24/7 Wall St. » ELY

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (PM, SNDK, BIDU, AMZN, ALU, ELY, CLWR, DECK, WY, TRP, GT, PG, NWL, MRK, HELE, F, COV, CVX, MDRX, EXPE, WDC)

Paul Ausick — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:05:47 +0000

Markets opened higher this morning following a lower-than-expected GDP growth estimate of 2.2%. That was weaker, but not awful (our coverage here). The consumer sentiment survey rose a couple of ticks in April, but Americans still believe the future will better than the present (our coverage here). The US dollar index fell today, now down -0.25% at 78.725. The GSCI commodity index is up 0.07% at 682.08, with commodities mostly higher on the slightly weaker dollar. WTI crude oil closed up 0.4% at $104.93/barrel, and Brent crude trades down -0.23% at $119.64/barrel. Gold settled up 0.3% today, at $1,664.80/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly 24 points to 13,228.24 (0.18%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 19 points (0.61%) to 3,069.20, and the S&P 500 rose 0.24% or more than 3 points to 1,403.37.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) reiterated as ‘buy’ and target price raised to $94 at Argus; SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) raised to ‘buy’ at Jefferies; Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) maintained as ‘neutral’ but target price cut at Credit Suisse; Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) raised to ‘buy’ at BofA/ML, Nomura, and Goldman Sachs; and Alcatel-Lucent SA (NYSE: ALU) maintained as ‘underperform’ and estimates cut at Jefferies.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Amazon.com is up 15.6% at $226.64; Callaway Golf Co. (NYSE: ELY) is down -14.9% at $5.94 (our coverage here); Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) is down -2.7% at $1.43; Deckers Outdoor Corp. (NASDAQ: DECK) is down -25.5% at $51.78 after posting a new 52-week low of $51.03 (our coverage here); Weyerhaeuser Corp. (NYSE: WY) is down -0.3% at $20.81 (more coverage here); TransCanada Corp. (NYSE: TRP) is up 0.5% at $44.01; The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) is down -5.1% at $11.32; Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) is down -4% at $64.18 (our coverage here); Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE: NWL) is up 3.6% at $18.61; Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) is down -0.2% at $38.38; Helen of Troy Ltd. (NASDAQ: HELE) is up 4.4% at $35.33; Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is down -2.1% at $11.62 (our coverage here); and Covidien plc (NYSE: COV) is up 0.5% at $55.32.

Be sure to look at our list of next week’s big earnings.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) is up 0.2% at $106.44. The supermajor oil company reported earnings in line, but production was down. More coverage here.

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: MDRX) is down -36% at $10.25 after posting a new 52-week low of $9.00. The healthcare services provider fired its chairman, and the list of woes goes on. More coverage here.

Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is up 24.4% at $40.59. The Internet travel company posted better-than-expected quarterly results. More coverage here.

Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) is down -14.2% at $37.83. The disk drive maker had solid earnings, but worries abound about next quarter. More coverage here.

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

8:30 a.m. – Personal income and spending
9:45 a.m. – Chicago PMI
10:30 a.m. – Dallas Fed manufacturing survey
11:30 a.m. – 3- and 6-month bill auctions
3:00 p.m. – Farm Prices

Have a great weekend!

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: ALU, AMZN, BIDU, CLWR, COV, CVX, DECK, ELY, EXPE, F, GT, HELE, MDRX, MRK, NWL, PG, PM, SNDK, TRP, WDC, WY

Golf World Still Under Par (ELY, GOLF, ADGF, DKS, PERY)

Paul Ausick — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:39:16 +0000

Golf equipment maker Callaway Golf Co. (NYSE: ELY) reported first-quarter results this morning that missed expectations, but the worse news was that the company sharply lowered its guidance for the first half of 2012. Now that Adams Golf Inc. (NASDAQ: ADGF) has agreed to be acquired by adidas Group’s TaylorMade division, only Callaway and Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: GOLF) remain as independent suppliers of premium golf equipment. The Titleist brand was sold to Korea-based FILA last year, and Callaway recently sold its Top-Flite brand to Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS). Earlier this year the company sold its Ben Hogan brand to Perry Ellis International Inc. (NASDAQ: PERY).

Callaway reported EPS of $0.18 versus a consensus estimate of $0.21 on revenue of $285.1 million compared with an estimate of $312.1 million. The company slashed its first half sales forecast from $610-$630 million to $560-$575 million, cut its estimate of gross margin by one point to 43%, and lowered its first half EPS estimate to $0.20-$0.25. That last figure means that second quarter EPS is expected to come in at less than half the first quarter amount.

Callaway stock is taking a beating today, down -15% at $5.93 in a 52-week range of $4.70-$7.29 on 4x average daily volume. Golfsmith, which is expected to post an EPS loss of -$0.13 when it reports first quarter results, is also down about -0.9% at $4.60 in a 52-week range of $2.44-$5.26. Golfsmith trades just under 6,200 shares/day and has a market cap of about $73 million. If Callaway were doing better, there could be an opportunity for more consolidation in the golf world.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Consumer Goods, Earnings Tagged: ADGF, DKS, ELY, GOLF, PERY

Media Digest 8/18/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg: BHP Bid Goes Hostile

247wallst — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:08:30 +0000

Reuters: BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) has begun an attempt at a hostile deal for Potash (NYSE: POT)

Reuters: A female contractor of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) said she lost work because she would not have sex with Mark Hurd.

Reuters: The social agenda of politicians will determine some portion of housing reform.

Reuters: GM’s IPO has been delayed

Reuters: Oil fell on higher than expected reserves,

Reuters: India will allow the Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) Blackberry to continue in service beyond an August 31 deadline.

Reuters: RIM and the United Arab Emirates are close to a Blackberry service agreement.

Reuters: Reynolds will buy PacTiv the Hefty Bag maker.

WSJ: More and more high school students do not take tests for college

WSJ: Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is having trouble selling its product to networks.

WSJ: The battle between Bratz and Mattel (NYSE: MAT) over toys was escalated.

WSJ: Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) investors protested the CEO remaining.

WSJ: The SEC launched a probe of General Growth.

WSJ: News Corp (NYSE: NWS) gave the Republican party $1 million.

WSJ: Japan cell carriers are in a battle over mobile TV.

WSJ: Vulture investors are helping homeowners.

WSJ: Results from Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD) show that retailers are keeping costs down.

WSJ: A deal for a critical missile project being handled by Lockheed Martin was put on hold.

WSJ: Geithner said the US need to play a role in the housing markets.

WSJ: Eli Lilly (NYSE: ELY) stopped development of an Alzheimer’s drug because it was not promising.’

WSJ: American Apparel could go bankrupt.

WSJ: GM recalled 243,000 vehicles.

WSJ: The head of Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) added to his holdings in the face of a hostile takeover.

WSJ: Google may be Like.com to increase it business for image search.

WSJ: A judge said that a Barclay’s (NYSE: BCS) $298 million settlement with the US was too good a deal for the bank

WSJ: Banks are fighting a plan to have bad loans pushed back to them by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

WSJ: China will open its currency markets to foreign investors.

NYT: China set new rules for banks loans made off the books

FT: American companies will be forced to disclose the sources of minerals that they use.

FT: New accounting treatment of leases could cause companies losses.

FT: US firms are trying to match India call center costs.

Bloomberg: GM may sell preferred stock as well as common.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: BHP, BKS, DELL, ELY, GOOG, HD, MAT, NWS, POT, RIMM, WMT

Analyst Upgrades And Downgrades

247wallst — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:35:20 +0000

BP plc (NYSE: BP) was downgraded by Fitch.

JPM Securites downgrades Eli Lilly (NYSE: ELY) to market perform.

Rosetta Resources (NASDAQ: ROSE) downgraded to neutral by SunTrust

Callaway (NYSE: ELI) downgraded to market perform by JPM Securities.

T Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) upgraded to market perform by Wells Fargo.

Calgene (NASDAQ: CELG) upgraded to neutral by Cowen.

TRW (NYSE: TRW) upgraded to overweight by JP Morgan.

Belgian government rankings held level by S&P.

EU attacks Fitch for Greek downgrade by Moody’s

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sponsor: 26 Cheap Stocks to Sell – Cheap stocks have been on a tear recently, but nine out of ten stocks are circling the drain!

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BP, ELI, ELY, GELG, ROSE, TROM, TRW

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (APC, ATK, COF, ELY, FLEX, NFLX, QCOM, STI, WCRX)

247wallst — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:18:28 +0000

These are this Thursday’s top 10 analyst calls for upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research:

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) Raised to Overweight at Barclays Capital.
Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) Cut to Buy from Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) Started as Outperform at Robert W. Baird.
Flextronics (NASDAQ: FLEX) Raised to Buy at Needham.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Raised to Outperform at FBR; Raised to Buy at Jefferies; Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Qualcomm,Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) Cut to Hold at ThinkEquity.
SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) Raised to Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Warner Chilcott (NASDAQ: WCRX) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.

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: APC, ATK, COF, ELY, FLEX, NFLX, QCOM, STI, WCRX

Implications of Major S&P Component Changes (MJN, MBI, V, CIEN, CLF, DYN, KBH, GMCR, BTH, CHP, CVG, ROST, CLF, SNH, ATW, DY, KELYA, ELY)

247wallst — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:24:05 +0000

Standard & Poor’s often makes S&P index changes for the S&P 500, the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and the S&P Small Cap 600 at the end of the year. This probably is not going to be the last component shuffling before the end of the year, but this is likely to create some action in several very active stocks. Some of the big changes announced Friday evening were Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. (NYSE: MJN), MBIA Corp. (NYSE: MBI), Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN), Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF), Dynegy Inc. (NYSE: DYN), KB Home Inc. (NYSE: KBH) and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR).

Some of these changes will only have minor buy and sell effects from S&P index mutual funds and ETFs, but some will see significant changes.

Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. (NYSE: MJN) will replace MBIA Corp. (NYSE: MBI) in the S&P 500, after Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) is splitting off its approximately 83% holdings in Mead Johnson Nutrition. MBIA currently ranks 500th in the index and is no longer representative of the S&P 500 index market cap space. That is called the MBIA boot.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) will replace Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) in the S&P 500. Ciena will move down an index rather than be booted entirely as it will replace Blyth Inc. (NYSE: BTH) in the S&P MidCap 400, and Blyth will replace C&D Technologies Inc. (NYSE: CHP) in the S&P SmallCap 600. C&D was the smallest component of the S&P SmallCap 600, and is now too small for even the small-cap index.

S&P MidCap 400 components Ross Stores Inc. (NASD:ROST), Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CLF) and SAIC Inc. (NYSE:SAI) will move up an index to replace Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN), KB Home Inc. (NYSE:KBH) and Convergys Corp. (NYSE:CVG) in the S&P 500 Index. Dynegy, KB Home and Convergys will move down an index and will replace Ross Stores, Cliffs Natural Resources and SAIC in the S&P MidCap 400 index.

S&P SmallCap 600 components Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH), Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAD: GMCR) and Atwood Oceanics Inc. (NYSE: ATW) will move up an index to replace Dycom Industries Inc.(NYSE: DY), Kelly Services Inc. (NASDAQ: KELYA) and Callaway Golf Co. (NYSE: ELY) in the S&P MidCap 400. Dycom, Kelly Services and Callaway Golf will move down an index rather than being eliminated and will replace Senior Housing Properties, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Atwood Oceanics in the S&P SmallCap 600 index.

As most of these are index moves, they tend to have less of a formal impact on the stocks. The big move will be Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V), which will now get to finally join the S&P 500. Its market cap varies from every source: $63.28 billion at Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance is $68.65 billion, and Bloomberg is at $60.4 billion. Shares rose over 3.3% in the after-hours session to $84.10 after closing down 1.2% at $81.34 versus a 52-week trading range of $41.78 to $83.40. We will have to make some calculations on Monday, but this will represent a significant buy-in trade for funds that track the S&P500 that will have to buy million of Visa shares.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Financial Stocks, Index, Mutual Funds Tagged: ATW, BTH, CHP, CIEN, CLF, CVG, DY, DYN, ELY, GMCR, KBH, KELYA, MBI, MJN, ROST, SNH, V

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (BT, ELY, CBS, CTXS, DUK, INFY, LINTA, NZ, RIMM, VMW)

247wallst — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:08:30 +0000

These are the top ten brokerage firm analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen from Wall Street early this Monday morning:

BT Group (BT) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Callaway Gold (ELY) Raised to outperform at JMP Securities.
CBS Corp. (CBS) Cut to Hold at Argus.
Citrix Systems (CTXS) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
Duke Energy (DUK) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Infosys (INFY) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Liberty Media (LINTA) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Netezza (NZ) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Research In Motion (RIMM) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
VMware (VMW) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.

JON C. OGG
AUGUST 10, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: BT, CBS, CTXS, DUK, ELY, INFY, LINTA, NZ, RIMM, VMW

Tiger/Mediate: Nike/Callaway (NKE, ELY)

247wallst — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:15:07 +0000

What sort of would it be if you could only bet on sporting events by the results only? Who knows how much the bets were on the actual match going into sudden death today, but you can bet it was significant. It turns out there were traders pushing around brands of public companies as well, mainly that of Callaway Golf Co. (NYSE: ELY) and that of Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE).

The reason is rather simple. Nike is now almost synonymous with Tiger Woods, and Callaway Golf is a large endorser of Rocco Mediate. To add more of a small twist Callaway shares have been under pressure because of recent earnings news.

Callaway shares rose 3% to $12.66 in regular trading as the pure-play golf apparel and equipment company, and its 52-week trading range was $12.00 to $19.49. Callaway’s shares are down over 1% at $12.50 in after-hours trading.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) closed down almost 0.9% at $68.38, and shares were down 0.2% at $68.19 in after-hours trading. As it is exponentially larger and far more diversified this was hardly the play. Its 52-week trading range is $51.50 to $70.60.

This was almost a huge day for Callaway, but based upon the news and coverage the company won either way. Whether or not that translates to a stock event… that’s a different issue entirely.

Jon C. Ogg
June 16, 2008

52-Week Low Club (ELY, GHS, GE, GM, GFI, MRK, Q, SHLD, JAVA, TSCM, VIA.B, CBS, AMR, AAI, DAL, UAUA)

247wallst — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Today’s 52-week low list was full of some of the usual suspects, and you can count airlines as the top group of 52-week lows after that breather in oil prices did not hold. There were also many other stocks that hit 52-week lows today, and we didn’t even bother including any of the usual suspects in financials. Here is a sample of the 200+ we saw today:

Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) is seeing the same old same old, fewer golf club and accessories being bought as consumers are strapped and have to actually work rather than play golf.
Gatehouse Media (NYSE: GHS) keeps sliding… is Chapter 11 near?
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is getting farther and farther away from that $33.75 fair value we assigned for the end of 2008.
General Motors (NYSE: GM) is still appearing here, poorer consumers can’t qualify for new cars.
Gold Fields Ltd. (NYSE: GFI) is a surprise with high gold prices.
Merck Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK)
Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q), wasn’t too long ago they juiced a huge dividend.
Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) hit a 52-week low but that didn’t hold.
Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) is learning that the reverse stock split game isn’t a winning formula.
TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM) as financial subscribers may be less willing to shell out hundreds of dollars if their bullish investments have a hard time being that bullish.
Viacom (NYSE: VIA.B) and CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) as Sumner Redstone can’t save a crummy environment.

This list was far longer looking than you would guess by this short review. Here are some of the airlines that hit new 52-week lows:

Airtran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI), AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), and UAL Corp. (NASDAQ: UAUA).

Jon C. Ogg
June 12, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ARM, BTUI, ELY, KO, INTC, JASO, K, LEH, OCR, OXPS)

247wallst — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:40:21 +0000

These are some of the top analyst calls we are looking at this Tuesday morning:

ArvinMeritor (NYSE: ARM) Raised to Buy From Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
BTU International (NASDAQ: BTUI) Started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) Started as Outperform at Raymond James.
Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) Raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) Started as Buy at ThinkPanmure.
JA Solar (NASDAQ: JASO) Started as Buy at Broadpoint.
Kellogg (NYSE: K) Raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
Lehman (NYSE: LEH) Cut to Market Perform from Outperform as Wachovia.
Omnicare (NYSE: OCR) Raised to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.
optionsXpress (NASDAQ: OXPS) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Merriman Curhan Ford.

Jon C. Ogg
June 10, 2008