24/7 Wall St. » ETFC

Media Digest (5/9/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:32:04 +0000

Coalition talks in Greece are unlikely to create a new government, raising the chance Greece could leave the eurozone. (Reuters)

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) will launch a takeover of Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI). (Reuters)

Toyota (NYSE: TM) says its profits will triple this year. (Reuters)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) director Patti Hart will leave the board as part of a scandal about CEO Scott Thompson’s resume. (Reuters)

A California judge rejects a suit by Proview that claims Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) bought the iPad name from the company for too little money. (Reuters)

Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund will buy 7% of Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR). (WSJ)

Freddie Mac picks former E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC) executive Donald Layton to be its CEO. (WSJ)

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) is under fire for the use of private jets by its board and management. (WSJ)

The founder of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR), Robert Stiller, and its lead director, William Davis, are demoted because of stock sales. (WSJ)

Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LMCA) increases its share of Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) to 45.2% in an attempt to control the company. (WSJ)

The United States presses India to buy less oil from Iran. (WSJ)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) appoints Kristian Tear as chief operating officer and Frank Boulben as chief marketing officer. (WSJ)

T-Mobile may offer some video streaming without charging it against customer data plans. (WSJ)

JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) will offer prepaid debit cards in its 5,541 branches this summer, a way to increase money from customer fees. (WSJ)

Germany is likely to force Greece to honor obligations for a bailout or leave the eurozone. (NYT)

Hackers attack U.S. natural gas pipelines. (FT)

A Moody’s downgrade of major banks may hurt the financial recovery of the European Union as it throttles back the ability of the financial firms to lend. (FT)

Germany’s Federal Statistics Office says the nation’s exports rose in March. (Bloomberg)

Political factions in Ireland may try to reject austerity as their counterparts in Greece have. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, CHK, ETFC, GMCR, GSK, HGSI, IR, JPM, LMCA, RIMM, SIRI, TM, YHOO

American Companies with the Most Customers

Charles B. Stockdale — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:37:51 +0000

Last week, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced that it sold 35.1 million iPhones worldwide in the latest quarter. The figure is large, but not extraordinary. Some consumer products and consumer electronics companies sell their products to a considerably larger number of customers — in the U.S. alone. 24/7 Wall St. examined the corporations operating in the largest U.S. consumer-based industries to find the largest companies based on customer count.

Read The American Companies With the Most Customers

The customer bases of many of these companies are in the tens of millions. Each company operates in an industry that provides a product or a service to an extremely wide spectrum of American consumers. The leader in each sector reached its position through innovation, longevity or some combination of the two.

Each of the industries on this list serves a very large base of customers. For example, there are thousands of retailers, serving pretty much the entire population, but only Costco is the leader in membership with over 65 million members. Founded in 1983, Costco (NASDAQ: COST) is a relatively new company. It became a success largely because it charges customers a membership fee for access to its stores and in exchange offers extremely low prices that are never marked up more than 15% above the price Costco pays.

Some industries are huge, but only have a small number of competitors. While there are only a handful of national wireless carriers, there are over 330 million wireless subscriptions in the U.S. — more than the population itself. But there are only four competitors of any size — AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless, Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile. Each company has to battle for a share of a market that is no longer growing. The weapons the companies use to gain market share are products, customer service and price. AT&T is the leader. Its share of the market is based to some extent on history. It is a descendant from the original AT&T phone monopoly. But without strong products and intelligent pricing there is no assurance it can stay ahead of number two competitor Verizon Wireless.

24/7 Wall St. examined 10 of America’s largest consumer industries and the customer counts for the biggest two or three companies in each sector. We then reviewed the history of each industry in an attempt to find how the top company in each reached its leadership position. To rank the companies, 24/7 Wall St. took each leader and compared it in size to the leaders in the other industries chosen. We used company and industry data to confirm customer counts. Each company in this ranking is the largest company in its industry, based on customer count.

These are the American Companies with the Most Customers.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Special Report Tagged: AAPL, AMTD, AMZN, AXP, CMCSA, COST, CVC, DAL, DFS, EBAY, ETFC, featured, LUV, MA, MSFT, NWS, S, SCHW, SNE, T, TWX, V, VZ

Media Digest (4/10/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:47:55 +0000

Charles Blahous, a George Mason University research fellow, reports that the new health care law could add $530 billion to the deficit. (Washington Post)

Fed Chairman Bernanke says many banks need larger capital buffers. (Reuters)

Facebook to buy Instagram for $1 billion. (Reuters)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) outbids Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) for key AOL (NYSE: AOL) patents. (Reuters)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) says it will lose $6.4 billion for the year, more than twice recent estimates. (Reuters)

Major wireless carriers will create a database to track stolen phones. (Reuters)

President Obama puts additional support behind the “Buffett tax.” (WSJ)

China has a large trade surplus in February. (WSJ)

The former CEO of E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC) may be the new CEO of Freddie Mac. (WSJ)

Oil leaks in the North Sea keep Brent crude prices high. (WSJ)

The FDA is troubled by its failure to screen faulty heart-defibrillator wires. (WSJ)

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) to raise $3.6 billion to help offset low natural gas prices. (WSJ)

Tumi will raise $319.6 million via an initial public offering. (WSJ)

Toyota (NYSE: TM) sets up new R&D procedures to speed decisions. (WSJ)

European companies borrow more from bondholders than from banks in the first quarter. (WSJ)

Honda (NYSE: HMC) to push for more growth in China. (NYT)

More states push for higher minimum wages. (NYT)

U.S. regulations help increase imports of ethanol from Brazil. (FT)

Leaders in Spain continue to press their case that the nation will not need a bailout. (Bloomberg)

First-quarter profits likely will be hit by slowdowns in consumer spending in Europe. (Bloomberg)

German exports rise in February. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AMZN, AOL, CHK, ETFC, HMC, MSFT, SNE, TM

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AAPL, SCHW, ETN, ETFC, FFIV, HBAN, LNKD, MJN, PIR, GOLD, SBAC, AMTD, TYC, DIS, BAC, C, JPM)

Administrator — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:09:10 +0000

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

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Cut to Neutral at BTIG.

The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Eaton Corporation (NYSE: ETN) named the value stock of the day at Zacks.

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ: HBAN) Reiterated Neutral at Zacks.

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) Started as Hold at Needham.

Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) Reiterated Outperform with $82 target at Credit Suisse.

Pier 1 Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR) Maintained Hold but raised estimates at Argus.

Randgold Resources Limited (NASDAQ: GOLD) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: SBAC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTD) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC) Raised to Buy at Argus.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.

Credit Suisse has previewed top banks and noted on Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM): “We look BAC, C and JPM to benefit from improved trading in 1Q.” The firm talked up loan growth and demand and sees attractive valuations with improved profitability and greater capital deployment.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox. We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, AMTD, BAC, C, DIS, ETFC, ETN, FFIV, gold, HBAN, JPM, LNKD, MJN, PIR, SBAC, SCHW, TYC

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ACI, CZR, COF, ETFC, GPS, NUE, PCX, S, TSL, UPS, WYNN, YGE, YUM)

Administrator — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:20:14 +0000

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

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ: CZR) Started as Hold at KeyBanc; Started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) Raised to Outperform at BMO.

Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) Raised to Buy at UBS.

Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE: PCX) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) Cut to Underperform at Bernstein.

Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) Started as Equal weight at Barclays.

United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

Wynn Resorts Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN) Reiterated Buy and target raised to $140 at Citigroup.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. (NYSE: YGE) Started as Equal-weight at Barclays.

Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: ACI, COF, CZR, ETFC, GPS, NUE, PCX, S, TSL, UPS, WYNN, YGE, YUM

Twelve Retailers Flunking Customer Service

247wallst — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:36:24 +0000

As recently as 2009, Netflix was the most beloved retailer on the Internet. By the end of 2011, following the failed separation of its streaming and DVD by mail service and sharp price increases, the company had the sixth-worst customer satisfaction rating among all e-commerce companies, and one of the worst among all retailers including brick-and-mortar outfits, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Read The Twelve Retailers Flunking Customer Service

24/7 Wall St. examined ACSI’s annual retail and e-commerce satisfaction report and identified the 12 companies whose customer satisfaction decreased in 2011.

Many of the companies whose customer satisfaction scores dropped the past year have simply cemented their already terrible service reputations.

Walmart, which debuted strong on the Index in 1994, dropped to among the lowest ranked companies by 1996, where it has remained since. Winn-Dixie, a supermarket chain which does business in the southeast, is an example of a company that has never managed to break free of the lowest rungs of customer service. CVS Caremark and Staples, both on this list, have seen occasional improvements in customer service, but are among the worst.

For other companies, however, losing customer satisfaction is in conflict with their reputations. Amazon.com had a 1.1% decrease in its customer service score this past year, even though it still maintained the highest customer satisfaction score among retailers. Charles Schwab’s customer satisfaction also dipped slightly, despite the fact that customers are more satisfied with the company than with any other online brokerage firm.

These are the American retailers with customer satisfaction scores fell in 2011.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, General, Special Report Tagged: AMZN, BKS, CVS, DG, ESRX, ETFC, EXPE, NFLX, ODP, OMX, OWW, PCLN, RAD, SCHW, SPLS, WAG, WINN, WMT

Eight Brands That Wasted the Most on the Super Bowl

247wallst — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:29:27 +0000

A 30-second ad spot in this year’s Super Bowl costs an average of $3.5 million. That’s an 84% increase from 10 years ago and the highest amount advertisers have ever had to pay. While that is quite the price hike, it is in line with the growth in TV audience, which has just about doubled over the past decade. But despite spending this much to reach such a massive audience at once, the results are rarely impressive.

Read: The Eight Brands That Wasted the Most on the Super Bowl

Between 2002 and 2011, companies spent $2.5 billion on Super Bowl advertising, based on 24/7 Wall St.’s estimate. The top 10 spenders were responsible for more than one-third of that. And one company, Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch, spent almost $250 million over the past 10 years on Super Bowl ads, or a whopping one-tenth of all Super Bowl ad spending.

24/7 Wall St. ranked total spending for all of the companies that advertised during the Super Bowl in the past decade. An analysis of the top spenders reflects how bad this investment can be. While some, such as Hyundai and Toyota have improved market share over that time, most have not. Based on total ad spending, product failures, change in market share, share price and sales, we identified the eight brands that wasted the most on the Super Bowl, including mega brands such as Coke, Budweiser, GM and Ford.

Based on 24/7 Wall St.’s analysis of Super Bowl ad spending, the top spenders fall into four major categories: automotive, film, food, including snacks and fast food, and beverages. Four of the top 10 Super Bowl advertisers are auto companies. Another four of the 10 are food and beverage manufacturers. Three movie studios are in the top 25.

Because Super Bowl ads are used by a small number of industries, many companies in those industries are forced to advertise just to keep up. Most of the top 10 spenders are perennial also-rans. Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, spent $67 million over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, McDonald’s, the indisputable market leader, spent less than half that amount and is not a top 10 spender. Similarly, E*Trade, well-known for the talking baby campaign, spent more than any other online brokerage firm, yet remains fourth in the industry.

Also Read: AMR – Saving Corporate America one Bankruptcy at a Time

24/7 Wall St. tabulated all of the commercials from the past 10 Super Bowls, as archived by Adland, the “world’s largest archive of Super Bowl commercials.” Using that data, 24/7 calculated the number of commercials each company bought, as well as their length, including any available pregame, postgame and prime advertising commercials. To estimate the total amount each company spent on Super Bowl advertising in the past decade, we used the average costs of a 30-second commercial spot each year and the total number of minutes of advertising time recorded by Adland.

These are the eight brands that wasted the most on the Super Bowl.

Filed under: Special Report Tagged: BUD, ETFC, F, GM, KO, PEP, TM, TWX, YUM

24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Calls of the Week (T, ADP. BBY, CHK, DNDN, ETFC, JCP, JPM, GS, MS, JEF, KLAC, LIFE, MCD, KORS, NFLX, VPRT, ZNGA)

Administrator — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:19:53 +0000

This last week brought many new analyst calls in key stocks. At the end of each week we review research calls looking for the best gems, the calls that made serious money for investors, and we also look for the duds which were wrong or just stood apart from the crowd.

The 24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Calls of the Week were in shares of the following: AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: ADP); Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY); Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK); Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC); J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP); J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM); Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS); Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS); Jefferies Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF); KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC); Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE); McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD); Michael Kors Holdings Limited (NYSE: KORS); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); Vistaprint NV (NASDAQ: VPRT); and Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA).

We have covered these in more detailed summaries below and some of these will have links to broader coverage calls.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has been a bit under pressure and frankly its earnings did not help the situation for the bulls despite some positive metrics. Now there is a bit more caution as the stock was reinstated in coverage on Friday at Credit Suisse: with a NEUTRAL and a mere $30.00 price target. This was one of Jim Cramer’s 4 FAVORITE DJIA PICKS FOR 2012 and it is the highest yield of the DJIA.

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: ADP) met its second quarter earnings estimates this last week but apparently there are some valuation concerns despite the CFO seeing some continued positive trends in the economy. On Thursday there were two downgrades: Cut to NEUTRAL at Citigroup and Cut to MARKET PERFORM at Wells Fargo. Shares were around $57.oo pre-earnings and ended the week down at $55.34 and that may be another failed break-out attempt on the chart as the year high is $57.10.

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is supposed to be down and out with absolutely nothing going for it. In fact, its real risk is that no one under 30 or so may ever go there again. Not so fast, according to Credit Suisse as the firm reinstated coverage with an OUTPERFORM rating and with a call of almost 30% upside to its $32.00 price target (versus $28.21 target from Thomson Reuters. This drove shares up 1.7% on Friday when the broad market was down.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) is the pure-play when it comes to investing in natural gas. It is no secret that nat-gas is in the tank. Apparently J.P.Morgan just couldn’t take the pressure any longer. The analyst team there cut Chesapeake to UNDERWEIGHT on Thursday… That is just a “Sell” masqueraded by vocabulary.

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) was given two calls of caution or at least calls with no enthusiasm despite its shares having more than doubled from the lows. Zacks maintained a NEUTRAL rating with a $14.00 target, while the team at Cantor Fitzgerald started it with only a HOLD rating. Both calls came on Wednesday and Wednesday’s was Dendreon’s highest price of the week.

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) is still supposed to be a buyout target according to the great analyst predictions of 2012, even though the company’s review ended with nothing. Earnings stank up the joint and the promise (or forecast) of exceptionally low rates through 2014 offers no comfort for earnings at online brokers. The stock was cut to NEUTRAL at Goldman Sachs this week. Keep in mind that Goldman Sachs was the firm hired to go find a buyer for E*TRADE. Not promising at all.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls, Editor's Picks, Research, The Week Tagged: ADP,, BBY, CHK, DNDN, ETFC, GS, JCP, JEF, JPM, KLAC, KORS, LIFE, MCD, MS, NFLX, T, VPRT, ZNGA

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ADP, CHK, SCHW, GLW, ETFC, GD, GE, GMCR, NRGM, ITW, LRCX, LIFE, NFLX, NVDA, RYAAY, VALE)

Administrator — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:04:39 +0000

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

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: ADP) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup; Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Reiterated Buy with $22 Target at Argus.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) Started as Perform at Williams Capital.
Inergy Midstream, L.P. (NYSE: NRGM) Started as Outperform with $26 target at Credit Suisse.
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ: LRCX) Maintained Outperform with $56 target price at Credit Suisse.
Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) Raised To Outperform From Market Perform By Leerink Swann
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Raised to Buy at Citigroup; Maintained Outperform and raised target to $125 at Credit Suisse.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna.
Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ: RYAAY) Cut to Neutral at Nomura.
Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.

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: ADP,, CHK, ETFC, GD, GE, GLW, GMCR, ITW, LIFE, LRCX, NFLX, NRGM, NVDA, RYAAY, SCHW, VALE

2012 Top Picks From… Everyone! (AAPL, T, BA, GE, KFT, ETFC, MCP, DNDN, BSX, ISRG, STJ)

Administrator — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:25:34 +0000

24/7 has compiled many of the predictions from various firms and various market pundits for what lies ahead in 2012. Wall St. modified analyst consensus price target methodology generates 12% expected upside to a 13,678 peak in the DJIA in 2012. Here were the 5 most undervalued DJIA stocks for 2012 and the 5 least attractive DJIA stocks according to consensus price targets.

The 17 Most Important IPOs to Watch in 2012.
The 24/7 Wall St. 2012 Model Dividend portfolio
Bankruptcy, liquidation, delisting and all… Here is a list of ten stocks that are not expected to survive 2012.
Major semiconductors and expected price performance of leaders in 2012.
Top Oil & Gas stocks with expected price performance in 2012.

One firm gave what looks and feels like an outrageous possibility: a 50% drop from the peak in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares.

Jim Cramer’s top four of the thirty DJIA picks are AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT). FULL SUMMARY

A Doug Kass call was made for E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) to be acquired, even though it all but killed any M&A prospects.

Barron’s gave ten stocks it sees as its favorite picks in 2012, and the trend here is based upon value stocks and dividend stocks rather than aggressive growth stocks.

Molycorp. Inc. (NYSE: MCP) received a wishy-washy outlook concerns from top analyst for this year.

3 Groups of small and mid-cap stock picks expecting huge upside in 2012:

Small & Mid-Cap Stocks With 50% Upside In 2012 (OIS, OI, ROSE, WBC, CIE)
Small Caps With 50% Upside in 2012 (TEN, WNR, APO, SNV, MTZ)
Small Caps With Over 50% Stock Upside in 2012 (PNK, CDXS, VVUS, SCMR)

A consensus breakdown of top analyst stock picks for biotech in 2012. Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) was noted with having more than 40% upside at the time, but that was literally seen in one day this last week. Three top medical technology picks in 2012 from Zacks Investment Research were Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX), Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG). and St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE: STJ).

Eight nations with active ETFs, closed-end funds, and ADRs which may benefit from credit rating upgrades in 2012.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Corporate Governance, Cramer, Economy, Index, International Markets, Research Tagged: AAPL, BA, BSX, DNDN, ETFC, GE, ISRG, KFT, MCP, STJ, T