24/7 Wall St. » FDP

Early Bird Analyst Upgrades (ATML, ELN, FDP, ICLR, SLW, SMA)

247wallst — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:19:39 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades from Wall Street which we have seen this Tuesday morning with more than two hours until the open:

Atmel (NASDAQ: ATML) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Elan (NYSE: ELN) Raised to Buy at Canaccord.
Fresh Del Monte (NYSE: FDP) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Icon (NASDAQ: ICLR) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Symmetry Medical (NYSE: SMA) Raised to Market Perform at Wachovia.

Jon C. Ogg
January 13, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ATML, ELN, FDP, ICLR, SLW, SMA

52-Week Low Club (AUO, CVI, DIET, ENTR, FDP, GLBL, OIIM, PCCC, SNE, TNC, TRID, ZRAN)

247wallst — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Today’s list of stocks is somewhat void of financial stocks, yet many of these you’ll recognize. Here are today’s 52-week lows:

AU Optronics Corp. (NYSE: AUO) stock rose over prior lows but still looking weak after continued weakness.
CVR Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CVI) yet again.
eDiets.com (NASDAQ: DIET) preliminary earnings showing economics win over the need to lose weight and live healthy.
Entropic Communications (NASDAQ: ENTR) downgraded at Piper Jaffray a week ahead of earnings.
Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. (NYSE: FDP) down 14% after earnings miss.
Global Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: GLBL)…….. offshore oil & gas on lows?
O2Micro International Ltd. (NASDAQ: OIIM) down another 8%; now down over 2/3 from highs.
PC Connection Inc. (NASDAQ: PCCC) profit fell 12% and sees revenue flat in Q3; direct PC/IT marketing must not work for all.
Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) dismal earnings got them to 52-week lows.
Tennant Co. (NYSE: TNC) profit drop, weak guidance.. wow, even in cleaning solutions get weak.
Trident Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: TRID) disappointing earnings and at least 2 downgrades; shares down 26% late; now down 80% from highs.
Zoran Corp. (NASDAQ: ZRAN) weak outlook and five downgrades… chips are used in DVD players, home theater systems and other electronics, cited economic weakness and a slowdown in consumer spending. Go figure.

The market may have risen huge today, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t many losers when the economy is still in the tank.

Jon C. Ogg
July 29, 2008

Yes, We Have No Bananas: Did Chiquita (CQB) and Del-Monte (FDP) Pick-Pocket Wal-Mart (WMT)?

247wallst — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:20:24 +0000

Fresh Del-Monte (FDP) came out with some pretty strong earnings today. Income climbed to $63.6 million, or $1 per share, compared with $51.6 million, or 89 cents per share a year ago. Much of the improvement was due to “higher banana selling prices: industrywide shortages due to bad weather in Central America.”

Most of those higher prices appear to have been passed along to retailers like Wal-Mart (WMT) and Kroger (KR). The quarterly numbers certainly don’t indicate that Del-Monte ate the increase.

But, was the reason for price increases the weather or was it Russian buyers moving into the market to import more fruit to their country? Four Russian companies including JFC and Sunway Group began aggressive bidding on bananas last fall. Between then and January the bid on a box of Ecuadorian bananas went from a range of $6 to $7 to a $13 to $14 range.

Much of the banana supply taken out of Ecuador by Dole and Del Monte is based on fixed annual contracts. Chiquita (CQB), on the other hand, buys in the spot market and ran into real trouble.

The weather must not have been all that bad. On April 21 there were news reports that banana exports out of Ecuador were rising. That usually works against higher prices. About the same time there was a report that the country’s growers were dumping bananas onto the market because of falling demand and a shortage of reefer capacity.

None of that prevented Chiquita’s president, Brian Kocher, from writing the company’s retail customers in February saying that flooding in Ecuador had cut down the company’s supply of bananas. Chiquita said it was applying the Force Majeure section of its contract and raising the price per box by $2.00. The flooding was an ‘act of God.” The Russian buyers must not have fallen under that rubric.

The Chiquita letter went on to mention weather problems in countries in the Caribbean which also export the fruit. However, the company did not mention that most of that supply has gone to Europe for many years.

There is certainly some evidence that the banana market was not in as much trouble as Chiquita was saying. It passed the $2 per box fee on to retailers like Wal-Mart and Kroger nonetheless. Since about 14 million boxes of bananas come into the US each month, the amount of cost being passed on to retailers or consumers is fairly large

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Chiquita’s costs break down this way: pricing of 40 lb.box of bananas on the East Coast of $6.50 fruit on the boat price plus $4.80 surcharge plus $2.00 force majeure or approx. $13.30 per box. The letter from Mr. Kocher was worth a lot of money to Chiquita.

Dole sent out a similar letter at about the same time. It added a Force Majeure charge of $1.89. Del Monte’s Force Majeure price was $1.94.

It is clear from the Del Monte earnings that the company is making much more money than it did last year. As the cost of bananas went up, they passed that along to their retailers. But, the reasons given in their earnings release many not be the entire story.

It may have been Russians and not an “act of God” that pushed prices up. That extra $2 a box will be a nice bonus for earnings.

Yes, we have no bananas. We have no bananas today.

Douglas A. McIntyre