24/7 Wall St. » CCOI

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (GOOG, JCI, VLO, TSCO, HUM, INTC, IBM, BAC, AXP, GE, SLB, STI, INSM, TLB, SHLD, NCIT, CCOI)

Paul Ausick — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:08:42 +0000

Equity markets opened mixed this morning, with the DJIA up slightly and the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 500 down slightly. That pattern held throughout the day as last night’s report from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) held tech stocks down today. Financials were mixed and no other sector took the lead to push trading higher. A positive report on existing home sales did not appease traders either. Crude oil is down today on continuing concern that Chinese demand will soften and that European growth will be low. WTI crude is down -1.92% at $98.46/barrel and Brent crude is down -1.39% at $110.00/barrel. Gold is up 0.60% at $1,664.40.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly 97 points to 12,720.48 (0.76%), the NASDAQ fell nearly 2 points (-0.06%) to 2,786.70, and the S&P 500 rose a bare 0.07% or less than 1 point to 1,315.37.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Google maintained as ‘buy’ but target price cut to $700 at Canaccord Genuity; Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE: JCI) cut to ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan; Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) reiterated as ‘buy’ with $35 target price at Argus; Tractor Supply Co. (NASDAQ: TSCO) reiterated as ‘buy’ and target price raised to $92 at Argus; and Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) cut to ‘market perform’ at Wells Fargo.

Earnings reports since markets closed yesterday have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Google is down -8.78% at $583.39; Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is up 2.75% at $26.33; IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is up 4.48% at $188.61; Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is up 1.42% at $7.06; American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is down -1.94% at $49.96; General Electric is down -0.21% at $19.11; Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB is up 0.74% at $73.40; and Suntrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) is up 4.79% at $21.21.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Insmed Inc. (NASDAQ: INSM) is up nearly 30% at $4.94. The biotech company announced that the FDA has lifted a clinical hold on a lung disease drug.

The Talbots Inc. (NYSE: TLB) is up nearly 18% at $3.17. The clothing retailer is rumored to be under consideration for a takeover by two private equity firms.

Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) is up nearly 14% at $49.25. The general merchandise retailer is thought to be under consideration for a takeover offer from its largest shareholder.

NCI Inc. (NASDAQ: NCIT) is down nearly -32%, after posting a new 52-week low of $7.71 earlier today. The federal contractor will restructure to compensate for loss of contracts.

Cogent Communications Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CCOI) is down nearly -18% at $15.45. The network communications provider is suffering from the shutdown last night of the Megaupload.com website, one of Cogent’s largest customers, by federal authorities.

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

11:30 a.m. – 3-month and 6-month Treasury bill auctions

Have a great weekend.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close, The Day Tagged: AXP, BAC, CCOI, GE, GOOG, HUM, IBM, INSM, INTC, JCI, NCIT, SHLD, SLB, STI, TLB, TSCO, VLO

Morning Movers (INSM, ASTI, CCOI, GOOG, ALTH)

Paul Ausick — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:23:39 +0000

There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include Insmed Inc. (NASDAQ: INSM), Ascent Solar Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTI), Cogent Communications Corp. Inc. (NASDAQ: CCOI), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Allos Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTH).

After the first half-hour of trading, Insmed is up nearly 33% at $5.10. Volume has already reached 20x the daily average of 82,000 shares traded. The biotech company announced that the FDA has lifted a clinical hold on a lung disease drug.

Ascent Solar is down more than -14% at $0.91. Volume is already 4x the daily average of 227,000 shares traded. The solar panel maker is likely experiencing some profit taking from the recent run-up in solar stocks.

Cogent Communications is down more than -15% at $15.87. Volume is 7x the average daily volume of 357,000 shares traded. The network communications provider is suffering from the shutdown last night of the Megaupload website, one of Cogent’s largest customers.

Google is down nearly -8% at $589.43. Volume is already 50% higher than the daily average of about 2.9 million shares traded. The search giant reported higher costs and lower earnings last night. We have more coverage here.

Allos Therapeutics is down nearly -11% at $1.48. Volume is already exceeds the daily average of 631,000 shares traded. The drug maker has received a negative opinion on use of one of its cancer drugs from a European regulator.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Roundups, The Day Tagged: ALTH, ASTI, CCOI, GOOG, INSM

Early-Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (PHM, TOL, CCOI, LVLT, PCZ, TWB, TWT, WCN, WW)

247wallst — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:34:46 +0000

These are not all of the analyst calls out there but these are some of the calls we see having an impact on trading this Wednesday morning with more than two hours to the market open:

Pulte Homes (PHM) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Toll Brothers (TOL) Started as Buy at Citigroup.

Downgrades or negative calls as follows:

Cogent Communications (CCOI) Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
Level 3 Communications (LVLT) Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
Petro-Canada (PCZ) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Tween Brands (TWB) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
TW Telecom (TWT) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Waste Connections (WCN) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc. (WW) Cut to Neutral at Baird.

Jon C. Ogg
August 13, 2008

The 52-Week Low Club 8/8/2008 (CCOI)(ANAD)(WAVE)(PRX)(CDE)

247wallst — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:55:38 +0000

Coeur d’Alene Mines (CDE) Company posts loss in most recent quarter. Drops to $2 from 52-week high of $5.18.

Par Pharmaceutical (PRX) Cuts full-year guidance. Drops to $12.82 from 52-week high of $24.50.

Nextwave Wireless (WAVE) Low on cash. Falls to $.89 from 52-week high of $7.49.

ANADIGICS (ANAD) Warns on earnings and is downgraded. Sells off to $3.06 from 52-week high of $19.53.

Cogent (CCOI) Cuts revenue and earnings forecasts. Plunges to $7.31 from 52-week high of $30.16.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Major Buybacks This Week (CCOI, FOSL, HIG, KALU, OSG, URI, UTX)

247wallst — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:02:33 +0000

As we have pointed out over and over, it appears that buyback announcements are on the decline in a serious way as far as "new buyback plans" being announced. Ultimately we believe that the buyback paces coming to a crawl is for several factors, with the main issues being the need of cash and the embedded insurance policy this gives companies who want to shore up their capital during a weak economy. We did not count the smaller buyback announcements, but these are the larger ones we saw this week (alphabetically rather than chronologically):

Cogent Communication (NASDAQ: CCOI) completed its prior plan and added another $50 million to its buyback machine. The market cap is about $682 million.

Fossil Inc. (NASDAQ: FOSL) announced that it would repurchase some 2 million shares, or roughly 3% of its shares outstanding.

Hartford Financial Services (NYSE: HIG) added $1 Billion to its prior plan, and its market cap is nearly $23 Billion.

Kaiser Aluminum Corp. (NASDAQ: KALU) is one of the old ones that would be easy to overlook or forget about. But the company raised its dividend and announced a $75 million share repurchase program. This is only about 1.1 to 1.2 million shares, but when you compare it to the $1.3 Billion market cap and the 390,000 share average daily volume it large on a percentage basis.

Overseas Shipholding (NYSE: OSG) replaced its prior buyback plan with a $250 million stock buyback announcement, and it raised its dividend too. This represents more than 3 million shares at current prices and compares to about a $2.4 Billion market cap.

The big kahuna buyback came from United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) announced it was doing a swap and buyback of some 27.16 million shares. This represents close to 31% of its entire outstanding share count.

United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) was perhaps the largest buyback from the largest company this week. The company announced it would buy back up to 60 million shares as a replacement to its prior plan. Based on a near-$70 price, this implies a sum of up to $4.2 Billion if prices remained static. This has roughly 973 million shares outstanding.

Jon C. Ogg
June 13, 2008