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Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ARMH, DWA, FNSR, GPRE, HAS, ICE, JDSU, LM, RSH, WMT)

247wallst — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:33:25 +0000

These are this Monday’s top 10 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls during the pre-market hours:

ARM Holdings (NASDAQ: ARMH) Cut to Hold at UBS.
DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) Cut to Neutral at Janney Montgomery Scott.
Finisar Corp. (NASDAQ: FNSR) Started as Buy at Auriga.
Green Plains Renewable Energy (NASDAQ: GPRE) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) Cut to Buy at Needham.
IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU) Started as Buy at Auriga.
Legg Mason Inc. (NYSE: LM) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.
RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) Removed from Goldman Sachs Conviction Buy List.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ARMH, DWA, FNSR, GPRE, HAS, ICE, JDSU, LM, RSH, WMT

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ADBE, CHKP, CTXS, OFC, DWA, MAT, MSFT, SNDK, TRA, VMW, VRSN, WFMI)

247wallst — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:17:04 +0000

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

Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Check Point Software (NASDAQ: CHKP) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) Started as Sell at Citigroup.
Corporate Office Properties (NYSE: OFC) Raised to Top Pick at RBC.
Dreamworks Animation (NYSE: DWA) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Terra Industries (NYSE: TRA) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
VMware (NYSE: VMW) Started as Hold at Citigroup.
VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

You are invited to join our free daily email distribution list to hear about top analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPOs and secondary offerings, ongoing day trader and options trader alerts, stock and market rumors, Buffett and guru investor news, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ADBE, CHKP, CTXS, DWA, MAT, MSFT, OFC, SNDK, TRA, VMW, VRSN, WFMI

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AIB, IRE, BSX, KMX, CL, COV, DWA, EXPD, SBUX, TU, UA, VALE)

247wallst — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:29:32 +0000

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen early this Thursday morning:

Allied Irish Banks (NYSE: AIB) Cut to Sell at RBS.
Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) Cut to Sell at RBS.
Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Covidien plc (NYSE: COV) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Dreamworks Animation (NYSE: DWA) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Expeditors International (NASDAQ: EXPD) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Telus Corp. (NYSE: TU) Cut to Sector Perform at RBC Capital.
Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA) Raised to Neutral at UBS.
Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE) Started as Neutral at UBS.

You are invited to join our free daily email distribution list to hear about top analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPOs and secondary offerings, ongoing day trader and options trader alerts, stock and market rumors, Buffett and guru investor news, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AIB, BSX, CL, COV, DWA, EXPD, IRE, KMX, SBUX, TU, UA, VALE

Top Analyst Downgrades (BRCD, DPS, DWA, EL, NOK, SNDK, VE)

247wallst — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:12:39 +0000

These are the early-bird analyst downgrades and cautious research calls we have seen from Wall Street this Monday morning:

Brocade Communications (BRCD) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (DPS) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Dreamworks (DWA) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
Estee Lauder (EL) Cut to Conviction Sell List, but was already Sell, at Goldman Sachs.
Nokia (NOK) Cut to Neutral at HSBC.
SanDisk (SNDK) Cut to Sell at UBS.
Veolia Environment (VE) Cut to Neutral at HSBC.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: BRCD, DPS, DWA, EL, NOK, SNDK, VE

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades (BSX, DWA, ETFC, FSLR, LVS, MSFT, MOS, POT, UPS, UA)

247wallst — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:18:11 +0000

These are the top 10 analyst calls for upgrades and downgrades seen early this Monday morning from Wall Street research firms:
Boston Scientific (BSX) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
DreamWorks Animation (DWA) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
E*TRADE Financial (ETFC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
First Solar (FSLR) Cut to Sell at Soleil.
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Raised to Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Microsoft (MSFT) Raised to Buy at Auriga.
Mosaic (MOS) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
UPS (UPS) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Under Armour (UA) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: BSX, DWA, ETFC, FSLR, LVS, MOS, MSFT, POT, UA, UPS

The 52-Week Low Club (FCXS)(DWA)(JBL)(LVS)

247wallst — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:04:35 +0000

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Too few gamblers, too much debt. Analyst lowering estimates. Falls to $2.13 from $90.28.

Jabil Circuit (JBL) Planning more lay-offs. Drops to $4.38 from 52-week high of $18.78.

Dreamworks Animation (DWA) Tough quarter. Analyst downgrade. The daily double. Sells down to $17.32 from 52-week high of $32.73.

Fcstone Group (FCSX) Trouble with debt provisions and analyst downgrades. Sells off to $1.52 from 52-week high of $50.68.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in HI/LOW Tagged: DWA, FCXS, JBL, LVS

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (BXP, DWA, DUK, MET, MTB, PRXL, POR, PFG, PSA, UDR)

247wallst — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:02:08 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst calls we are seeing this Friday morning:

Boston Properties (BXP) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
DreamWorks Animation (DWA) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Duke Energy (DUK) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
MetLife (MET) Resumed at Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
M&T Bank Corp (MTB) Raised to Neutral at Baird.
Parexel (PRXL) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
Portland General (POR) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Principal Financial (PFG) Raised to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.
Public Storage (PSA) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
UDR Inc. (UDR) Raised to Outperform at FBR.

Jon C. Ogg
October 10, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: BXP, DUK, DWA, MET, MTB, PFG, POR, PRXL, PSA, UDR

Early Bird Analyst Upgrades (NLY, ATML, DWA, NVS, PRM, SSCC, SNWL)

247wallst — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:06:59 +0000

These are not all of the upgrades and positive analyst calls on Wall Street this morning, but these are the ones we are focusing on early this Tuesday morning:

Annaly Capital (NLY) Raised to Buy at Merrill Lynch.
Atmel (ATML) Started as Buy at UBS.
Dreamworks Animation SKG (DWA) Raised to Buy at Merrill Lynch.
Novartis (NVS) Raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Primedia (PRM) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Smurfit-Stone Container (SSCC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
SonicWall (SNWL) Started as Outperform at Baird.

Jon C. Ogg
September 23, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ATML, DWA, NLY, NVS, PRM, SNWL, SSCC

Despite Recent Gains, IMAX Short on Earnings (IMAX, DWA)

247wallst — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:23:59 +0000

IMAX Corporation (NASDAQ: IMAX) is one of the entertainment operations that has been trying to remedy its woes, and its shares at one point were up 100% and more from the 52-week low. This morning the company issued earnings under estimates at -$0.25 EPS on a 12.3% drop in revenues to $23.5 Million. First Call had estimates at -$0.14 EPS on revenues of $25.4 million; and the loss for Q1 2007 was only -$0.12 EPS.

IMAX also noted that the seasonally weak quarter faced difficult comparison because of last year’s strong IMAX release of 300. Below are some key metrics for last quarter and this quarter:

The Spiderwick Chronicles opened on February 15 and grossed $6.8 million in IMAX theaters.
Shine A Light, the Rolling Stones concert film opened April 4 and IMAX has grossed about $3.9 million to-date.
The company noted that it was disappointed that Spiderwick and Shine a Light did not perform as well as it had hoped.
On May 9, it grossed $1.9 million from 84 screens on the release weekend of Speed Racer.

A new announcement may mitigate the earnings discrepancy that has been seen this morning, although this is part of an ongoing award. IMAX announced a deal with DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) to release Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa into IMAX theaters globally on November 7, 2008.

If you look through the numbers, the company’s rising cost structure is probably more to blame on the earnings front than anything sinister on the entertainment side:

SG&A expenses were $12.4 million in Q1, up from $10.3 million a year ago.
R&D costs rose to $2.5 million in Q1. up from $1.5 million a year ago, largely related to investments in its switch from film to digital technology.
Legal and professional fees (included SG&A) rose to $3.1 million in Q1 from $2.4 million a year ago.

With a last seen short interest of 2.25 million shares, or about 16-days volume, that may keep the selling from outweighing the buying after this stock opens.

Jon C. Ogg
May 12, 2008

S&P Index Change Candidates (DWA, HS, GMCR, FBTX, MLNM)

247wallst — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:56:36 +0000

We have seen several announcements out of Standard & Poors regarding index changes today, with the effective dates as follows:

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA) will now replace Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNM) in the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading on Thursday, May 8, as Millennium’s acquisition by Takeda is expected to close on or about that date.
HealthSpring Inc. (NYSE: HS) will now replace Franklin Bank Corp. (NASDAQ: FBTX) in the S&P SmallCap 600 after the close on Wednesday, May 7…. Franklin has a market cap of a mere $26 million and has the 600th worst weighting in the index.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) will replace Matria Healthcare Inc. (NASDAQ: MATR) in the S&P SmallCap 600 on a T.B.A. basis, pending Inverness Medical Innovations (AMEX: IMA) final approvals to acquire Matria.

As a reminder, traders that look at index additions and deletions generally like to focus on stocks that are coming in fresh into the S&P that were not a member of the S&P 1500 comprised of small-cap, mid-cap, and 500-Index members already.

Jon C, Ogg
May 5, 2008