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.

Your email address

subscribe

terms and conditions

JON C. OGG

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly 97 points to 12,720.48 (0.76%), the NASDAQ fell nearly 2 points (-0.06%) to 2,786.70, and the S&P 500 rose a bare 0.07% or less than 1 point to 1,315.37.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Google maintained as ‘buy’ but target price cut to $700 at Canaccord Genuity; Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE: JCI) cut to ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan; Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) reiterated as ‘buy’ with $35 target price at Argus; Tractor Supply Co. (NASDAQ: TSCO) reiterated as ‘buy’ and target price raised to $92 at Argus; and Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) cut to ‘market perform’ at Wells Fargo.

Earnings reports since markets closed yesterday have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Google is down -8.78% at $583.39; Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is up 2.75% at $26.33; IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is up 4.48% at $188.61; Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is up 1.42% at $7.06; American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is down -1.94% at $49.96; General Electric is down -0.21% at $19.11; Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB is up 0.74% at $73.40; and Suntrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) is up 4.79% at $21.21.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Insmed Inc. (NASDAQ: INSM) is up nearly 30% at $4.94. The biotech company announced that the FDA has lifted a clinical hold on a lung disease drug.

The Talbots Inc. (NYSE: TLB) is up nearly 18% at $3.17. The clothing retailer is rumored to be under consideration for a takeover by two private equity firms.

Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) is up nearly 14% at $49.25. The general merchandise retailer is thought to be under consideration for a takeover offer from its largest shareholder.

NCI Inc. (NASDAQ: NCIT) is down nearly -32%, after posting a new 52-week low of $7.71 earlier today. The federal contractor will restructure to compensate for loss of contracts.

Cogent Communications Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CCOI) is down nearly -18% at $15.45. The network communications provider is suffering from the shutdown last night of the Megaupload.com website, one of Cogent’s largest customers, by federal authorities.

Stay tuned for Monday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 11:30 a.m. – 3-month and 6-month Treasury bill auctions

Your email address

subscribe

terms and conditions

Have a great weekend.

Paul Ausick

IKEA posts a profit and grows in most regions of the world. (Reuters)

Greece and private creditors move closer to a debt deal. (Reuters)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) says it will enter the digital textbook business. (Reuters)

IBM (NYSE: IBM) results show solid IT demand. (Reuters)

Angry Birds’ parent pushes back the date of its IPO. (Reuters)

The EC will decide whether to approve a Google buyout of Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) by February 13. (Reuters)

Eastman Kodak’s (NYSE: EK) move into bankruptcy as a means to cut costs may not yield high value for its patents as well. (WSJ)

Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) buys old AIG (NYSE: AIG) mortgage paper from the New York Federal Reserve. (WSJ)

AT&T’s (NYSE: T) new plan to raise data costs for subscribers may prompt some to switch to competitors. (WSJ)

HSBC’s (NYSE: HBC) Chinese PMI estimate shows slow manufacturing, with a 48.8 measurement compared to 48.7 in December. (WSJ)

Floods in Thailand do not dent Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) earnings much. (WSJ)

American homeowners finally begin to improve their property, according to IHS Global Insight. (WSJ)

China sets more deals with U.S. allies to strengthen its supply of oil. (WSJ)

The European Aviation Safety Agency says Airbus will do more safety inspections of its A380 superjumbo. (WSJ)

General Motors (NYSE: GM) says it is the largest car company in the world, but experts disagree on how to count affiliate sales. (WSJ)

The Energy Information Administration says exports of natural gas could drive U.S. prices up by 54% in 2018. (WSJ)

Google presses its effort in display ads, which could pressure Aol (NYSE: AOL) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). (WSJ)

General Electric (NYSE: GE) tries to improve its prospects, but its size and diversity may hurt that push. (WSJ)

Hedge fund investors pull more cash from the firms than they add in the last part of 2011. (WSJ)

Commerzbank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, and Spain’s Bankia must push to raise cash to meet regulations. (WSJ)

American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Capital One (NYSE: COF) earnings show consumers returning to the use of credit. (WSJ)

Dealogic says that companies have raised $44.2 billion this year — a record for the period. (WSJ)

Chris Dodd, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, suggests that tech and content companies meet to explore their differences. (NYT)

Ireland says its economy will be troubled again this year as its tries to meet austerity goals. (NYT)

Italy’s banks borrow 50 billion euros from the European Central Bank. (FT)

International Monetary Fund’s Largarde warns that budget cuts linked to austerity could damage growth. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

GE missed analyst estimates which were $.38 for the fourth quarter on revenue of $40.05. It released it figures as it usually does–in a confused format which makes them hard to understand:

GE announced today fourth-quarter 2011 Operating Earnings of $4.1 billion, or $0.39 per share, up 6% and 11% respectively from the fourth-quarter of 2010. Revenues were $38.0 billion for the quarter and $147.3 billion for the year. Record Infrastructure orders of $28.6 billion in the fourth quarter enabled GE to end the year with a backlog of $200 billion, the largest in its history.

The backlog is not very important when some of the balance of the key divisions are performing poorly. Also lost at the top of the earnings release was that revenue for the entire company dropped sharply from $41.2 billion in the quarter last year to $38 billion in the most recent quarter

Aviation revenue was up 2% to $4.9 billion, and operating income rose 4% to $850 million. In a world in which Boeing and Airbus have recorded strong orders, the numbers seem out of place. Maybe GE aviation product sales will catch up later

Healthcare figures were worse. Revenue rose 1% to $5.4 billion. Operating income was down by 4% to $953 million.

Even the GE flagship division–energy infrastructure–only had partial good news. Revenue rose an impressive 19% to $13 billion, but segment operating income was flat at $2.2 billion

CEO Jeff Immelt said “We finish 2011 with momentum and are positioned for a strong 2012. Our Industrial businesses are positioned for growth. GE Capital is strong and profitable. We have substantial cash available to improve shareholder returns. The Company is positioned to perform for investors.”

What happened to last year’s performance? There did not seem to be any momentum at all.

Douglas A. McIntyre

GE continues to improve its internal workings and continues to improve its customer credit metrics in the GE Capital operations faster than most expected.  The company’s dividend hike came sooner than expected and this conglomerate is returning to normal sooner than expected even if the total portfolio changes is going to look like a decline in revenues on the surface.  While United Tech might have been the cheapest conglomerate, it was still General Electric which we included in the 24/7 Wall St. 2012 Model Dividend Portfolio.

GE was also listed as one of Jim Cramer’s 4 Favorite DJIA Stocks For 2012.

After a 0.7% rise on Thursday to $19.15, GE shares are up 6.9% year to date.  What is more impressive is that after you adjust for the dividend payment the stock of the conglomerate is up a massive 21.5% from the end of November and shares are up a massive 31.5% if you were lucky enough to buy shares on the day after Thanksgiving and hold them.

The manner in which GE is acting is that it wants to go well back over $20.00.  That is what its chart action is indicating at any rate.  At some point, it will take more continued good news of some sort from the company to make that sustainable.

In case GE manages to disappoint the street, the 50-day moving average is $16.89 and the 200-day moving average is $17.32.  The first support level would come in around $18.00 if any serious disappointment comes up and then down in the $17.60 area if the news is somehow much worse than investors are expecting.  Shares are now back up at levels not seen since last July and the historic 1-year chart shows that all sorts of resistance will come back into play in the $20.10 to $20.30 areas.

Thomson Reuters has a consensus (mean) price target objective of $21.21.

JON C. OGG

Google’s brand value increased by 27%, the third largest gain among the top 100 brands. The second largest gain was posted by Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), which jumped 32% and moved up from 36th on the list to 26th.

The biggest loser was Nokia, which fell -15% and from 8th to 14th in the league table. Another smartphone maker, Samsung Electronics, moved up from 2 places, from 19th, on the strength of a 20% jump in brand value.

Toyota, ranked 11th, is the top automaker, barely ahead of Mercedes-Benz, with BMW in third. Among US carmakers only Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) made the top 100 with its ‘Ford’ brand, at 50th place behind Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC) and Volkswagen.

Three brands made the list for the first time: Nissan, John Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE), and HTC Corp.

The Interbrand study ranks the top ten brands by dollar value in this order:

1. Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) – $71.86 billion
2. IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) – $69.91 billion
3. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) – $59.09 billion
4. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) – $55.32 billion
5. General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) – $42.81 billion
6. McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) – $35.59 billion
7. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) – $35.22 billion
8. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) – $33.5 billion
9. Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) – $29.02 billion
10. Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) – $28.48 billion

Paul Ausick

We have many key earnings, including some DJIA components, as follows: Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C); Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC); eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY); Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS); Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX); American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG); Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC); International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM); Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG); Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT); UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH); General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB).

We have added in Thomson Reuters consensus data, as well as other bits of data and color if applicable.

Tuesday, January 17

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) both lead Tuesday morning off with earnings, and each are important.  Wells Fargo is the healthier of the two and it does not trade at a discount to book value like its peers because it is deemed the least penalized of the money center banks in the new lower-trading and less risk environment.  Both pulled back after J.P. Morgan earnings, but both were up handily so far this year.

Citi has estimates of $0.49 EPS and $18.54 billion in sales. 

Wells Fargo has estimates of $0.72 EPS on $28.08 billion in sales. 

Wednesday, January 18

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has a bit of a neutral bias going into Wednesday’s earnings after the close as it is still mostly a domestic story for auctions, with PayPal being the biggest boost.  Earnings estimates are $0.57 EPS and $3.32 billion in revenues.

Read Also: DJIA Expected 12% Gains in 2012 to 13,678

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) is due on Wednesday morning and the earnings estimates have been cratering ahead of the report.  The current target is $1.24 EPS on $6.54 billion in sales, but the earnings targets were above $2.00 EPS recently and the street expected almost $3.00 just about 90 days ago. 

• 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

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was Jim Cramer’s first pick of the week, with its higher dividend and slightly better share discount to peak prices being noted as the reason.  The $4 billion break-up fee may have taken out too much from the value and the carrier’s iPhone business has held up better than many would have expected.

Read Also: Modified Methodology Predicts 12% DJIA Gain In 2012 to 13,678

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was Jim Cramer’s top pick for the DJIA stocks on Friday.  His reason is not defense as much as it is the 787 Dreamliner’s slow start and secular growth driver ahead,  Cramer touted a huge order backlog in other planes which have already been developed years ago and showed how it has so much pricing power in the Airbus duopoly that AMR was even given permission to honor its pending aircraft purchases while AMR is in bankruptcy.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was touted by Jim Cramer as one of the top DJIA picks for 2012.  Cramer sees more than 10% upside, but that is in-line with street estimates and some analysts are even more positive than Cramer.  Cramer sees the recent dividend hike sooner than expected as having been one catalyst and improved and diversified core business metrics.

Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) was picked by Cramer in the middle of the week after a positive performance of about 17% in 2011 and with its 3.1% dividend yield.  The value he sees is in this long pending break-up of the company because it is too large and diverse in food for the street to grasp right now.  This is even though he called it a no-man’s stock that is neither appealing to growth nor value investors right now.

Your email address

subscribe

terms and conditions

JON C. OGG

It turns out that many stocks with high dividend yields are now more attractive than sovereign debt in the U.S. and abroad. Part of the allure, besides income or reinvestment, is that dividend stocks often hold up better than other investments during jittery markets. It is hard to imagine, but the high-yield utility sector was one of the top performers of the S&P in 2011. In some cases, half of an investor’s total return through time may come from dividends. Warren Buffett generally picks dividend-paying companies for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) after following some of the principles of Benjamin Graham.

The 24/7 Wall St. 2012 Model Dividend Portfolio includes the following stocks: American Electric Power Co., Inc. (NYSE: AEP); American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK); AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T); General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE: GOV); Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB); Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH); and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

While exchange-traded products have been avoided in the past, recent trends merit a look at the open-end or closed-end mutual funds and ETF products as follows: SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond (NYSE: JNK); JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index ETN (NYSE: AMJ); ALPS Alerian MLP ETF (NYSE: AMLP); and PowerShares Financial Preferred (NYSE: PGF).

Lastly, there have been some exits due to upside price performance: Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO); Digital Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: DLR); Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE: EPD); and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE: KMP).

We have described the features and outlook for each component of our Model Dividend Portfolio.