Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) Raised to Buy at Standpoint Research.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Geron Corp. (NASDAQ: GERN) Started as Buy at Roth.
GFI Group (NASDAQ: GFIG) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) Raised to Buy at Standpoint Research.
Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RTP) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.

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JON C. OGG

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The fate of CIT Group, Inc. (NYSE: CIT) is unknown, at least for the common equity holders.  As of Sunday morning there is still no official word of its pre-packaged bankruptcy filing.  This is after it secured $1 billion from Carl Icahn, received another $4.5 billion in high-rate loans, and amended a Goldman facility all late in the week.  CNBC’s David Faber hinted at a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing possibly over the weekend or Monday morning.  CIT only had one positive day last week and the stock lost about 36% of its value.  If CIT does go bankrupt, common shareholders might want to consider what almost happens to the value of common stock.  CIT does have an equity and debt issue which trades under the CIT-PZ ticker, and it rose on Friday.

Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE: GNW) is a financial stock we want to highlight from last week.  It is not just that it posted a surprise earnings gain rather than an expected loss.  The company completed a capital raise back in September with a sale of 55.2 million shares of common stock to raise $622 million.  This was dilutive and it is always difficult in today’s world to trust financial balance sheets, but what stood out the most is the book value comments. ”Book value per share grew 10 percent sequentially to $25.42 per share from $23.01 per share as of June 30, 2009, reflecting improvement in the investment environment and the additional equity capital partially offset by an increased number of shares. Book value per share, excluding accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), decreased sequentially to $25.37 per share from $27.33 per share as of June 30, 2009.” We would not believe for a second that this means the company could just go sell itself off for that price.  But with earnings starting to normalize and with the closing bell price of $10.62, book values of $25.42 and $25.37 start to make the stock picture more clear here.

GFI Group Inc. (NASDAQ: GFIG) had an awful trading response after the inter-dealer broker’s earnings report missed estimates and as it saw a decline in its equity trading volumes in both Europe and the U.S.  The metrics were not pretty on the declines of 21% in revenue to $192.2 million and net income outside of items was $0.06 EPS vs. $0.09 EPS from Thomson Reuters.  The 22.6% drop on Friday to $5.15 now takes it back into the lower-half of its 52-week trading range of $2.09 to $12.25.  One issue we have always highlighted as a boom-bust for GFI Group is the OTC derivatives trading.  While it is riskless for GFI itself, the market is becoming much more regulated and all the risk management and governmental oversight (and criticism) makes the chances that GFI won’t get to make anywhere what it did back at the peak.

Human Genome Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) is likely to have its most important day on Monday with the release of new data on the second of the company’s late-stage drug trials of its lupus drug Benlysta.  Our friend over at OptionsHawk.com pointed out huge activity in the options trading on Thursday and as we suspected the volume was through the roof again on Friday.  This also has an influence on its partner GlaxoSmithKline Plc (NYSE: GSK) as they will split the profits 50/50.  As lupus has had no real advancements in years, this drug has the potential for an instant blockbuster status of over $1 billion in annual sales.  That would put a Q1 FDA new drug application as likely.  This traded over 100,000 call options alone on Friday and depending on how you calculate this, the options traders are braced for a move of 22% to 29% in either direction.  Shares are likely to be halted early Monday until the news release.

Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) may be under fire all over again after an SEC filing from after 7:00 PM on Friday showed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) dumped another $28.7 million worth of stock in Moody’s over concerns of its core ratings business and what regulation and criticism is coming down the pike. Frankly, the old guy should have been dumping this one last year and the year before when he probably realized that trouble was headed this way.  This is one of his largest percentage holdings that Buffett has, and we’d also note that it seems Berkshire may report earnings this coming Friday.

RADVISION Ltd. (NASDAQ: RVSN) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) are both going to be interesting to watch in this week.  For starter’s, Cisco is one the top ten earnings on deck this coming week.  But there were reports on Friday that Cisco may walk away from the $3.1 billion acquisition of Tandberg because of minority shareholders wanting more.  RADVISION only traded around its earnings and two very light upgrades in the stock.  But when Cisco announced the deal to buy Tandberg, RADVISION stock fell from over $9.00 to roughly $6.00 because Cisco happens to be its largest client.  If Cisco won’t be changing its RADVISION down the road, then there is huge upside here if the Tandberg deal is called off.  We would not give it 100% of its lost ground back on an old recovery model, but we would target 30% and then 50% of the ground lost.  If that occurs, then $7 or $7.50 seems very plausible as a first stop.  We had an options take on this possibility.

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JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 1, 2009

• ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
• Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• FormFactor (NASDAQ: FORM) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
• GFI Group (NASDAQ: GFIG) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
• IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
• KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
• McCormick & Schmick’s (NASDAQ: MSSR) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Melco Crown (NASDAQ: MPEL) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Morton’s Restaurant Group (NYSE: MRG) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Peet’s Coffee & Tea (NASDAQ: PEET) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Premier Exhibitions (NASDAQ: PRXI) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
• Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
• Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) Cut to Sector Underperform at CIBC.
• Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs (added details).
• Teck (NYSE: TCK) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
• Teradyne (NYSE: TER) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
• UDR Inc. (NYSE: UDR) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
• Vornado (NYSE: VNO) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2009

• ACE Ltd. (ACE) raised to buy at Goldman Sachs.
• Annaly Capital (NLY) raised to overweight at JPMorgan.
• Evergreen Solar (ESLR) raised to hold at Citigroup.
• GFI Group (GFIG) raised to outperform at KBW.
• Hoku Scientific (HOKU) raised to buy at Broadpoint.
• Investment Technology Group (ITG) raised to outperform at KBW.
• Goldman Sachs (GS) raised to outperform at Wachovia.
• Kroger (KR) raised to buy at B of A.
• Monsanto (MON) raised to buy at BB&T.
• NASDAQ OMX (NDAQ) raised to outperform at KBW.
• Travelers (TRV) raised to buy at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
September 17, 2008

• GFI Group (NASDAQ: GFIG) started as Market Perform at KBW.
• Gushan Environmental Energy (NYSE: GU) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Piper Jaffray.
• Hertz Global (NYSE: HTZ) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
• Mobile Telesystems (NYSE: MBT) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
• National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) started as Market-weight at Thomas Weisel.
• Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) started as Overweight at Lehman.
• Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) downgraded to Equal-weight from Overweight at Lehman Brothers.
• Thomson (NYSE: TOC) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
• TIBCO Software (NASDAQ: TIBX) downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies.
• VODAFONE (NYSE: VOD) downgraded to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Jon C. Ogg
March 31, 2008

Lehman Brothers (LEH) Fall out from banking system problems. Drops to $20.25 from 52-week high $82.05.

National City (NCC) Bank was downgraded. Has mortgage and commericial loan exposure. Sells down to $6.66 from 52-week high of $38.32.

MFGlobal (MF) Rumors about liquidity problems takes shares down to $3.64 from 52-week high of $32.20.

CIT (CIT) Worries about its credit quality bury it at $9.55 down from 52-week high of $61.47.

Citigroup( (C) drops to $17.99 from 52-week high of $55.55.

Merrill Lynch (MER) down to $37.25 from 52-week high of $85.

Force Protection (FRPT) Losing business to rivals and will delay 10-K. Down to $1.03 from $30.

GFI Group (GFIG) The inter-dealer broker is pulled down by concerns in the sector. Down to $32.66 from 52-week high of $103.16.

Blackstone (BX) Private equity group down to $13.40 from 52-week high of $38.

Douglas A. McIntyre

• Ambac (ABK), M B I A Inc. (MBI), and Security Capital Assurance (SCA) were downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Banc of America (that was real timely).
• Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
• Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Double Hull Tankers (DHT) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
• GFI Group (GFIG) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
• Philps Electronics (PHG) downgraded to Underweight from Overweight at Lehman.
• Priceline.com (PCLN) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
• Research in Motion (RIMM) raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
• Staples (SPLS) raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
• Wrigley (WWY) raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
January 18, 2008

Jon C. Ogg
July 17, 2007

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