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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AAPL, APOL, FII, GOOG, HPQ, HES, HD, MD, NFLX, ORCL, PAA, PPL, DIS, YNDX, YGE)

Administrator — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:33:27 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen having an impact from Wall Street research calls.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Reiterated Overweight at JPMorgan; Reiterated Outperform at Credit Suisse; Reiterated Buy at Canaccord Genuity.
Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) Raised to Outperform with $47 target at Credit Suisse.
Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) maintained Buy but cut target to $85 at Argus.
The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Mednax Inc. (NYSE: MD) Started as Neutral with $67 target at Credit Suisse.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Started as Neutral at Stern Agee.
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) Reiterated Buy at Canaccord Genuity.
Plains All American LP (NYSE: PAA) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
PP&L Corporation (NYSE: PPL) reiterated Buy with $31 target at Argus.
Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Yandex N. V. (NASDAQ: YNDX) Started as Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: YGE) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, APOL, DIS, FII, GOOG, HD, HES, HPQ, MD, NFLX, ORCL, PAA, PPL, YGE, YNDX

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ABC, CAM, CE, CVX, EMC, FII, OII, RSH, RTN, O, SKH, SUNH, VHS, VE, VOD)

Administrator — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:06:32 +0000

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

AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE: ABC) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Cameron International Corporation (NYSE: CAM) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) Reiterated Buy and Raised Target to $125 at Argus.
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Oceaneering International Inc. (NYSE: OII) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Realty Income Corporation (NYSE: O) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. (NYSE: SKH) Cut to Market Perform at Morgan Keegan.
Sun Healthcare Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNH) Cut to Market Perform at Morgan Keegan; Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE: VHS) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo; Started as Overweight at Barclays.
Veolia Environment (NYSE: VE) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) Raised to Buy at UBS.

You are invited to join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, dividend trends, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ABC, CAM, CE, CVX, EMC, FII, O, OII, RSH, RTN, SKH, SUNH, VE, VHS, VOD

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALU, AWK, WTR, CHU, CYN, CBSH, FII, HFC, MTB, MCHP, PEGA, BOX, SEE, SU, TSO)

Administrator — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:34:40 +0000

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

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
American Water Works Co. (NYSE: AWK) Reiterated Buy at Gabelli.
Aqua America Inc (NYSE: WTR) Reiterated Buy at Gabelli.
China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
City National Corporation (NYSE: CYN) Raised to Neutral at BofA/ML.
Commerce Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: CBSH) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.
Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
HollyFrontier Corporation (NYSE: HFC) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML; Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) Maintained Buy but cut target to $40 at Gleacher & Co.
Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA) Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.
SeaCube Container Leasing Limited (NYSE: BOX) reiterated Buy as Value at Zacks.
Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE: SEE) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ALU, AWK, BOX, CBSH, CHU, CYN, FII, HFC, MCHP, MTB, PEGA, SEE, SU, TSO, WTR

Daily Dividend: Value & Yield in Asset Managers (BLK, FII, BEN, LM, TROW, IVZ, EV)

Administrator — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:01:57 +0000

It’s the Daily Dividend at 11:00 AM. We often look for value, growth, and dividends in financial stocks. Banks have been elusive on the dividend front until just the last couple of days, although we did give a list of banks which did not kill their dividends and already had a payout to shareholders ahead of time. After looking through a “value” report from Zacks Investment Research this morning, we could not help but notice how BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) stood out against its money management peers.

While the report highlighted the relative value of BlackRock, the boosted dividend payment of late, and a relatively cheap P/E ratio for forward estimates (14.8), what stood out the most was that it seems very likely to 24/7 Wall St. that the competing asset management firms will begin offering higher payouts via dividend hikes. Not all will catch up to BlackRock in yield with its 2.9% payout, but it still looks as though the rise in assets under management and the recovery of the stock market in the last two years will cause its rivals to follow suit.

Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) also stood out in the pack of asset management firms. Its dividend is close to 3.7%. At $26.32, it trades at about 14.5-times the forward Thomson Reuters estimate of $1.81 EPS for fiscal Dec-2011. With the exception of a higher payout in quarter a year ago, the dividend has been static at $0.24 per quarter back to 2008.

Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN) has a 0.8% dividend yield. At $118.25, it trades at 14.2-times Thomson’s Reuters estimates of $8.32 EPS for fiscal 2011. This one hiked its dividend back in December’s payout to $0.25 from $0.22 per quarter.

Legg Mason Inc. (NYSE: LM) has a 0.7% dividend yield. At $34.64, it trades at about 16.7-times the Thomson Reuters estimate of $2.07 for its March-2012 fiscal year-end. It raised its dividend two quarters ago to $0.06 from $0.04 per quarter.

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW) has a 1.9% dividend yield. At $63.15 it trades at 19.5-times the Dec-2011 fiscal estimate from Thomson Reuters. The new 1.9% yield is also reflective of a dividend hike last quarter that went to $0.31 from $0.27 per quarter.

Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ) has a 1.7% dividend yield. At $25.51, it trades at about 14-times the Thomson Reuters estimate of $1.81 EPS for fiscal Dec-2011. Invesco’s dividend has been static at $0.11 per quarter for a year now.

Eaton Vance Corp. (NYSE: EV) has a 2.4% dividend yield. At $31.25, it trades at about 17.8-times the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $1.75 EPS for fiscal October-2011. Eaton Vance raised its dividend to $0.18 from $0.16 just two quarters ago.

There were also higher payouts elsewhere that were irregular and we stuck with companies that have predictable yields rather than fluctuating dividend yields.

If the current landscape remains relatively close today, it seems obvious that higher dividend payments are coming down the road from more asset management firms. Most of these firms do not need massive growth capital and many have low dividend payout ratios and therefore high dividend coverage ratios.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Dividend, Financial Stocks, Shareholder Issues Tagged: BEN, BLK, EV, FII, IVZ, LM, TROW

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ATHN, BP, OHI, FII, JPM, GS, LVS, MOS, RBA, RGLD, VVUS, VOD, WYNN)

Administrator — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:40:27 +0000

These are some of this Friday’s top analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street firms:

Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) Cut to Hold at Standpoint; maintained at HOLD per S&P Equity Research.
Omega Healthcare (NYSE: OHI) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Federated Investors (NYSE: FII) Cut to Neutral at Macquarie.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch; Raaised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
The Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) Raised to Overweight at JMorgan.
Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (NYSE: RBA) has seen targets or ratings trimmed at BMO, Raymond James, RBC, Paradigm, and more.
Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) Raised to Buy at UBS.
VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) has been downgraded by Needham, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Brean Murray, and likely others.
Vodafone plc (NYSE: VOD) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Started as Buy at Jefferies.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ATHN, BP, FII, GS, JPM, LVS, MOS, OHI, RBA, RGLD, VOD, VVUS, WYNN

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AKAM, BCS, ED, EE, FII, ISRG, LGF, POR, PII, TROW, HD)

Administrator — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:27:00 +0000

These are some of this Monday’s top analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research notes:

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS) Maintained Buy but cut target and estimates at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
El Paso Electric Co. (NYSE: EE) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) Cut to Hold at Brean Murray.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF) Cut to Market Perform at BMO Capital.
Portland General Electric (NYSE: POR) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Polaris Industries, Inc. (NYSE: PII) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NYSE: TROW) Raised to Outperform at FBR.

The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) Raised target to $45 and raised estimates at Citigroup.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

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Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AKAM, BCS, ED, EE, FII, HD, ISRG, LGF, PII, POR, TROW

Top Analyst Downgrades (BLKB, CTXS, DSCO, EV, FII, LUV)

247wallst — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:05:20 +0000

These are some of the analyst downgrades and cautious research calls we have seen early this Tuesday morning on Wall Street:

Blackbaud (BLKB) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Citrix Systems (CTXS) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Discovery Labs (DSCO) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
Eaton Vance (EV) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Federated Investors (FII) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Southwest Air (LUV) Cut to Sell at Argus.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: BLKB, CTXS, DSCO, EV, FII, LUV

Top Analyst Downgrades (CTXS, DSCO, EV, FII, FPL, RAX)

247wallst — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:31:17 +0000

These are this Monday’s top pre-market analyst downgrades and cautious research calls from Wall Street with more than two hours until the market opens:

Citrix Systems (CTXS) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Discovery Labs (DSCO) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
Eaton Vance (EV) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Federated Investors (FII) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
FPL Group (FPL) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Rackspace (RAX) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: CTXS, DSCO, EV, FII, FPL, RAX

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (AXL, AXP, COF, DRYS, EXPD, FII, F, LEA, SAP, TRW, VE, WAT)

247wallst — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 07:47:26 +0000

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

American Axle (AXL) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
American Express (AXP) Started as Sell at Deutsche Bank.
Capital One (COF) Started as Sell at Deutsche Bank.
DryShips (DRYS) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Expeditors International (EXPD) Cut to Sell at UBS.
Federated Investors (FII) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Ford (F) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
Lear (LEA) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
SAP AG (SAP) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
TRW (TRW) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
Veolia (VE) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Waters (WAT) Downgraded at 3 firms: Baird, Deutsche Bank, & Leerink Swann.

Jon C. Ogg
December 12, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AXL, AXP, COF, DRYS, EXPD, F, FII, LEA, SAP, TRW, VE, WAT

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (DDR, FII, LM, PIR, SPLS, ULTA, WFMI)

247wallst — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:51:58 +0000

These are some of the top downgrades and negative calls we are seeing from Wall Street analysts this Tuesday morning:

Developers Diversified (DDR) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Federated Investors (FII) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Legg Mason (LM) Cut to Underperform at FBR.
Pier 1 Imports (PIR) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Regency Centers (REG) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Staples (SPLS) Cut to Underperform at RBC.
Ulta Salon (ULTA) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Whole Foods (WFMI) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.

Jon C. Ogg
November 25, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: DDR, FII, LM, PIR, SPLS, ULTA, WFMI