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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AA, BRK-B, CCL, CPRT, DD, XOM, GSIC, HCBK, MAR, OI, DGX, TRV, TNK, UTI, WAG, XL)

Administrator — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:22:57 +0000

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

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) Reiterated Buy at Argus.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) named as Bull of the Day with Outperform rating at Zacks.
Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) Reiterated Hold at Argus.
Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ: CPRT) Started as Buy at BofA/ML.
DuPont (NYSE: DD) Reiterated Buy and raised $62 target at BofA/ML.
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) Reiterated Buy with $100 target at Argus.
GSI Commerce, Inc. (NASDAQ: GSIC) removed from coverage at BofA/ML.
Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK) Raised to Neutral at BofA/ML.
Marriott International (NYSE: MAR) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Owens-Illinois, Inc. (NYSE: OI) Raised to Outperform with $36 target at Credit Suisse.
Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) Raised to Outperform with $65 target at Credit Suisse.
The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: TNK) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Universal Technical Institute (NYSE: UTI) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) Raised to Outperform with $36 target at Credit Suisse.
XL Group plc (NYSE: XL) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AA, BRK-B, CCL, CPRT, DD, DGX, GSIC, HCBK, MAR, OI, TNK, TRV, UTI, WAG, XL, XOM

The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Stock Market Report 5.16 The Wisdom Of Crowds?

247wallst — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:40:33 +0000

Twitter has, by most estimates, 100 million members, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million Twitter users. It raises the question of whether there is wisdom in crowds.

24/7 Wall St. will look at the Twitter posts at Reuters Biz, WSJ, Financial Times, CNN Money, MarketWatch, CNBC, and 24/7 Wall St. each day to see which stocks are most frequently mentioned. It is clear that in this area of social media these tweet are a sign of which companies the Twitter universe is interested in. These financial sites are followed by a combined 625,000 Twitter users which makes them a sizeable sample of Wall St.’s interests. In some cases, we will publish the actual tweets from the sites.

Among the daily top trending symbols on stock twitter aggregator StockTwits are Boyd Gaming Corp (NYSE: BYD), Psychiatric Solutions, Inc (NASDAQ: PSYS), MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE: MA), and Copart, Inc (NASDAQ: CPRT)

CNN Money: Euro falls to four-year low http://bit.ly/9COPxt

MarketWatch: Lowe’s expects to see ‘solid demand’ as first-quarter profit and sales rise http://on.mktw.net/dnlDLu

FT: Volcanic ash brings fresh air travel delays: Air travellers face further travel chaos after the volcanic ash cloud… http://bit.ly/aCetoo

WSJ: GM reports an $865 million profit in the first quarter, its first since 2007. Revenue grew 40% to $31.5 billion… http://on.wsj.com/9eXc52

Reuters Biz: Lowe’s profit tops estimates http://link.reuters.com/haf64k

Reuters Biz: Markets punish euro, shares before EU talks http://link.reuters.com/puc64k

Reuters Biz: China’s growth passes peak and more tightening feared http://link.reuters.com/jab64k

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Research Tagged: BYD, CPRT, MA, PSYS, Twitter

An IPO Coming Tied To Autos, Really… (GS, CPRT)

247wallst — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:10:03 +0000

KAR Holdings, Inc. is going to sound like a bit of a strange initial public offering if you have gotten used to the dismal US auto industry. The company has filed for an IPO of up to $400,000,000.00 and will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under a ticker to be determined later. The sole underwriter listed here is Goldman, Sachs & Co., which parent Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) owns/controls a 25.3% stake if you count it under the GS Capital Partners VI Fund with related funds. This company is now the second-largest U.S. auto auction services provider behind Copart Inc. (NASDAQ: CPRT).

KAR Holdings is a holding company that was organized for the purpose of consummating a merger with ADESA and a combination of IAAI with ADESA. The Company had no operations prior to the transactions on April 20, 2007. IAAI, a leading provider of automotive salvage auction and claims processing services in the United States, was contributed by affiliates of Kelso & Company and Parthenon Capital and IAAI’s management to KAR Holdings. Both ADESA and IAAI became wholly owned subsidiaries of KAR Holdings.

The company said that it plans to use the funding proceeds of this IPO to pay down debt, pay termination fees to equity sponsors, and to fund general corporate purposes. KAR has 214 physical auction locations and multiple proprietary Internet venues, and the physical locations are listed as a network of 62 whole car auction locations and 152 salvage auction locations.

In 2008, the company facilitated the sale of over 3.2 million used and salvage vehicles. KAR also does not take title or ownership to substantially all vehicles sold at its auctions. For the twelve month period ended June 30, 2009, the company’s revenues were $1.722 billion, and its Adjusted EBITDA was $371.8 million.

KAR is under a heavy debt load from its LBO two years ago, which is partly why S&P has a mere B- rating on the company.

Frankly, it is hard to know how the initial reception will be for this IPO even in a bull market. Can you imagine the first call from the stock brokers to their clients?…. “Hi, before you hang up this is not a joke. I am calling you about an IPO tied to the auto business….”

At least this is tied to the after-market because of salvage and whole car auction sales. They are also not taking on the risk of owning the car. That being said, the notion of how well this is received will end up being over pricing power and how sticky the banks and insurance companies are in the months and years ahead.

JON C. OGG
September 15, 2009

Posted in Autos, IPOs Tagged: CPRT, GS

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (BBL, CBE, CPRT, DT, GPC, MPW, SAP, TRIN)

247wallst — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:47:15 +0000

These are the top downgrades and cautious calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Wednesday morning:

BHP Billiton plc (BBL) Cut to Hold at Canaccord.
Cooper Industries (CBE) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Copart (CPRT) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Deutsche Telecom (DT) Cut to Underperform at Bernstein.
Genuine Parts (GPC) Started as Underperform at FBR.
Medical Properties trust (MPW) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
SAP (SAP) Cut to Sell from Hold at Societe Generale.
Thomson Reuters plc (TRIN) Cut to Sell at RBS.

Jon C. Ogg
November 26, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: BBL, CBE, CPRT, DT, GPC, MPW, SAP, TRIN