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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AGU, CPB, DYN, ELON, FIC, HRL, ITRI, LVS, MICC, MTB, OVTI, POT, SAP, SNDA, SNPS, TSL)

Administrator — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:34:21 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s key analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls.

Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays Capital.
Dynegy Inc. (NYSE: DYN) Cut to Sell at S&P Equity Research (late Tuesday call).
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Fair Isaac Corp. (NYSE: FIC) Reiterated Sell at Argus.
Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) Cut to Sell at Soleil.
Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) Raised to Neutral at Macquarie.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) Reiterated Buy and $58 Target at Argus.
Millicom International (NASDAQ: MICC) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) Started as Market Perform at BMO.
OmniVision Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OVTI) Reiterated Buy and Raise Target to $36 at Gleacher & Co.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) Reiterated Buy at BofA/ML.
Shanda Interactive Entertainment (NASDAQ: SNDA) Cut to Sell at Roth Capital.
Synopsys Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) Reiterated Buy and $38 target at Auriga.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AGU, CPB, DYN, ELON, FIC, HRL, ITRI, LVS, MICC, MTB, OVTI, POT, SAP, SNDA, SNPS, TSL

52-Week Low Club: Transport, Semiconductors & Financials (January 2, 2008)

247wallst — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:23:11 +0000

Truckers led the drop after a fake $100 oil print and after a YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW) acquisition write-down, pulling down Arkansas Best (NASDAQ: ABFS) and others. With no surprise, airlines followed suit with Airtrain (AAI), AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL), Delta (NYSE: DAL), FedEx (FDX), Jetblue (NASDAQ:JBLU), Mesa Air (NASDAQ: MESA), Northwest Air (NYSE: NWA), Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV), US Air (NYSE: LCC).

Chip and tech stocks on 52-week lows: AMAT, AMD, ADTN, ARRS, ATML, BBND, CHRT, FCS, FEIC, IDTI, IM, KLAC, KLIC, LRCX, LSCC, LSI, MCRL, MRVL, MU, NSM, STM, TER, XLNX

Financial Giants on 52-Week lows: BAC, BBT, BSC, CYN, DFG, EFX, FIC, FITB, FHN, MCO, NCC, PNSN, SNV, SBP, WFC, ZION.

We kept the REIT’s and the usual suspects in retail off the list that have been here day in and day out (although many hit new 52-week lows). Here is the huge list of others 52-week lows:

Automatic Data (ADP), Cardinal Health (CAH), Career Education (CECO), Diebold (NYSE: DBD), EchoStar (DISH), Superior Offshore (DEEP), Dow Chemical (DOW), Eastman Kodak (EK), Emmis (EMMS), Ford (F), Fortune Brands (FO), General Motors (GM), Hasbro (HAS), Helen of Troy (HELE), Interpublic (IPG), Mattel (MAT), McClatchy (MNI), Media General (MEG), Nortel Networks (NT), Owens Corning (OC), Paychex (OPAYX), PHH Corp. (PHH), Playboy (PLA), Radio Shack (RSH), Rite Aid (RAD), Sherwin Williams (SHW), Sprint Nextel (S), Starbucks (SBUX), Starwood Hotels (HOT), Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Symantec (SYMC), Travelzoo (TZOO), VF Corp (VFC), Warner Music Group (WMG), Waste Management (WMI), Weight Watchers (WTW), Wendy’s (WEN)

Imagine how large this list would have been if retailers and REIT’s were included.
Jon C. Ogg
January 2, 2008

52-Week Low Club (CC, DBD, FIC, GTOP, IMB, MSSR, RECN, MU, RT, STI)

247wallst — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:01:00 +0000

Some of these recovered off lows but here are some of the more active stocks that hit 52-week lows today:

Circuit City (NYSE: CC)… after posting wider losses and then forecasting a loss next quarter. Even losers like them, how does a retailer lose money over Christmas????
Diebold (NYSE: DBD) hit a new 52-week low on a "continuing dialog" with Office of The Chief Accountant and a D.O.J. investigation into related matters.
Fair Isaac (NYSE: FIC) people keep asking us if FIC is the next implosion in being tied to system-wide credit woes.
Genitope (NASDAQ:GTOP) hit the FUBAR button after failing to meet endpoints in PHASE III. With no revenues it’s close to biotech zombie status.
IndyMac Bancorp (NYSE:IMB) recovered but its subprime woes remain.
McCormick & Schmicks (NASDAQ:MSSR)… steakhouse sales soft in weak consumer economy. Don’t you think the private equity firms wish they could sell those steakhouses back now????
Resource Connection (NASDAQ:RECN)… too few resources? Nope, it gave employees an extra week off of paid vacation. Those employees are some lucky SOB’s for that, but shareholders "NOT SO MUCH!!!"
Micron Tech (NYSE: MU) after a piss poor earnings report. Trivia Question: Is there a worse technology business than DRAM? It’s just like trading a commodity except the prices never seem to go up!
Ruby Tuesday (NYSE:RT) after a downgrade and an earnings warning, mid-level restaurant spending is weak and they don’t offer very much special.
SunTrust (NYSE:STI) weak again. Maybe Buffett wishes he stayed away.

Jon C. Ogg
December 21, 2007

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The Week of Stock Buybacks & Repurchase (COH, FIC, MIR, AVCT, HOT, AGO, HEES, CBG, TER, FDO, RWT, LH, VIGN, CSCO)

247wallst — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:39:07 +0000

Coach (NYSE:COH) has decided that the recent stock crush is a good opportunity to announce a $1 Billion share buyback plan. This represents roughly 30 million shares, or 5-times average volume; $12 Billion market cap.

Fair Isaac (NYSE:FIC) approved a $250 million share buyback plan, compared to a market cap of $2 Billion.

Mirant Corp. (NYSE:MIR) had one of the more impressive buybacks and share retirement plans announced, although its shares fell 8% because of losses. Mirant’s total return plan is some $4.6 Billion, which includes $1 Billion in open market purchases and a $ 1Billion accelerated buyback plan. This has been under review for the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.

Avocent Corp. (NASDAQ:AVCT) added 3 million shares to its stock repurchase program; Avocent has repurchased 11.2 million shares of the 12 million shares previously approved. The buyback equates to $75 million more in buybacks if completed, compared to a $1.25 Billion market cap and it represents about 8 days of trading volume.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:HOT) raised its dividend and added $1 Billion to share buybacks, compared to a $10.5 Billion market cap. This one has also been under review for the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) approved a new share repurchaseprogram for up to 2 million of Assured’s common shares, which is about$40 million of stock compared to $1.37 Billion in market cap and about2.5 days worth of trading volume.

H&E Equipment Services,Inc. (NASDAQ:HEES) authorized a stock repurchase program for up to $100million in common stock through December 31, 2008; represents almost 6million shares and about 9-days of average volume; market cap is $675million.

CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG) announced ashare repurchase program of up to $500 million, which is roughly 25million shares and almost 6-times average daily volume; market cap of$4.6 Billion.

Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE:TER) authorized a new StockRepurchase Program and is permitted to spend an aggregate of $400million to repurchase shares of its common stock. The company’s marketcap is $2.2 Billion, and this represents some 33 million shares oralmost 8-times average daily volume.

Despite a crummy market reception to its earnings report, Cisco Systems(NASDAQ:CSCO) repurchased some 96 million shares at an average of$31.28 during the quarter.

Family Dollar (NYSE:FDO) announced a $150 million share buyback plan.

RedwoodTrust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) authorized a repurchase of up to 5 millionshares of common stock, which replaces a previous Board authorizationunder which Redwood purchased 7,455,000 shares of its own stock fromSeptember 1997 to November 1999.

Laboratory Corp. of America(NYSE: LH) authorized a new stock buyback plan for up to $500,000,000of its Common Stock, and it has repurchased $131.0 million of stockduring the fourth quarter and has $198.2 million remainingauthorization under the existing share repurchase plan.

Vignette(NASDAQ:VIGN) has extended the share repurchase program it began inNovember, 2006. Vignette has already purchased $75 million of commonstock under its initial program, which equates to roughly 14 percent ofshares outstanding. It has approved an extension of an additional $75million in stock buybacks.

Is this all of the share buybacks? Ofcourse not, but this is a list of some of the key buyback and sharerepurchase announcements from this week. There was another huge listof major companies still buying back stock the week before as well, andyou can access the full list here.

Jon C. Ogg
November 9, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletterthat covers special pending and unannounced share buybacks,recapitalizations, restructurings, buyout candidates, activist investoractivity, turnarounds, and industry de-mergers.

Big List of Private Equity Targets in Financial Services

247wallst — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:32:00 +0000

There is a recent boutique research report from earlier in the week showing a list of potential private equity targets from a specialty brokerage firm that I was very positive on from even before its IPO: Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW). The truth is that this company is probably only behind Goldman Sachs (GS) as far as its knowledge of what is going on in the North American financial services sector, and the argument is that KBW is considered the number one firm as far as independent coverage of the financial services sector. It is too bad the company did not get this out at the end of last year to include many other names that have been gobbled up, but it really feels as though every firm is ‘cramming for finals’ in the M&A world with the private equity superstars.

PROCESSING: Fidelity National Information Services (FIS); FairIsaac (FIC); ChoicePoint (CPS). On a side note, Total SystemsSolutions (TSS) is Jim Cramer’s pick in the sub-sector. RATINGS: Moody’s (MCO). INSURANCE BROKERS (P&C): Marsh and McClennan (MMC), AON Corp. (AOC). INSURANCE: AFLAC (AFL), Conseco (CNO), and American Safety (ASI). MONEY MANAGEMENT: Legg Mason (LM), Janus Capital (JNS), Waddell & Reed (WDR), Federated Investors (FII), National Financial (NFP). LOANS, STUDENT LOAN: Nelnet (NNI).

We have our own list of targets in this financial services sector for our newsletter subscribers. Some of these companies make sense, and there are many others elsewhere in overlapping segments in financial services that may actually make more sense.

Jon C. Ogg
May 31, 2007

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