24/7 Wall St. » EYE

100% Buyout Premiums Still Exist (ABT, EYE)

247wallst — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:43:55 +0000

If we told you on Friday that a decent-sized medical merger was coming with a 100% premium, you probably wouldn’t have believed it. We are having a hard time believing it even after the fact. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is buying Advanced Medical Optics Inc. (NYSE: EYE).

It seems almost imaginary that Advanced Medical Optics Inc. (NYSE: EYE)stock is up more than 100% today. But it is. Up 144% to $21.68 infact.

Abbott is spending about $1.36 billion plus debt to gain market sharein eye-care and laser vision. The price for "EYE" holders is $22.00per share in cash. It is of no surprise that the board of directorsapproved the deal.

Abbott said the deal will be neutral to 2009 earnings and it reaffirmedtargets of $3.31 to $3.33 EPS for 2008 and $3.65 and $3.70 EPS in2009. Thomson Reuters (First Call) has consensus estimates at $3.32 in2008 and $3.66 in 2009.

This essentially exonerates Advanced Medical from the woes of its 2007eye drop infections which created a major recall and put a cloud overthe stock.

Unfortunately, shares were north of $40.00 for a brief period less than two years ago. That was then.

Jon C. Ogg
January 12, 2009

Posted in Medical, Mergers and Buy Outs Tagged: ABT, EYE

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (EYE, CRL, LLY, ESLR, INTC, SPWRA)

247wallst — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:05:14 +0000

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

Advanced Medical Optics (EYE) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
Charles River (CRL) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
Eli Lilly (LLY) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Evergreen Solar (ESLR) Cut to Reduce at Calyon.
Intel (INTC) Cut to Sell from Buy at ThinkPanmure.
SunPower (SPWRA) Cut to Add at Calyon.

Jon C. Ogg
October 10, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: CRL, ESLR, EYE, INTC, LLY, SPWRA

Early Bird Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ADTN, EYE, HOC, INCY, PTR, CEG, KSS, VNO, WFMI)

247wallst — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:27:46 +0000

These are some of the early bird analyst calls we are seeing in stocks this Thursday morning which could impact shares:

ADTRAN (ADTN) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Advanced Medical Optics (EYE) Started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Constellation Energy (CEG) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Holly Corp. (HOC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Incyte Corp. (INCY) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Kohl’s (KSS) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
PetroChina (PTR) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
Whole Foods (WFMI) Started as Underperform at FBR.

Jon C. Ogg
September 18, 2008

52-Week Lows Today (November 23, 2007)

247wallst — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:13:52 +0000

DJIA 12,980.88 (+181.84; +1.42%)
S&P500 1,440.70 (+23.93; +1.69%)
NASDAQ 2,596.60 (+34.45; +1.34%)

These didn’t all close on 52-week lows, but here is a list of stocks that managed to hit new 52-week lows today despite a strong stock market, and on what was otherwise a quiet news day. This list only includes stocks that were down right before the end of the day rather than stocks that hit or touched 52-week lows and then recovered:

Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT)
Advanced Medical Optics (NYSE:EYE)
Cott Corp. (NYSE:COT)
Diebold (NYSE:DBD)
Dialysis Corp. of America (NASDAQ:DCAI)
eLong (NASDAQ:LONG)
Gluu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU)
iBasis (NASDAQ:IBAS)
La-Z-Boy (NYSE:LZB)
Shoe Carnival (NASDAQ:SCVL)
Webzen (NASDAQ:WZEN)

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Media Digest 7/6/2006 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s

247wallst — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:11:56 +0000

According to Reuters, Advanced Medical Optic (EYE) has made a $4.23 billion bid forBausch & Lomb (BOL).

Reuters writes that UBS has replaced its CEO after loses at it hedge fund.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft (MFST) will take a $1.1 billion charge for costs related to warranties for its Xbox.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Congress is passing a bill the would allow OPEC members to be sued under antitrust laws.

The Wall Street Journal also writes that hackers have figured out ways to get passed some of the restrictions AT&T (T) and Apple (AAPL) have put on the iPhone.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Motorola (MOT) will take a $101 million charge for laying off employees.

The New York Times writes that the new head of Siemens (SI) plans to overhaul the company and makes its actions more transparent.

The FT writes that the head of Nestle is worried that rising food prices, based to some extent on use of corn for biofuel and demand in China and India, could cut margins.

The FT also writes that Dell (DELL) is looking to retail store sales in Asia to help with it comeback.

Barron’s reports that Cablevision (CVC) could be worth twice what the Dolan family plans to pay for it.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Is $75.00 For Bausch & Lomb the FINAL Offer?

247wallst — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:36:09 +0000

Bausch & Lomb (BOL-NYSE) has received a higher buyout price from Advanced Medical Optics (EYE-NYSE) (or ‘AMO’ hereafter) in a cash and stock merger where Bausch & Lomb’s shareholders would receive $45.00 in cash and roughly $30.00 in AMO stock, valued based on the average closing price of the AMO common stock for five trading days prior to the date a definitive agreement is signed.

The new proposal is subject to termination of Bausch & Lomb’s previously announced merger agreement with Warburg Pincus and the execution of a definitive merger agreement with the company. The terms are subject to include that ‘AMO’ will have up to 12 months to close the transaction and that interest would be paid in cash with respect to the purchase price by ‘AMO’ at the rate of 7.2% per annum beginning six months after a definitive merger agreement is executed. BUT, the proposal is not subject to a financing condition and that may be an important kicker since there was a worry that this was too large of a bite for the company.

We had noted on May 16 Bausch & Lomb Selling Itself Away Too Cheap and then again on May 24 we noted that Bausch & Lomb May Get a Higher Bid.

Ultimately, this may not even be the real and final-final offer either. Warburg Pincus or another group could decide to pony-up the cash, and they might not have to pay the full $75.00 to win. In a cash and stock deal with some antitrust issues (in lens solutions) and with a very long close date, you could always expect a seller to accept terms from someone else. So there is always the chance that a higher bid may be hoped for by holders. Now the main question is at what point there ceases to be any value to a buyer. Is the Beholder’s eye still even looking to beauty?

Jon C. Ogg
July 5, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Pre-Market Stock News (June 26, 2007)

247wallst — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:59:06 +0000

(BEXP) Brigham Exploration increased natural gas production guidance from 42-45MCF to 44-46MCF.
(BLK) Blackrock will acquire the fund of funds business of Quellos for up to $1.7 Billion.
(BSC) Bear Stearns has report in WSJ that it is reluctant to bail out a second hedge fund from last year.
(CERS) Cerus announced a supply pact for its INTERCEPT blood system for platelets to French national blood service.
(EAS) Energy East $28.50 buyout from Spain
(ENCY) Encysive Pharma traded up on new CEO replacement.
(EYE) Advanced Medical Optics lowered 2007-2008 EPS guidance below consensus due to recall of its MoisturePlus.
(GGP) General Growth Properties will replace Mellon in S&P 500 after close on Friday June 29.
(GILT) Gilat Satellite gets SkyEdge broadband satellite network.
(ITT) ITT Industries is acquiring international Motion Control for $395 million.
(IXYS) IXYS Corp. lowered revenue target to $70 to $72 Million from $74.99 Million.
(LEN) Lennar posted a loss instead of a small gain, and revenues were down more than 30%; shares indicated down 2-5%.
(MO) Altria plans to maximize its savings on tobacco production; will see pre-tax savings of $355 Million.
(OMC) Omnicom trading ex-split to reflect a 2-1 stock split.
(OPTT) Ocean Power Tech named a new COO.
(RAIL) Freightcar America put EPS at $0.85 to $0.95 vs $1.18 estimate; announced new 1900 hopper railcar orders.
(RDYN) Replidyne announced positive Phase I results for topical antibiotic REP8839.
(SCMM) SCM Micro sees revenues down approximately 20%.
(SWSI) Superior Well Services announced that officers David Wallace, Jacob Linaberger and Rhys Reese each adopted 10b5-1 stock trading plans.
(TEK) Tektronix increased share buyback plan for $350 million worth of shares.
(TGT) Target guided sales to lower end of a 3-5% range.
(TLCV) TLC Vision purchased 20 million at average $5.75 per share.
(ULBI) Ultralife Batteries announced orders valued at approx $1.8 million to supply batteries and chargers to a major defense contractor.
(VMSI) Ventana gets $75 buyout offer from Roche, although Ventana declined talks.

Jon C. Ogg
June 26, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Earlybird Analyst Calls (June 14, 2007)

247wallst — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:29:07 +0000

ACL started as Buy at Jefferies.
AMGN started as Mkt Perform at Rodman & Renshaw.
B started as Outperform at CIBC.
CBB started as Buy at UBS.
CHE started as Buy at Jefferies.
CTL raised to Neutral at UBS.
CYTX started as Mkt Perform at Piper Jaffray.
DJ cut to Reduce at UBS.
EQ raised to Buy at UBS.
ESI cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
EYE started as Underperform at Jefferies.
GNLB started as Buy at Oppenheimer.
ILMN raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
ISIL raised to Buy at B of A.
MFA started as Outperform at JMP Securities.
MNKD started as Buy at B of A.
OPTT started as Outperform at Bear Stearns.
PT raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
RACK started as Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
RBC started as Sector Perform at CIBC.
SLM cut to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
SNY cut to Neutral at HSBC; cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
THI raised to Outperform at CIBC.
VDSI cut to Hold at Jefferies.
VTIV raised to Strong Buy at First Albany.
WIN started as Neutral at UBS.
ZGEN started as Neutral at Oppenheimer.

Jon C. Ogg
June 14, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Bausch & Lomb May Get a Higher Bid

247wallst — Thu, 24 May 2007 08:14:42 +0000

It looks like there is going to be a new bidder in the buyout for Bausch & Lomb (BOL). Advanced Medical Optics (EYE-NYSE) is reportedly forming a bid according to CNBC’s David Faber that would trump the Warburg Pincus buyout offer of $65.00 per share. We had noted that Bausch & Lomb was selling itself far too cheapback on may 16, 2007 and that it had traded in the $70.00 handles backin the late 1990’s and had traded over $80.00 in recent years.

The issue here is that this would truly be a public leveraged buyout as Bausch & Lomb is larger and has a higher market cap than Advanced Medical Optics. That is not an ultimate deal killer because companies can borrow and partner with other firms just like the private equity firms can.

Bausch & Lomb shares are up 5% at $70.00 pre-market and Advanced Medical Optics shares are down 2.3% at $41.50 in pre-market activity. This may not be the final offer either, so there is always the chance that a higher bid may be hoped for by holders.

Jon C. Ogg
May 24, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.