ: LNKD) and Monster World Wide (NYSE: MWW) depend on subscriptions for revenue, while Demand Media (NYSE: DMD), Bankrate (NYSE: RATE) and TheStreet (NASDAQ: TST) provide original content surrounded by advertising. In addition to these publicly traded stocks, the internet space also includes social networking company Facebook, social game company Zynga and coupon site Groupon. The latter two have filed for IPOs and both are expected to come public as soon as next month. All the following financial data comes from Yahoo! Finance, unless noted otherwise.

Google has a median target price of $727.50 from 30 brokers. Shortly after noon today, shares are trading at $587.87, for an implied gain of $139.63, or 24%. Google’s forward P/E is 13.45 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $473.02 to 642.96, and at today’s price that is about 24% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 9% below the 52-week high. Google reaps nearly $10 billion a quarter in advertising revenues. Only a relatively small portion of that is mobile advertising, but as Google’s best-selling Android mobile operating system continues to spread, the mobile ad revenue could continue its triple-digit growth rate for some time to come.

Yahoo! has a median target price of $18.00 from 23 brokers. Shortly after noon, shares are trading today at $16.33, for an implied gain of $1.67, or 10%. Yahoo!’s forward P/E is 18.55 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $11.09 to $18.84, and at today’s price that is about 47% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 13% below the 52-week high. Yahoo! recently fired its CEO and is currently exploring strategic options. Much of the company’s value resides in its nearly 40% share in China’s Alibaba e-commerce site. The stock price is relatively high on the belief that the company will find a buyer willing to pay a premium.

AOL has a median target price of $17.00 from 15 brokers. Shortly after noon today, shares are trading at $14.38, for an implied gain of $2.62, or 18%. AOL’s forward P/E is 84.65 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $10.06 to $27.65, and at today’s price that is about 43% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 48% below the 52-week high. AOL recently purchased the Huffington Post properties, which gave the company something of a boost. The high forward P/E speaks volumes about prospects for future earnings. AOL, like Yahoo!, probably is overpriced.

Baidu has a median target price of $191.00 from 26 brokers. Shortly after noon, shares are trading today at $127.89, for an implied gain of $63.11, or 49%. Baidu’s forward P/E is 29.11 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $94.33 to $165.96, and at today’s price that is about 36% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 23% below the 52-week high. Baidu’s great advantage is that it is the largest and fastest growing internet company in the world’s most populous country. Sheer numbers are on Baidu’s side for now and for several years to come. The forward P/E may indicate an overpriced stock, but its stock price is still nearly $35 per share below its target price. There’s plenty of room for this one to run.

Demand Media has a median target price of $15.00 from 10 brokers. Shortly after noon today, shares are trading at $6.47, for an implied gain of $8.53, or 132%. Demand Media’s forward P/E is 16.97 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $5.24 to $27.38, and at today’s price that is about 23% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 76% below the 52-week high. Demand Media was hit hard by a change earlier this year to Google’s search algorithm and the company has not recovered. The target price here is too high, and the company continues its arguable accounting practice of capitalizing content creation costs and amortizing them over five years. The effect of that practice is to spread costs over a long period, making the company look more profitable than it may be.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Internet Tagged: AOL, BIDU, DMD, GOOG, LNKD, MWW, RATE, TST, YHOO

24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades of the Prior Week (ALU, BIDU, CHTR, FSLR, F, NUE, STX, WMT, WFM, ZLC, WDC, AAPL)

Administrator — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:41:38 +0000

Each morning 24/7 Wall St. issued a list of some of the key analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms. At the end of the week we review these calls to see which ones stand out the most. Some are great calls that were greatly insightful, some are long-term and far-reaching in nature. Other calls may be relevant well into the future, and some calls manage to be just awful. After filtering these calls out, these become the top analyst calls of the week.

This weeks top analyst calls were in the following stocks: Alcatel-Lucent SA (NYSE: ALU); Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU); Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR); First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR); Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F); Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE); Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX);Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT); Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM); and Zale Corporation (NYSE: ZLC)

Alcatel-Lucent SA (NYSE: ALU) was previously the high-flying network and communications equipment stock of the year, but then it went to being the most butchered stock of all of its peers. We wonder if this downgrade last week that took the price target to $2.35 as the rating was cut to Underperform at Jefferies may have been the last bit of bad news to get out of the way. Jefferies doesn’t seem to think so.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is one of the companies which we had listed as being one to outperform Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) over the next year if the analysts were anywhere close to accurate on their price targets. Needless to say, it was a bit surprising to see that the rating was cut to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs when it seems as though China is seeing a soft landing rather than a hard landing.

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) is out of bankruptcy and is still sort of considered the laggard of the cable TV sector. Not to Credit Suisse. The firm initiated coverage with a rating of “Outperform” and it gave a $60.00 price target. That would get the stock only within $1.00 of its post-reorganization high and the consensus price target from Thomson Reuters appears to be above $66 on this one.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is becoming the whipping boy of Wall Street. Despite shares falling almost each and every week, its rating was cut last Monday to Hold from But by the research team at S&P Capital IQ.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) caught a corporate credit rating upgrade on Friday from Standard & Poor’s that takes Ford to one-notch under investment grade. The rating rose from “BB-” to “BB+” and that brings Ford closer and closer to being comfortable enough to resuming its quarterly dividend payments. Ford rose 4.7% on the news.

Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) may have finally found a level where the stock value equals the upside. The specialty steel player was Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo on Wednesday as shares were down more than 30% from the yearly high.

Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) rose well over 25% on Friday due to the woes of rival Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC) due to Thailand floods hurting production. Seagate was raised to Outperform at Baird and also raised to Buy at ThinkEquity on Friday ahead of the continued move higher.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is acting as though it wants to break out to the upside on the chart and go above the $55 ‘chart peak” to challenge $60.00 again. Coincidentally, last Wednesday it was named as the Growth & Income Stock of the Day by Zacks investment research. Maybe this time really is different.

Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM) is just about always an expensive stock and buying it on pullbacks has generally been a gift. One analyst thinks it is not so expensive, or at least thinks that the organic and high-end grocery destination is heading higher still. Shares were raised to Buy at Jefferies and the price target is $90.00 per share. That is $15 above the consensus price target.

Zale Corporation (NYSE: ZLC) is the jeweler that needs all the help it can get and it is far less actively covered than say Tiffany. Last week shares were raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch as the company has a new CFO and as the bank expects a turnaround to continue. Shares were under $3.00 early in the week and closed at $3.71 on Friday.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls, The Week Tagged: AAPL, ALU, BIDU, CHTR, F, FSLR, NUE, STX, WDC, WFM, WMT, ZLC

24/7 Closing Bell (BIDU, MON, T, CRUS, PLCM, PM, NOK, SCSS, RVBD, AMLN, CLWR, BWLD)

Paul Ausick — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:17:37 +0000

The market sure didn’t feel too great through much of the warning, but the day turned out a lot better than it was looking. Weekly jobless claims remained stubbornly above the 400,000 mark. The big surprise was a better-than-expected Philly Fed manufacturing report today and then also came the news that Greece somehow managed to pass another round of austerity measures. And to top it off, the Grim Reaper caught up with Moammar Gadhafi today and Libya can now work to build into whatever direction the new leadership wants to go in.The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly more than 37 points to 11,541.78, the NASDAQ fell more than 5 points (-0.21%) to 2598.62, and the S&P 500 rose 0.45% or more than 5 points to1,215.38.

We had many key analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including calls in shares of Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) and Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON). The retail sector did not follow the news, due to some fears that the holiday season is not going to be as strong as many expected. Speaking of analyst calls and projections, there are still some extremely lofty upside price targets out there in the automotive sector.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: (only show late-day percent change and price): AT&T (NYSE: T) down about -0.1% at $28.97, Cirrus Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) down nearly -17% at $14.21; Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) down -25%, at $16.46; Phillip Morris International, Inc. (NYSE: PM) up more than 4%, at $68.77; Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) up more than 6%, at $6.50; and Select Comfort Corporation (NASDAQ: SCSS) up more than 20%, at $19.38.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD jumped more than 9.5%, to $24.69, following a better than expected earnings report after markets closed last night.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) rose nearly 13%, to $11.56, after getting approval for wider use of its diabetes drug and posting a smaller than expected third-quarter loss.

Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) shares are up nearly 13% as well, to $1.57, probably as a result of indications that its spectrum licenses could get some competitive bids.

Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) is up nearly 7%, to $62.06, after reporting a 33% rise in income for the third quarter.

After a busy week of economic data, there are no major market moving economic reports due Friday morning. Look for Fed-head speeches on Friday from Kocherlakota, Fisher, and Yellen throughout the day. Most importantly, watch for more news out of Europe on just how much the Europeans are going to throw into their European Financial Stability Fund (Europe’s mini-me version of the TARP).

Paul Ausick

Filed under: General Tagged: AMLN, BIDU, BWLD, CLWR, CRUS, MON, NOK, PLCM, PM, RVBD, SCSS, T

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (BIDU, CYOU, CLB, CSX, EBAY, HLF, M, MON, PVH, PLCM, REG, WDC, WU, WYNN, YOKU)

Administrator — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:28:15 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Thursday morning.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Changyou.com Limited (NASDAQ: CYOU) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE: CLB) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) Maintained long-term outperform and near-term hold at Zacks; reiterated Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Herbalife (HLF: NYSE) Reiterated Buy at Canaccord Genuity.
Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
PVH Corp. (NYSE: PVH) named value stock of the day at Zacks.
Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray; Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
Regency Centers Corporation (NYSE: REG) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Western Union (NYSE: WU) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Reiterated Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Youku.com Inc. (NYSE: YOKU) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BIDU, CLB, CSX, CYOU, EBAY, HLF, M, MON, PLCM, PVH, REG, WDC, WU, WYNN, YOKU