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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ATVI, AMR, AMD, AWK, CAH, DISCA, GME, HRBN, IVZ, JBLU, PHG, LM, MA, OXY, RCL, V, DIS, WWW, WYNN)

Administrator — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:26:17 +0000

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

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) Started as Outperform at Baird.
AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR) Started as Buy at Stern Agee.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) Raised to Perform at Oppenheimer.
American Water Works Co. (NYSE: AWK) Started as Neutral with $32 target at Credit Suisse.
Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Discovery Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA) Started as Neutral at JPMorgan.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Harbin Electric, Inc. (NASDAQ: HRBN) Cut to Neutral at Roth Capital.
Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) Started as Buy at Stern Agee.
Koninklijke Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) Cut to Underperform at Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Legg Mason Inc. (NYSE: LM) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.
Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) Maintained Buy but cut estimates and target at Argus.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) Cut to Hold at S&P Equity Research.
Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Wolverine Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: WWW) named Value Stock of the Day at Zacks.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AMD, AMR, ATVI, AWK, CAH, DIS, DISCA, GME, HRBN, IVZ, JBLU, LM, MA, OXY, PHG, RCL, V, WWW, WYNN

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 and Downgrades (BP, BEN, IVZ, LNCR, KR, PHG, SWY, SWN, TSO, WMB)

Administrator — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:38:53 +0000

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

BP plc (NYSE: BP) target cut at HSBC; Cut to Hold at UniCredit; Moody’s cut the debt rating; BP was also raised to Buy at Societe Generale.
Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Lincare Holdings (NASDAQ: LNCR) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) Cut to Underperform at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV (NYSE: PHG) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) Cut to Underperform at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Southwestern Energy Co. (NYSE: SWN) Cut to Neutral from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) Raised to Sector Perform at RBC.
Willams Cos. (NYSE: WMB) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BEN, BP, IVZ, KR, LNCR, PHG, SWN, SWY, TSO, WMB

Top Analyst Upgrades (APA, BIDU, BHP, STD, BK, CENT, IVZ, QCOM, SVNT, STT, TXN)

247wallst — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:39:39 +0000

These are the top analyst upgrades and positive research calls from Wall Street we have seen early this Wednesday morning with more than two hours until the market opens:

Apache (APA) Raised to Strong Buy at S&P.
Baidu (BIDU) Target Raised to $350 at Goldman Sachs.
BHP Billiton (BHP) Raised to Outperform at Macquarie.
Banco Santander (STD) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill.
Bank of New York Mellon (BK) Started as Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Central Garden (CENT) Raised to Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Invesco (IVZ) Raised to Strong Buy at S&P.
QUALCOMM (QCOM) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Savient Pharmaceuticals (SVNT) Raised to Perform at Oppenheimer.
State Street (STT) Started as Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Texas Instruments (TXN) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: APA, BHP, BIDU, BK, CENT, IVZ, QCOM, STD, STT, SVNT, TXN

Downgrading Hedgies, Private Equity & Financials (BX, FIG, GLG, IVZ, JNS, OZM, STD, TROW)

247wallst — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:50:33 +0000

There is an interesting trend where Barclays has essentially cut its rankings on hedge fund and private equity operators. Here are the calls, plus a call elsewhere on a bank:

Blackstone (NYSE: BX) Cut to Underweight at Barclays.
Fortress Investment (NYSE: FIG) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
GLG Partners (NYSE: GLG) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
INVESCO (NYSE: IVZ) Started as Equal Weight at Barclays.
Janus Capital (NYSE: JNS) Started as Underweight at Barclays.
Och-Ziff Capital (NYSE: OZM) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD) Cut to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) Started as Equal Weight at Barclays.

Jon C. Ogg
January 14, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls, Banking, Financial Stocks, Private Equity Tagged: BX, FIG, GLG, IVZ, JNS, OZM, STD, TROW

Second Wind ETF Launch (IVZ, PWND, FAN)

247wallst — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:19:40 +0000

If one ETF for covering the global trend towards wind power wasn’t enough, we have the announcement of a second wind energy ETF. Invesco’s (NYSE: IVZ) PowerShares Capital Management ETF unit has announced the anticipated listing of a global wind energy portfolio. The new ETF is PowerShares Global Wind Energy Portfolio will trade under the "PWND" stock ticker on NASDAQ. This ETF is based on the NASDAQ OMX Clean Edge Global Wind Energy Index that tracks manufacturers, developers, distributors, installers and users of energy derived from wind sources.

Just on June 18 we ran a piece describing the The First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy ETF (NYSE Arca: FAN), so it appears there will be two new fresh wind ETF’s trading in short order. On the surface, it looks like there are also going to be many overlaps within these similar ETF’s.

Jon C. Ogg
June 26, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ADCT, ALXN, ANAD, CCJ, ENR, GENZ, IPI, IVZ, SPLS, JAVA)

247wallst — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:28:45 +0000

These are some of the top analyst calls we are looking at this Wednesday morning:

ADC Telecom (NASDAQ: ADCT) raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
Alexion Pharma (NASDAQ: ALXN) started as Buy at Jefferies.
Anadigics (NASDAQ: ANAD) cut to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
Energizer (NYSE: ENR) started as Outperform at Bernstein.
Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Intrepid Potash (NYSE: IPI) started as Sell at Soleil.
InVesco (NYSE: IVZ) started as Buy at Jefferies.
Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) Raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.

Jon C. Ogg
May 14, 2008

Invesco Launches Active Managed ETF’s (IVZ, PQY, PQZ, PMA, PLK)

247wallst — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:04:40 +0000

Invesco (NYSE: IVZ) PowerShares has launched its first actively-managed ETF on the NYSE Arca Friday. These 4 PowerShares ETFs include 3 first-in-kind equity exchange-funds and one actively-managed fixed income ETF.

The PowerShares Active Alpha Q Fund (NYSE Arca: PQY) and the PowerShares- Active Alpha Multi-Cap Fund (NYSE Arca: PQZ) will be managed by Invesco while the PowerShares- Active Mega-Cap Portfolio (NYSE Arca: PMA) and PowerShares- Active Low Duration Portfolio (NYSE Arca: PLK) will be advised by AER Advisors.

Actively-managed ETF’s are a very recent development, and act more like hedge funds than anything. Bear Stearns launched the first fixed income EFT (NYSE: YYY) that is actively-managed in March of this year. Previously, ETF’s were almost always tied to an index.

The Alpha Q fund and the Alpha Multi-Cap Funds are the only two to trade so far, with Alpha Q down by less than 1% and Alpha Multi-cap up by less than 1% in early morning trading.

Rachel Lopez
April 14, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ANN, ASH, SCHW, AMTD, COH, DHT, NAT, PHTN, WYNN, BK, LEH, GS, IVZ, STT)

247wallst — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:13:31 +0000

These are not the only research calls this morning affecting stock, particularly as the world is focused on the fleecing that has occurred at Bear Stearns this morning. But these are other brokerage firm calls for Monday morning:
Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Ashland (NYSE: ASH) raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) downgraded to Underperform at FBR.
Coach (NYSE: COH) downgraded to Hold at Citigroup.
Double Hull Tankers (NYSE: DHT) downgraded to Underweight at JP Morgan.
Nordic American Tanker (NYSE: NAT) raised to Neutral at JP Morgan.
Photon Dynamics (NASDAQ: PHTN) raised to Overweight at Lehman Brothers.
TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD) downgraded to Neutral at UBS; downgraded to Market Perform at FBR.
Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
UBS downgrades brokers and fiduciaries to Neutral: cuts Bank of New York (NYSE: BK), Lehman (NYSE: LEH), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), InVesco (NYSE: IVZ), State Street (NYSE: STT).

Jon C. Ogg
March 17, 2008

Goldman Sachs Lowers Financial Estimates (AB, ABLk, BLK, CLMS, CME, BEN, GBL, IVZ, JNS, NITE, LAB, LM, MKTX, NYX, TROW, PZN, NDAQ, TRAD)

247wallst — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:22:38 +0000

Goldman Sachs has lowered estimates on many financial services players this morning:

AllianceBernstein (AB) (buy);
AMBAC Financial (ABK) (neutral);
Blackrock (BLK) (buy);
Calamos Asset Mgmt. (CLMS) (neutral);
CME Group (CME) (buy);
Franklin Resources (BEN) (neutral);
Gamco Investors (GBL) (sell);
INVESCO plc (IVZ) (neutral);
Janus Capital (JNS) (neutral);
Knight Trading (NITE) (buy);
Labranche (LAB) (sell);
Legg Mason (LM) (neutral);
Marketaccess Holdings (MKTX) (neutral);
NYSE Euronext (NYX) (neutral);
T. Rowe Price (TROW) (neutral);
Pzena Investment Mgmt. (PZN) (neutral);
The NASDAQ Stock Market (NDAQ) (neutral);
TradeStation (TRAD) (neutral)

Jon C. Ogg
January 10, 2008