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Media Digest (1/30/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT

247wallst — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:49:34 +0000

EU leaders agree to create the European Stability Mechanism, which will have funds of 500 billion euro and begin its business in July. (Reuters)

EU leaders probably will create a 20 billion euro fund to help improve unemployment among the young. (Reuters)

Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) reports that small business hiring slowed in January and wages dropped. (Reuters)

The head of Philips warns of challenges in the first half of this year. (Reuters)

Republicans will link a highway spending bill to the Keystone XL pipeline. (Reuters)

Much of the missing $1.2 billion from MF Global may never be found. (WSJ)

Citigroup’s (NYSE: C) Richard Parsons may retire as chairman. (WSJ)

Germany warns Greece it may not get bailout funds because of inadequate austerity measures. (WSJ)

The head of the Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) will turn down his bonus because of an uproar about its size. (WSJ)

The IMF will review whether the yuan is still undervalued. (WSJ)

AMR’s nonunion retirees want more say in its Chapter 11. (WSJ)

The Association of Fundraising Professionals says many nonprofits had record years in 2011. (WSJ)

Sarkozy announces plans to improve France’s competitiveness. (WSJ)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Aol (NYSE: AOL) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) set an alliance to prevent phishing emails. (WSJ)

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) will sell some of its Japanese operations. (WSJ)

A new Fed study warns of deflation. (WSJ)

Investors are voicing more concern over Japan’s debt. (WSJ)

Troubles at newspapers caused 71 dailies to be sold last year. (NYT)

Many U.S. banks use CDs to bet for or against Europe’s problems. (NYT)

Research In Motion (NYSE: RIMM), which has done well in Europe, faces more challenges there. (NYT)

Ratings agencies will be questioned about their role in MF Global. (FT)

Exports from industrial companies in the West to China fall. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Press Digest Tagged: AOL, C, GOOG, INTU, MSFT, RBS, RIMM, XOM, YHOO

Media Digest (1/4/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:42:13 +0000

Bill Gross’s PIMCO Total Return Fund has $1.4 billion in outflows in December, according to Morningstar. (Reuters)

MF Global sold some assets to Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) before its collapsed. (Reuters)

As a move toward making its activities more public, the Federal Reserve will publish its rate forecasts. (Reuters)

BP (NYSE: BP) stops payments from its Gulf Coast Claims Facility as it waits for a court hearing on how some outlays should be made. (Reuters)

Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) says small business payrolls rose by 55,000 in December. (Reuters)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) may take the chairman title away from its co-CEOs. (Reuters)

Samsung expects a good Q4 because of rising smartphone sales. (Reuters)

PayPal President Scott Thompson will be named Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO. (AllThingsD)

Venture capitalists cut investment activity after a torrid 2011. (WSJ)

Banks grow concerned about investments in Asia as the economy there slows. (WSJ)

MBIA (NYSE: MBI) wins a ruling in its mortgage suit against Bank of America’s (NYSE: BAC) Countrywide. (WSJ)

Toyota’s (NYSE: TM) earnings power will be challenged by the value of the yen. (WSJ)

Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) hires the CEO of Brookstone to help resurrect Kmart. (WSJ)

Farmers and the food industry want relief from new government rules on consumer intake of dioxins. (WSJ)

The French government will increase its VAT. (WSJ)

Oprah Winfrey’s new TV show has a poor start. (WSJ)

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) to raise prices in some parts of the country. (WSJ)

Athabasca Oil Sands will sell 40% of one of its oil sands products to PetroChina (NYSE: PTR). (WSJ)

AT&T (NYSE: T) will pay TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) $125 million for a license to some of its technology. (WSJ)

Ford (NYSE: F) to launch a new SUV in India. (WSJ)

Online sales help the results of UPS (NYSE: UPS) and American Express (NYSE: AXP). (NYT)

The jobless rate in Germany falls to 6.8%. (NYT)

As Spain’s unemployment reaches 23%, evidence grows that Europe has been divided into financial “haves” and “have not” nations. (FT)

Mobile research firm Flurry says that more than 1.2 billion apps were downloaded the week of Christmas. (FT)

Due to a slow global economy, Fiat may be well short of its goal to sell 6 million cars, between its main unit and Chrysler, by 2014. (Bloomberg)

Shares of Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) fall as investors worry about the future of online daily deals. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

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Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AXP, BAC, BP, EBAY, F, GRPN, GS, INTU, MBI, PTR, RIMM, SBUX, SHLD, T, TIVO, TM, UPS, YHOO

Media Digest (12/1/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, Bloomberg

247wallst — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:26:02 +0000

Blackstone (NYSE: BX) and Bain may bid for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) along with Asian partners Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan. (Reuters)

China’s PMI contracts for the first time in three years. (Reuters)

The former CEO of Olympus tries to get his job back after the company was rocked by scandal. (Reuters)

A Reuters poll shows that U.S. and UK institutions have sharply cut EU debt. (Reuters)

A massive strike of UK teachers and public employees, based on resistance to government expense cuts, rocks the country. (Reuters)

Meg Whitman, the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), will rely on increases in software revenue to revive the company. (Reuters)

AT&T (NYSE: T) and Deutsche Telekom may create a joint venture between AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile as a way to get around government objections to a buyout. (Reuters)

New insider trading charges may be brought against managers at Neuberger Berman, Diamond Back and Level. (WSJ)

Pilots at American Airlines hire Lazard to help them in negotiations. (WSJ)

S&P cuts its rating of HP by two notches. (WSJ)

Tepco says its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex was closer to a major disaster than previously thought. (WSJ)

Statistics agency Eurostat says unemployment across the Euroblock rose to 16.3 million. (WSJ)

United Continental (NYSE: UAL) receives government approval to further integrate its operations. (WSJ)

Web entrepreneurs are concerned that a sales tax on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will spread to their businesses. (WSJ)

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) sharply increases its dividend. (WSJ)

Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) to offer free smartphone tax advice. (WSJ)

Yahoo!’s board continues to favor the sale of a minority interest. (NYT)

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) picks the head of Digitas to run Time Inc., a sign of a move away from print. (NYT)

Zynga’s IPO to be valued at $10 billion. (NYT)

Spain and France will try to raise money in a high-interest sovereign paper environment. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AMZN, BX, DIS, DT, HPQ, INTU, T, TWX, UAL, YHOO

Latest Wireless Earnings, Court Ruling Weigh on Telecom Merger (LEAP, PCS, T, DTEGY, S, VZ, VOD, HRB, INTU)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:01:24 +0000

Wireless phone companies Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) and MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE: PCS) have now reported quarterly earnings, and their results cast more of a shadow over the proposed $39 billion merger between AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile USA, currently owned by Deutsche Telekom AG (OTC: DTEGY). Neither MetroPCS nor Leap shows the kind of earnings strength that puts either company in a position to offer a credible alternative to T-Mobile as a low-cost provider of wireless service.Leap, which reported earnings after the markets closed yesterday, posted an EPS loss of -$o.90 on revenue of $763 million. Consensus estimates called for an EPS loss of -$0.79 on revenue of $766 million. Still, the report has gotten a positive reception because Leap managed to add 10,000 new subscribers, compared with a loss of 200,000 customers in the same period a year ago.

MetroPCS did not fare as well. The company reported EPS of $0.19 on revenue of $1.2 billion. Consensus estimates called for EPS of $0.23 and revenue of $1.22 billion. The company added 69,000 new customers in the quarter, a big drop from the 199,000 it added in the second quarter.

The challenge from Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile in the pre-paid market hurt MetroPCS’s revenues and earnings. This does not help the AT&T/T-Mobile plan to sell off some assets to other carriers as the two companies try to get their proposed merger through the regulatory process. MetroPCS was viewed as a possible buyer of those assets, but lower customer additions and lower profits are not usually conducive to expansion plans.

Sprint has no interest in buying any assets that AT&T/T-Mobile want to shed. The number three US carrier has fought the proposed merger every step of the way. Verizon Wireless, the joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone plc (NASDAQ: VOD), has had essentially no comment on the proposed merger, but certainly has little to gain from a tie-up between AT&T and T-Mobile.

The US Justice Department’s suit to stop the merger got a boost yesterday when a federal court prevented H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) from buying low-cost tax preparer TaxAct, citing anti-trust violations. The deal was worth less than $300 million but the Justice Department argued that the merger would leave just two tax-prep firms, Block and Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU). Similarly, the AT&T deal would leave just one behemoth, AT&T, while Verizon Wireless would fall to a distant second place and be virtually forced to acquire Sprint in order to stay competitive.

The inability or unwillingness of another company to pick up AT&T/T-Mobile assets, coupled with the Block ruling, could be the beginning of the end for the proposed merger.

MetroPCS shares are down more than -7% this morning at $7.89, after posting a new 52-week low of $7.58. Leap Wireless is faring better, up more than 16%, at $8.09, in a 52-week range of $5.50-$17.66.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Earnings, Mergers and Buy Outs, Telecom, Wireless Tagged: DTEGY, HRB, INTU, LEAP, PCS, S, T, VOD, VZ

Alter Ego Alert: H&R Block With Wal-Mart (HRB, WMT, INTU)

Administrator — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:03:23 +0000

H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) comes under fire from time to time, and this morning may be an image-changing announcement. The tax preparation service provider is going to start providing tax preparation services in approximately 300 Wal-Mart locations for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

The pact is only a month out as the plan calls for these services at Kiosks starting in December. What will seem ironic is that H&R Block noted some 11,000 offices in its press release, so this will not even add 3% to the total locations.

Some expansion moves make sense. This might be a good way for H&R Block to get its name out there in more locations and to recruit new clients, but a professional and financial services firm is taking a risk by going inside Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart’s current labor criticisms grow then the companies doing business with Wal-Mart will start to come under fire as well.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) currently sells its TurboTax, Quicken, and QuickBooks software packages at Wal-Mart. It would be unlikely for that to end.

Hopefully Wal-Mart won’t open up kiosks for divorce and personal injury lawyers as well.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Business Services, Compensation, Corporate Governance, Financial Stocks, Personal Finance, Retail, Software, Tax Tagged: HRB, INTU, WMT

August’s New Massive Stock Buybacks… Over $30 Billion (LOW, CVS, CELG, COV, INTU, DISCA, HRS, LMT, RSG, LOW, ABC, MXIM, ANR, AVT, JAH, LUV, STJ, ECL, IPG, FRX, ACE, CLF, CTSH, KBR, NWL, VRX, AKAM, AOL, DLB, URBN, ACM, CHTR, MYGN, PFG, HSIC)

Administrator — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:00:52 +0000

The pace of stock buyback announcements in the month of August was almost unbelievable. The pace was stronger at the start of the month when earnings were still coming in droves, but the number of newly announced buyback plans and the extended or expanded buyback plans remained high throughout the entire month. Many companies announce share buybacks and never spend much on the actual plan. Today, these companies are by and large actually living up to their promises. These are The August Buyback Kings….

We would normally group these alphabetically, but not today. We grouped these in order of size and then we used an alphabetic order when it came to the same size of a buyback announcement. The first group is the billions of dollars.

We then grouped the stocks by size again from the under $1 billion down to $500 million, and then we grouped the buybacks of under $500 million down to $200 million. Usually we would cut the list off at buybacks of the $100 million and higher but the list was already too big so we cut the Buyback Kings off at $200 million for August. Lastly, we have a chart at the very end tallying it all up…. Some $28.7 billion for just the $200 million and higher in new or expanded buyback announcements. There were literally dozens of other buybacks that were closer to the $100 million mark and many more that were less than that.

The $1 billion and higher alone which were announced in August were as follows: Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW); CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS); Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG); Covidien plc (NYSE: COV); Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU); Discovery Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA); Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS); and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT).

Filed under: Dividend, Shareholder Issues, Stock Buybacks Tagged: ABC, ACE, ACM, AKAM, ANR, AOL, AVT, CELG, CHTR, CLF, COV, CSCO, CTSH, CVS, CVX, DISCA, DLB, ECL, FRX, HRS, INTU, IPG, JAH, KBR, LMT, LOW, LUV, MXIM, MYGN, NWL, NWSA, PFG, RSG, STJ, URBN, VRX, XOM

Changing of the Guard at Symantec, John Thompson Exits Chairman Role (SYMC, INTU, AMR, QCOM)

Administrator — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:18:29 +0000

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) is announcing the changing of the guard at its Chairman position. Independent board member Steve Bennett will be elected to succeed former CEO John W. Thompson as Chairman with an effective date of October 25, 2011.

Thompson was formerly one of our “CEOs To Go” with the caveat that he could drop the day-to-day operational role as CEO and still remain on as Chairman. The reasons given for Thompson’s departure was to “pursue other business and personal interests.”

Bennett has been a Symantec board of directors member since February 2010. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Intuit and he currently serves on the boards at AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Vertafore.

This replacement matters. Thompson was formerly deemed a great CEO and he has been a respectable Chairman. The problem is that Symantec got bogged down with its Veritas acquisition and its stock has been stuck in the mud ever since that key merger was announced.

Our recommendation to the incoming Chairman: Institute a dividend policy immediately as your first order of business.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Corporate Governance, Management Change, Software Tagged: AMR, INTU, QCOM, SYMC

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (CPN, CSC, DUK, EXC, FE, GE, INTU, MCD, MPEL, MSI, P, PAAS, PEP, TRV, EGY, WPI)

Administrator — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:08:24 +0000

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

Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE: FE) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Maintained Outperform but cut estimates at Credit Suisse.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) Raised to Buy at UBS.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Reiterated Outperform and raised target to $97 at Credit Suisse.
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $18 at BofA/ML.
Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE: P) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan; Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo; Started as Outperform at William Blair; Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.
Pepsico Inc. (NYSE: PEP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
The Travelers Companies (NYSE: TRV) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Bear of the Day
VAALCO Energy, Inc. (NYSE: EGY) Reiterated Buy as Value at Zacks.
Watson Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: WPI) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

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: CPN, CSC, DUK, EGY, EXC, FE, GE, INTU, MCD, MPEL, MSI, P, PAAS, PEP, TRV, WPI

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMZN, BIDU, BHP, CVC, GOOG, HAL, INTU, NFLX, OPEN, QGEN, RVSN, SHLD, SZYM, TSO, WAC)

Administrator — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:03:10 +0000

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

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Started as Neutral at Collins Stewart.
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) Started as Buy at Collins Stewart.
BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) Cut to Sell at S&P Equity Research (late Tuesday call).
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Started as Buy at Collins Stewart.
Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) Reiterated Buy and Raised Target to $63 at Argus.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) Cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Capital.
OpenTable, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN) Started as Buy at Collins Stewart.
Qiagen NV (NASDAQ: QGEN) Started as Buy at BofA/ML.
Radvision Ltd. (NASDAQ: RVSN) Cut to Market Perform at Morgan Keegan (late Tuesday call).
Sears Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Solazyme, Inc. (NASDAQ: SZYM) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs; Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Walter Investment Management Corp. (NYSE: WAC) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AMZN, BHP, BIDU, CVC, GOOG, HAL, INTU, NFLX, OPEN, QGEN, RVSN, SHLD, SZYM, TSO, WAC

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AES, AIV, APO, ADSK, BRFS, CAP, CRAI, GPS, INTU, JPM, LEAP, PCS, MMI, PM, QIHU, RRGB, RGS, CRM, S, SYMC, TSN, ZLC)

Administrator — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:25:12 +0000

It is a big day for analyst research calls. These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Friday morning.

The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Apartment Investment & Management Co. (NYSE: AIV) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE: APO) Started as Outperform at KBW.
Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) reiterated Buy and raised target to $50 at Canaccord Genuity.
BRF - Brasil Foods S.A. (NYSE: BRFS) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
CAI International Inc. (NYSE: CAP) Maintained Strong Buy as Value at Zacks.
CRA International (NASDAQ: CRAI) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Started as Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE: PCS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) Started as Outperform at Macquarie.
Philip Morris International, Inc. (NYSE: PM) Raised to Strong Buy at S&P Equity Research (late-Thursday).
Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. (NYSE: QIHU) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Regis Corporation (NYSE: RGS) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) Maintained Buy with $170 target at Canaccord Genuity.
Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $24 at Argus.
Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.
Zale Corporation (NYSE: ZLC) Raised to Buy with $4.75 at BofA/ML.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ADSK, AES, AIV, APO, BRFS, CAP, CRAI, CRM, GPS, INTU, JPM, LEAP, MMI, PCS, PM, QIHU, RGS, RRGB, S, SYMC, TSN, ZLC