24/7 Wall St. » CTXS

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (JPM, VMW, AIG, SCHW, CHK, CTXS, SAP, JDAS, GGC, MBLX, PCX, DMND, CSIQ)

Paul Ausick — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:06:19 +0000

US equities opened lower this morning, weighed down by an undistinguished earnings report from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM). More coverage here. Markets in Europe and Asia were higher on the sale of Italian and Spanish debt at lower-than-expected interest rates. The dollar gained strength throughout the day, putting downward pressure on commodities, and a story from Europe that countries would wait another six months to impose further sanctions on Iran pushed crude oil down even further. None of the three major indexes broke through to positive territory today. Crude oil is ending the day down, with WTI down -0.14% at $98.96/barrel and Brent crude is down -0.52% at $110.68/barrel. Gold closed at $1,636.90, down less than -1% on the day.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 49 points to 12,422.06 (-0.39%), the NASDAQ fell more than 14 points (-0.51%) to 2,710.67, and the S&P 500 fell -0.49% or more than 6 points to 1,289.10.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including VMWare Inc. (NYSE: VMW) cut to ‘sell’ with a target price of $80 at Citigroup; American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) started as ‘hold’ at Stifel Nicolaus; The Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) cut to ‘market perform’ at Wells Fargo; Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) reiterated as ‘sell’ with lower estimates at Argus; and Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) raised to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at Citigroup.

Earnings reports since markets closed yesterday have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: JPMorgan Chase & Co. is down -2.63% at $35.88; SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) is up 2.42% at $54.54; and JDA Software Group Inc. (NASDAQ: JDAS) is down nearly -14% at $28.21.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Georgia Gulf Corp. (NYSE: GGC) is up more than 34% at $32.85. The chemical and home products maker has received a buyout offer of about $1.03 billion ($30/share) from Westlake Chemical Corp. (NYSE: WLK).

Metabolix Inc. (NASDAQ: MBLX) is down about -58% at $2.52, after posting a new 52-week low of $2.51 earlier. The bioscience and chemicals company is suffering from the cancellation of a joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM), which the larger company unexpectedly announced this morning.

Patriot Coal Corp. (NYSE: PCX) is down nearly -13% at $7.87. The coal miner lowered its production forecast and closed several operations. We have more coverage here.

Diamond Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) is down more than -10% at $29.71. The snack food maker is now the subject of a criminal inquiry related to payments it made to farmers.

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) is down more than -9% at $3.19. The China-based solar panel maker is among the group of Chinese makers who are cooling off, probably due to profit taking, after several days of sharp share price increases.

US markets are closed on Monday in observance of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. We have the following events for Tuesday:

8:30 a.m. – Empire State manufacturing survey
11:30 a.m. – 3- and 6-month Treasury bill auctions

Have a great long weekend.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close, The Day Tagged: AIG, CHK, CSIQ, CTXS, DMND, GGC, JDAS, JPM, MBLX, PCX, SAP, SCHW, VMW

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AIG, BKU, SCHW, CHK, CTXS, DPS, GES, HUM, RNWK, RF, TWI, VMW, YNDX)

Administrator — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:29:08 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street brokerage and research firms this Friday (the 13th) morning.

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) Started as Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE: BKU) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) Reiterated Sell and lowered estimates at Argus.
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) Raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (NYSE: DPS) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Guess? Inc. (NYSE: GES) Cut to Neutral as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Humana, Inc. (NYSE: HUM) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
RealNetworks Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK) maintained Speculative Buy with $15 price target at Canaccord Genuity.
Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Titan International, Inc. (NYSE: TWI) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.
VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) Cut to Sell with an $80 price target at Citigroup.
Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ: YNDX) Started as Underweight at HSBC.

If you enjoyed the top analyst calls, you can sign up in the box below to join our morning email list to receive news directly in your inbox each morning. We include major analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO and M&A news, special situation developments, observations on Warren Buffett and key market gurus, as well as special exclusive feature stories.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AIG, BKU, CHK, CTXS, DPS, GES, HUM, RF, RNWK, SCHW, TWI, VMW, YNDX

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALU, AMTG, BMC, BXP, CTXS, GLW, CRD-B, FRAN, HMC, LLTC, NCI, RHT, STLD, TSO, TM, VMW)

Administrator — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:08:39 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen having an impact from Wall Street research calls.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Maintained Underperform and cut estimates at Credit Suisse.
Apollo Residential Mortgage, In (NYSE: AMTG) Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus; Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
BMC Software Inc. (NYSE: BMC) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Boston Properties Inc. (NYSE: BXP) Reiterated Buy with $120 target at Argus.
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) Reiterated Buy with $28 target at BofA/ML.
Crawford & Co. (NYSE: CRD-B) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
Francesca’s Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: FRAN) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs; Started as Buy at Jefferies; Started as Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: LLTC) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: NCI) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) Raised to Outperform at RBC.
Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) Reiterated Buy with $104 target at BofA/ML.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ALU, AMTG, BMC, BXP, CRD-B, CTXS, FRAN, GLW, HMC, LLTC, NCI, RHT, STLD, TM, TSO, VMW

Is VMware Alienating Customers? (VMW, EMC, NFLX, CTXS)

Administrator — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:47:29 +0000

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) is still the essentially unchallenged king of virtualization. History dictates that when the king taxes the population too egregiously that bad things start to happen. This may be a lesson learned for VMware regarding new pricing structures.

There is some interesting jawboning going on here, and someone will end up being right and someone will end up being wrong. Information Week magazine ran an article recently (also at the Techweb site under UBM) on the matter. VMware’s pricing appears to have not changed, but the article noted, “vSphere 5.0. At that time, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that VMware was not changing its base pricing. And while that’s true, the company has drastically revamped how it treats and now charges for memory usage. The result will be much higher licensing costs for many users.”

This may be nothing short of a stealth price hike by putting some limits on data usage. In one case, the article noted showed that the $3,495 per license can go to $13,980 for this one server under vSphere 5. One forum case, which is probably more than up for debate by the company, noted that the effective price increase was 380%. ZDNet showed a change to this policy, but the damage may have already been done. When customers push back it can create a more difficult future for relations.

Here is where this all gets interesting. Analysts have been stepping over themselves to raise the ratings on VMware. In the middle of August alone, there have been analyst upgrades by Barclays, CRedit Suisse, FBR Capital, and Collins Stewart. Wells Fargo also upgraded the company in early August, based on the pricing power.

The big challenge here is EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) due to its super-majority ownership position in VMware. While it may not meddle in pricing, it will certainly meddle if the business gets interrupted or if the image gets bashed too much.

This also opens the door for Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) and its Xen virtualization, although you might not know it if you see that Citrix stock is close to a 52-week low.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is a night and day different company than VMware. Comparing virtualization to video rentals might be too odd, but what is not different at all is the pricing structure changes and the fallout that can come from it. Netflix has lost almost one-third of its value since its latest “price structure change.”

The selling of stocks has also been extremely tough on VMware, Since the mid-July peak above $110.00 per share, VMware has fallen to under $78.00. That is probably the market more than pricing, but it seems as though there is a longer-term risk here that investors are trying to grapple with.

Analysts on Wall Street may cheer pricing power all day long, but a customer revolt may bring an opposite outcome.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Software Tagged: CTXS, EMC, NFLX, VMW

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (CSCO, CTXS, GLW, CTB, DDS, DOW, EM, EQIX, GPS, HES, IPI, MANT, SANM, SI, SXL, WEN)

Administrator — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:31:20 +0000

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

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) Reiterated Buy with $26 target at Argus.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: CTB) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Dillard’s, Inc. (NYSE: DDS) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Emdeon Inc. (NYSE: EM) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Intrepid Potash, Inc. (NYSE: IPI) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
ManTech International Corp. (NASDAQ: MANT) Cut to Underperform with $34 target at Credit Suisse.
Sanmina-SCI Corp. (NASDAQ: SANM) Reiterated Buy with $15 target at Argus.
Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) Cut to Hold at S&P Equity Research.
Sunoco Logistics Partners. L.P. (NYSE: SXL) Raised to Outperform with $93 target at Credit Suisse.
Wendy’s Company (NYSE: WEN) Started as Buy at Janney Capital.

You are invited to join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, dividend trends, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: CSCO, CTB, CTXS, DDS, DOW, EM, EQIX, GLW, GPS, HES, IPI, MANT, SANM, SI, SXL, WEN

The Week’s Largest Stock Market Losers: GameStop Corp, Monster Worldwide Inc, And Capital One Financial Corp

247wallst — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:40:41 +0000

The S&P 500 stocks which lost the most were mostly from the tech sector. Microchip Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MCHP) was down almost 16%. The company cut it earnings guidance which was done to some extent because of the impact of the Japanese earthquake. Novellus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS) dropped over 12% because it warned about 2011 results.

Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) fell 10% after it announced it would buy Cloud.com. Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ: ADI) fell 9% as other shares in its sector were punished by poor results

S&P 500 WEEK: BOTTOM 10 (08 JUL – 14 JUL)	Ticker	Weekly Price Change (%)	Close Price 14Jul11	Close Price 8Jul11	Market Cap ($Mil)
Microchip Technology Inc	MCHP	-15.5	32.01	37.87	6097.3
Novellus Systems Inc.	NVLS	-12.2	31.58	35.97	2820.3
GameStop Corp.	GME	-11.2	23.83	26.85	3370.6
Citrix Systems Inc.	CTXS	-10.3	74.40	82.98	13986.8
Monster Worldwide Inc.	MWW	-10.3	13.14	14.65	1699.3
CB Richard Ellis Group Inc	CBG	-9.8	22.80	25.28	7409.7
Janus Capital Group Inc	JNS	-9.5	8.90	9.83	1657.2
Analog Devices Inc.	ADI	-9.4	35.89	39.62	10753.9
Autodesk Inc.	ADSK	-9.4	36.35	40.12	8395.2
Capital One Financial Corp.	COF	-9.2	48.75	53.71	22393.0
Source: Capital IQ

Filed under: Research Tagged: ADI, ADSK, COF, CTXS, GME, JNS, MCHP, MWW, NVLS

24/7 Wall St. Top 10 Analyst Calls of the Week (AIG, COG, CPST, CBOE, CTXS, JDSU, MMYT, RSH, S, WYNN)

Administrator — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 13:47:28 +0000

Each morning we cover about 15 to 20 analyst upgrades and downgrades which we think will have an impact on the underlying stocks. After each week we review those research calls and other research calls to see which ones really stood out or which ones had the most impact on each issue. Suddenly, we end up with the top analyst calls of the week.

This week there were far more and we actually have ten top analyst calls of the week because the calls were so varied. The Top Ten Analyst Calls of the Week were in shares of American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG), Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE: COG), Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ: CPST), CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE), Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS), JDS Uniphase Corporation (NASDAQ: JDSU), MakeMyTrip Limited (NASDAQ: MMYT), RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH), Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), and in Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN).

On each call we have given the basics, but we have also added in some detail and then added color if applicable. This week also has a real mix between the equivalent of “Buy” or “Sell” when it comes to a bias. It was amazing how many important research calls came out this week considering that there were hardly any earnings reports that would send analysts into a frenzy.

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was very important this week. Now that the secondary offering has been completed, many analysts in that huge underwriting group have initiated coverage. If you just look at the share price performance, AIG is now higher than the day it closed on its secondary offering went out. That was $28.28 on the close that day and shares are at $28.96 now at a time that the broad DJIA market and financials were lower. The summary ratings seen this week were as follows:

Bank of America Merrill Lynch started it with Buy rating;
Barclays started it with a Equal-Weight rating and a $31 target;
Deutsche Bank started it with a Buy rating and $34 target;
Goldman Sachs started it as Neutral with a $31 target;
UBS maintained Neutral, lowered target to $30.

Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE: COG) saw a huge pop when its shares were raised to Raised to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity this week. Analyst John Gerdes raised his target price from $58 to $85, or 47%, and noted that it clarified the coming Marcellus infrastructure buildout and believes Cabot should add another 200 million cubic feet per day of take away capacity by late this year with a another 450 million cubic feet per day by late next year. Shares went from $55.91 to a high of $60.64 that day and a close of $58.31 on that call. The gain at one point had shares up almost 8.5% and generated a close of up 4.3% on this. That is a very large move for an established energy company worth about $6 billion in market cap.

Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ: CPST) is coming up with earnings this week and it makes turbine generator sets for use in stationary distributed power generation systems. It is one cult stock that we used to call “less dirty” energy in the green energy boom and it does have a cult following. What we could not get over was how FBR Capital Markets initiated a rating of “Outperform” and gave a $2.75 price target objective this last week. This company loses money and can be volatile after earnings. We wonder if the team at FBR stumbled upon something other than the Russian order that was announced. Their target price is $2.75 and shares rose more than 2% to $1.65 on the call (closed there Friday too). What FBR is saying is that it sees some 66% of upside remaining in the stock and that is assuming the event risk of the earnings.

CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) was an interesting call from Goldman Sachs this last week. Exchanges are supposed to be consolidating and this one leads its field by far. So why did the team at Goldman Sachs cut the rating from an already-cautious “Neutral” down to “SELL” this week? Maybe it was the lock-up period expiration. Shares lost more than 2% on the call but quickly recovered to end the week at $24.26 versus a post-IPO range of $19.60 to $34.18.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Research, The Week Tagged: AIG, CBOE, COG, CPST, CTXS, JDSU, MMYT, RSH, S, WYNN

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AAPL, ATML, CTXS, CMI, ENZN, HD, HBC, PFCB, PLD, RSH, RS, RIMM, SCCO, S, TXN, XLNX)

Administrator — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:17:09 +0000

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

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Reiterated Buy with $415 target at Argus; Reiterated Buy and raised target to $485 at Canaccord Genuity.
Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) Reiterated Buy with $17 target at Gleacher & Co.
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan after being raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day on Monday by Zacks.
Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ENZN) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) Started as Overweight at Barclays.
HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
P.F. Chang’s China Bistro (NASDAQ: PFCB) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) Started as Underweight at Barclays.
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Company (NYSE: RS) Maintained Strong Buy as Value at Zacks.
Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) Cut to Market Perform at Morgan Keegan.
Southern Copper Corp. (NYSE: SCCO) Cut to Hold at Citi.
Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) Cut to Sell at Stifel Nicolaus.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) Reiterated Buy with $43 target at Gleacher & Co.
Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, ATML, CMI, CTXS, ENZN, HBC, HD, PFCB, PLD, RIMM, RS, RSH, S, SCCO, TXN, XLNX

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AONE, BCS, BYD, CPST, CTXS, HBC, JBL, LOW, LPX, MMYT, PCS, PLD, RAI, SPLS, SBUX, TXN)

Administrator — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:07:05 +0000

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

A123 Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: AONE) Cut to Sector Perform at Pacific Crest.
Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ: CPST) Started as Outperform at FBR.
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HBC) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Jabil Circuit Inc. (NYSE: JBL) Reiterated Focus List Buy with $24 target at Argus.
Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (NYSE: LPX) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.
MakeMyTrip Limited (NASDAQ: MMYT) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE: PCS) Cut to Sector Perform at RBC.
ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) Named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) Raised to Outperform at BMO.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) Started as Buy at ThinkEquity.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AONE, BCS, BYD, CPST, CTXS, HBC, JBL, LOW, LPX, MMYT, PCS, PLD, RAI, SBUX, SPLS, TXN

Key Equity Events To Watch For Wednesday (NDN, ACTV, AIG, CTXS, CSC, COST, HRL, NTAP, ORBK, TOL, YHOO, AEO, GES, RL)

Administrator — Tue, 24 May 2011 20:11:45 +0000

Wednesday is setting up to be a busy day before what will turn into a long weekend in a hurry later this week. We have many key stock events to watch from earnings and other key equity events. Those issues for 24/7 Wall St. readers will be in 99 Cents Only Stores (NYSE: NDN), Active Network Inc. (NASDAQ: ACTV), American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG), Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS), Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC), Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST), Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL), NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP), Orbotech Ltd. (NASDAQ: ORBK), Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). Some other earnings to watch will be from American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO), Guess Inc. (NYSE: GES), and Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL).

99 Cents Only Stores (NYSE: NDN) reports earnings on Wednesday and Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.26 EPS and $372.76 million revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.27 EPS and $362.19 million revenues. Shares are trading around $20.20, its consensus analyst price target is $20.28, and the 52-week trading range is $13.12 to $20.59. As far as an offer for the company, FBR noted in a letter to its Special Committee: “we believe that the Special Committee could not justify accepting an offer below a $21.75 to $23.50 price range, and could potentially achieve a price significantly above this range if it conducts the appropriate sales process.”

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is set to have its 300 million share offering from Uncle Sam price Tuesday night for Wednesday trading. Shares were down around 1.3% at $29.60 late on Tuesday. We have offered an outlook that is not unfavorable after looking at past big offerings of this sort. There are actually some good examples to use.

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) hosts its “Financial Analyst Track” on Wednesday at the Synergy 2011 conference, and it also hosts its Citrix Systems Annual Stockholder Meeting the following day. With shares around $82.00, its 52-week range is $40.33 to $86.95. The company already said it was extending its virtualization efforts by acquiring Kaviza, so we’d expect to hear more there. With shares so close to 52-week highs and at highs not seen since 2000 to 2001, we’d be expecting “reiterated guidance” or “raised guidance” from the company as a warning would not be welcomed at all.

Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) reports earnings on Wednesday and Thomson Reuters has estimates of $1.16 EPS and $4.23 billion revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.97 EPS and $4.02 billion revenues. Shares are trading around $43.83 late on Tuesday, its consensus price target is $49.95 from analysts, and the 52-week trading range is $39.61 to $56.61. CSC is one which has just remained a serial disappointment and shares are closer to 52-week lows even if this is trading well under 10-times expected earnings.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) reports earnings on Wednesday morning. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.77 EPS and $20.07 billion revenues; next quarter estimates are $1.10 EPS and $26.93 billion revenues. Shares are trading around $81.50 and it just hit the new 52-week high last week. Analysts have an average price target only $78.95 now and the 52-week trading range is $53.41 to $83.95. With a premium valuation, our take is that Costco has to beat earnings and it can’t use the high gas prices or the change in gas prices that some of the large discounters and retailers have used as excuses before.

Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) reports on Wednesday morning and Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.40 EPS and $1.82 billion revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.35 EPS and $1.81 billion revenues. Shares are trading around $30.05 and the 52-week trading range is $19.46 to $30.35. Analyst price targets have already been passed up as the consensus target is $27.45. Premium value for a food company… It probably has to raise guidance or analysts will have to really raise targets for the selling to not come into play.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) reports on Wednesday afternoon. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.53 EPS and $1.39 billion revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.50 EPS and $1.36 billion revenues. Shares are trading around $51.80, the consensus price target is $61.85, and the 52-week trading range is $31.07 to $61.02. Be advised, the 50-day moving average is $50.04 and the 200-day moving average is $51.12.

Orbotech Ltd. (NASDAQ: ORBK) is expected to have a secondary offering of 6.7 million shares that will price on Tuesday evening for Wednesday trading. Shares were up 2.6% at $13.03 latein the day on Tuesday after three straight days of losses. The 52-week range is $9.15 to $15.62 and shares closed Monday at $12.70. We would expect the offering to price somewhere close to $12.70.

Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) reports on Wednesday morning. Thomson Reuters has estimates of -$0.04 EPS and $319.6 million revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.04 EPS and $402.37 million revenues. Shares are trading around $20.25, the average analyst target is $22.71, and the 52-week trading range is $15.57 to $22.42. With the housing data we have seen, we are holding no great expectations here. More homebuilder business model changes or enhancements may be the norm.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) hosts its investor day on Wednesday and we just automatically expect angry tones over the latest shenanigans took place over Alibaba. Yahoo! shares were at $18.65 just over two-weeks ago, and now the stock is down to $16.18. Yahoo! has its 200-day moving average right below at $16.03 and its 50-day moving average is above at $16.86.

Other companies with earnings news on Wednesday will be (with Thomson Reuters estimates) are American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) with estimates at $0.15 EPS, Guess Inc. (NYSE: GES) with estimates at $0.44 EPS, and Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) at $0.79 EPS expected. Another event we are expecting is the Spirit Airlines IPO, but that IPO was covered only briefly by us prior to this week. Active Network Inc. (NASDAQ: ACTV) is set to be public with an IPO of 11 million shares in a price range of $16.00 to $18.00 per share.

Stay tuned for Wednesday!

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Calendar, Earnings, Secondary Offering, The Day Tagged: ACTV, AEO, AIG, COST, CSC, CTXS, GES, HRL, NDN, NTAP, ORBK, RL, TOL, YHOO