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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Administrator — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:28:07 +0000

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

AAR Corporation (NYSE: AIR) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

AGCO Corporation (NYSE: AGCO) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) Raised to Buy at Janney Capital.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) Cut to Hold at Needham.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) Raised to Buy at Argus.

Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE: D) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.

Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ: FLEX) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) Raised to Buy at Citigroup; Raised to Buy at Stern Agee.

Infoblox Inc. (NYSE: BLOX) Started as Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley; Started as Overweight at Stephens; Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Jabil Circuit Inc. (NYSE: JBL) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) Started as Outperform at William Blair.

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.

McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Cut to Neutral at Cowen.

Par Pharmaceutical Companies Inc. (NYSE: PRX) named value stock of the day at Zacks.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) Started as Buy at Citigroup.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU) Cut to Hold at Argus.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (NYSE: RBS) Raised to Equalweight at Morgan Stanley.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.

Total SA (NYSE: TOT) Raised to Buy at UBS.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AGCO, AIR, AKAM, AMAT, AMZN, BLOX, CL, D, FLEX, GRPN, JBHT, JBL, JNPR, MCD, PRU, PRX, PSX, RBS, SO, TOT

Full 360-Degree Cisco Earnings Preview (CSCO, JNPR, ALU, ORCL, INTC, HPQ)

Administrator — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:10:29 +0000

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is set to report earnings after the close of trading on Wednesday. We have already signaled that Cisco could hold the key to how technology shares are received for the days and even weeks ahead. So far the “Sell in May and go away!” theme is what seems to be working.

Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.47 EPS and $11.57 billion in revenues. Guidance is not offered usually until the conference call but the estimates for the current (July) quarter are $0.49 EPS and $11.99 billion in revenue.

The first real inference today is that Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) and Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. (NYSE: ALU) both have slid lower since their earnings. Juniper looked like it was a stabilization after a really bad drop, but the initial stock pop higher was sold off immediately and its stock price is now under where it was before earnings. Alcatel-Lucent is now under $1.50 after recently giving a poor earnings report that brings up relevance into question.

Our main reason for putting Cisco as the lynchpin for technology is that it often acts as a preview to Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) as the other off-quarter earnings from the technology leadership. Oracle has historically been more of a software play but the comparison is still crucial. Cisco grabs a different part of the enterprise technology spending dollars, but weakness in one may mean weakness in another as technology officers can push orders out further on the horizon.

Cisco has also been in the midst of a restructuring that seems to be mostly complete. The problem is that shares have slid from recently being above $20.00 down to $18.70. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $22.58 and the 52-week range is $13.30 to $21.30. The company’s market cap today is right at $100 billion.

The stock chart may hold the keys to the post-earnings reaction after today. With a price of $18.70, the 200-day moving average is down at $18.14 and the 50-day moving average is up at $19.96. In short, Cisco had recovered handily off of its lows in the last year but its stock has been very weak for the last month and $20.15 to $20.20 acted as very strong resistance on the chart throughout April after shares slid from the peak of just over $21.00.

Options traders appear to be braced for a move of up to about $0.75 or so in either direction based upon the speculative call and put options pricing.

Just one suggestion for Cisco not pertaining its earnings call: the investor relations site takes far too long to navigate. Still, the stock trades at only about 10-times current earnings expectations. Does that make Cisco a value stock in its turnaround, or is Cisco’s turnaround just a value trap.

We would note one strength from the last quarter… gross margin rose to 61.3% from 60.2% and the cost of sales rose by more than 7%.

Keep in mind that Cisco’s earnings will prelude an investor day presentation by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) on May 17, 2012 and it will also prelude the Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) earnings report currently penciled in around May 23, 2012.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Calendar, Earnings, Technology Companies Tagged: ALU, CSCO, HPQ, INTC, JNPR, ORCL

Why Cisco’s Earnings Hold the Key to the Tech Sector (CSCO, ORCL, AAPL, HPQ, JNPR, ALU, NOK, RIMM, CTSH, IBM, INTC)

Administrator — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:40:58 +0000

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is set to report earnings on Wednesday after the closing bell. While we usually cringe when analysts and media pundits say this about a single report, the truth is that Cisco’s earnings report and its guidance could act as the lynchpin for the technology sector in the days and week ahead. So far we are seeing a “Sell in May and go away!” theme holding over the markets.

The technology sector needs for Cisco to show that the warnings of spotty spending a month ago were just contextual. Does Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) have much to do with Cisco? Technically not a thing if you just use common sense. The reality is different though. Apple remains the tech darling of Wall Street but its shares have pulled back and have gotten down almost as low as they were before the huge earnings gap-up in the last couple of weeks.

The first two issues to address are Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) and Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. (NYSE: ALU). Juniper turned in an earnings report that looked like it was offering a stabilization to a really bad drop, but its stock popped up and then immediately pulled back and the stock is now under where it was before earnings. Alcatel-Lucent just gave poor results this earnings season and its stock is back under $1.50 per ADR and is floundering as it tries to find some sense of remaining relevant outside of Europe.

The real issue here is Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) with Cisco. Many analysts do not compare Oracle and Cisco enough because up until lately Oracle was more of a software play. With Sun under its belt it has datacenter exposure but even if Oracle was to jettison its physical equipment the comparison is still crucial to understand. While Cisco is a very different part of the enterprise technology dollars to be spent, weakness in one may mean weakness in another as technology officers can push orders out further on the horizon.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is now more and more of a competitor with Cisco as well, even though the company was trying to get rid of the PC unit. By competing in the datacenter, the former partners now compete. H-P is also an off-calendar quarterly reporting company and its shares are back down to almost $23.00 and close to a 52-week low.

There is also the old ties to Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK), although this is more historic than present day. Both companies remain highly challenged and we suspect that their futures will both remain challenged regardless of what Cisco says in its conference call.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSH) recently kept the pace of other IT-outsourcing outfits by warning about a weak IT-spending climate but it was hard to not notice that some of the more fresh weakness was noted as being in North America. Cisco could easily be in a different bucket here, but we did see this trend as almost unified in the outsourcing segment.

Perhaps the biggest relevance is International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM). IBM’s services backlog was slightly lower but IBM is still maintaining its long-term goals of $20.00 in earnings per share. The stock is still within 5% of all-time highs and it has recently juiced up its dividend more than expected.

Cisco is also the last major tech report before Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) updates investors this Thursday. It has only been about three weeks since Intel’s earnings report and we are only 24 hours or so since the chip and processor giant announced a dividend hike of its own. Shares of Intel are now off almost $2.00 from the high of $29.27 and the consensus price target is $29.72.

Cisco shares are back under the $19.00 mark after having been at $20.00 as recently as May 1, 2012 and having been at $21.00 as recently as April 3, 2012. The 52-week trading range is $13.30 to $21.30 and the consensus price target from Thomson Reuters is $22.58.

The Thomson Reuters estimates for Cisco are $0.47 EPS and $11.57 billion in revenue. Cisco usually offers guidance in the conference call rather than in the press release and those estimates are $0.49 EPS and $11.99 billion in sales for the quarter ahead. Keep in mind that Cisco trades at a mere 10.2-times its expected earnings for the fiscal year-end of July 2012.

As far as Cisco on the stock charts, this has been very weak and the 50-day moving average was up above at $19.00 and the 200-day moving average was lower around $18.13. Both of those figures are likely to be a couple of cents different on Wednesday ahead of earnings.

A more detailed preview will appear Wednesday morning ahead of the formal Cisco earnings report showing expectations for cash, margins, options trading, stock charts, and a final revised set of earnings estimates.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Calendar, Consumer Electronics, Corporate Governance, Earnings, Technology Companies Tagged: AAPL, ALU, CSCO, CTSH, HPQ, IBM, INTC, JNPR, NOK, ORCL, RIMM

The 8 Earnings Reports Shaping The Week Ahead (DNDN, EA, RAX, DIS, CSCO, M, NUAN)

Administrator — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:52:44 +0000

24/7 Wall St. often looks at the key earnings reports scheduled for the week ahead. We have the bulk of the S&P 500 earnings behind us and we are now starting to move to the off-calendar quarterly reports. This coming week we are focused on six key companies that are set to report earnings as the key to their sectors. This list may not seem like the most important companies to the broad market, but these will shape the outlook for other companies reporting in the week.

The top earnings we are looking at are as follows: Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA); Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX); The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS); Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO); Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M); Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN); and Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN).

We have taken estimates and price targets from Thomson Reuters consensus estimates and have added in color on each.

The shape of the biotech sector is likely to hinge based on the earnings of Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN). VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) also reports on Monday but Dendreon has many things that biotech investors want: a product on the market, a controversial story, a stock way off its post-approval highs, a history of soft sales with the promise of better times ahead, and a rather large short interest. This is a sales story rather than an earnings story: Thomson Reuters expects sales of $81.2 million for the last quarter, $90.1 million for the quarter ahead (the quarter we are in now, and $378.3 million in 2012. These sales are all from Provenge for late-stage prostate cancer. This is the one that will set the tone for biotech during the week and this stock is back down closer to $11 after having popped to $15 from $8 earlier this year.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) is no longer the leading game company for investors, but it is one of the largest game makers in the world. Its earnings are also ahead of the larger video game giant Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) which reports later in the week. This is also considered one of the throw-away quarters of the video game sector. Thomson Reuters expects E.A. to report $0.17 EPS on $959.56 million in sales, with next quarter expected to be -$0.32 EPS on $580.9 million in sales. This will mark the year-end report and the growth in the year ahead is expected to go to $1.13 EPS from $0.84 EPS expected and sales are expected to grow to $4.5 billion from $4.17 billion expected.

Filed under: Calendar, Earnings, The Week Tagged: AAPL, ALU, ATVI, CSCO, DIS, DNDN, EA, JNPR, JWN, M, NUAN, NWSA, RAX, VVUS

Alcatel-Lucent Finds No Takers on Mixed to Dire Earnings (ALU, JNPR, NOK, ERIC, CSCO)

Administrator — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:15:29 +0000

Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. (NYSE: ALU) recently saw its shares jump due to earnings from Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) but the new earnings report from the company itself shows that the ties are just too crazy to maintain any relevance. The European telecom and communications equipment maker managed to turn in a profit of more than $500 million (translated from euros) for its first quarter, but the company’s report is full of caution and uncertainty if you factor out the gains from a unit sale. Shares were pounded down in local trading in Paris.

As the company is based in Europe, Alcatel-Lucent has far more exposure to the internal workings of Europe than most U.S.-based telecom and communications equipment players. It saw double-digit percentage declines in wireless and optics equipment, and it also said sales in North America were weak. Overall revenue was down by more than 12% to 3.2 billion euros, and the company’s gross margin fell to almost 30% from above 34% in the prior quarter for comparison. The operating margin for 2012 is looking to be better than the 3.9% of 2011, but it may not be at the 5% that the company previously targeted.

Even with the warning that uncertainty in Europe is very high, the company is still trying to maintain a target of higher profitability this year based on further cost cuts.

Here is the issue to consider. Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) via Nokia Siemens and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) remain under pressure in Europe. The company claims that North America is still very challenging. If the growth markets of China, India and South America are in an overall sluggish state with much lower core economic growth rates, then what does the company really have for great prospects? It is hard to make any direct ties to Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) any longer as the sizes are so different.

Technology companies have proven over and over that they can have cost cuts to improve operating performance. The problem is that investors want growth in the sector, or at least they prefer to invest in growth over value in the technology sector.

This feels like another empty day of promises in a turnaround story that just never really seems to be a turnaround story for very long. It is too early to see New York ADR trading for any real market depth, but the drop of almost 13% to 1.28 euros in Paris trading should pretty much sum things up. The shares traded more than an average day’s volume in the first couple of hours in Paris and its local market 52-week trading range is 1.10 to 4.47 euros.

If Alcatel-Lucent shares fall the same in New York trading after a $1.95 close then the ADRs will be somewhere around $1.70 or so and its 52-week range for U.S. concerns is $1.39 to $6.63.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: ADR, Earnings, Technology Companies, Telecom Tagged: ALU, CSCO, ERIC, JNPR, NOK

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (AAPL, JCP, MCD, WMT, BWLD, AXE, EW, JNPR, NSC, NFX, AN, CWEI, GLW, HOG, LAD, LCC, CAT, CNH, BA)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:06:51 +0000

Markets opened higher this morning, led by the Nasdaq which got a big boost from the strong report last night from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). The report from the US Census Bureau on durable goods orders showed a decline in new orders (our coverage here), but Apple’s strength overcame that news. The EIA report on crude oil inventories showed a larger than expected gain this week, holding crude prices in check (our coverage here). The FOMC announcement held no surprises, with the committee indicating that it expects interest rates to remain very low through late 2014 (our coverage here). The US dollar index fell today, now down -0.18% at 79.083. The GSCI commodity index is up fractionally at 674.83, with commodities mixed on the slightly weaker dollar. WTI crude oil closed up 0.6% at $104.12/barrel, and Brent crude trades up 0.74% at $1119.03/barrel. Gold settled down -0.1% today, at $1,642.30/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 89 points to 13,090.95 (0.69%), the NASDAQ rose more than 68 points (2.3%) to 3,029.63, and the S&P 500 rose 1.37% or nearly 19 points to 1,390.70.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Apple raised to ‘outperform’ at Scotia and maintained ‘buy’ with a target price of $775 at Canaccord Genuity; J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) raised to ‘market perform’ at BMO; McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) cut to ‘hold’ at Argus; Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) started as ‘buy’ at Citigroup; Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) cut to ‘hold’ at Argus; and Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD) raised to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Apple is up 8.9% at $610.02 (our coverage here); Anixter International Inc. (NYSE: AXE) is down -4% at $66.76; Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) is up 11.5% at $81.74; Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) is down -4% at $20.78; Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) is up 3.6% at $72.77; Newfield Exploration Co. (NYSE: NFX) is up 5.2% at $35.47; AutoNation Inc. (NYSE: AN) is down -0.9% at $33.27; Clayton Williams Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: CWEI) is up 1.6% at $76.45; Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) is up 6.7% at $14.25; Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) is up 6.1% at $53.45 after posting a new 52-week high of $53.98 earlier today; Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE: LAD) is up 7.4% at $26.84; and US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is up 2.5% at $9.55 (more coverage here).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is down -4.5% at $103.55. The heavy equipment maker reported declining sales in China as growth in the country has slowed, which led to the sell-off today.

CNH Global NV (NYSE: CNH) is up 3.6% at $45.66. The farm equipment maker beat EPS estimates by almost 50% and sales were also higher.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) is up 5.3% at $77.06. The aircraft maker reported solid earnings and revenues this morning. More coverage here.

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

8:30 a.m. – New unemployment benefits claims
8:30 a.m. – Chicago Fed national activity index
10:00 a.m. – Pending home sales index
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
11:00 a.m. – Kansas City Fed manufacturing index
1:00 p.m. – 7-year note auction
4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet and money supply

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AAPL, AN, AXE, BA, BWLD, CAT, CNH, CWEI, EW, GLW, HOG, JCP, JNPR, LAD, LCC, MCD, NFX, NSC, WMT

As Juniper Gains, It Shines On Cisco & Peers (JNPR, CSCO, ALU)

Administrator — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:56:58 +0000

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) was a big gainer after its earnings report sneaked out a bit early today. The report shows a decline from comparable earnings, but this was better than estimates and that is all that matters. The networking equipment company made $16.27 million or $0.03 EPS versus a year ago of $129.8 million or $0.24 EPS, but the adjusted earnings came to $0.16 EPS which analysts will track. Revenue fell down to $1.03 billion from $1.10 billion a year ago. Thomson Reuters was expecting roughly $0.13 EPS and just over $980 million in sales.

Guidance is another issue which may help when you consider that Juniper had previously talked down its expectations. The move will likely reflect somewhat well on Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) as investors loosely tried to tie the two companies together (whether fairly or not). Even Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. (NYSE: ALU) reflected some post-earnings gains at the end of the day with a 5.6% gain to $1.88. Whether or not any of that secondary and tertiary love remains ahead is another matter.

For the current quarter, Juniper expects adjusted earnings of $0.15 to $0.17 in earnings per share on revenues of $1.03 billion to $1.06 billion. We had estimates of $0.20 per share in earnings on $1.05 billion in sales. Investors are taking the coming quarter as a sand-bagging of results.

Shares closed up about 7.2% at $21.63 and the 52-week trading range is $16.67 to $40.37. This will be worth watching on Wednesday as well.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Earnings, Technology Companies, Telecom Tagged: ALU, CSCO, JNPR

Top Earnings Previews For Early In The Week Ahead (COP, ILMN, NFLX, TXN, AMGN, AAPL, T, BIDU, COH, JNPR, MMM, RF, X, UTX)

Administrator — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:35:20 +0000

Earnings season is in full swing and we have many key reports due in the coming week. 24/7 Wall St. has provided some detailed previews for the key earnings reports we expect to show in detail on Monday and Tuesday.

We are monitoring earnings reports from the following companies for Monday and Tuesday: ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP); Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN); Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN); Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL); AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU); Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH); Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR); 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM); Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF); United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X); and United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX).

More earnings report previews will come on Sunday or Monday for the reports due on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Consensus estimates and price targets are from Thomson Reuters. Color has been on added on each if applicable.

MONDAY, April 23

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is set to report Monday morning and the break-up is going to make any real apples to apples comparison difficult to interpret. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $2.07 EPS. Shares are trading around $73.15 and the 52-week range is $58.65 to $81.50; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $81.05.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is no market mover with a $5.4 billion market cap, but it is a recent merger candidate even if that appears to be off the table. Earnings estimates are $0.32 EPS and $263.6 million. Shares are trading around $44.00 and the 52-week range is $25.57 to $79.40; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $52.71.

Filed under: Calendar, Earnings, The Week Tagged: AAPL, AMGN, BIDU, COH, COP, ILMN, JNPR, MMM, NFLX, RF, T, TXN, UTX, X

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (GE, JNPR, VOD, CVX, APC, ES, FXCM, GSL, MCS, ANAC, HMNY, ECYT, SCLN, PSUN, GWRE, PATH, FSS, STRL)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:08:03 +0000

Stocks opened modestly higher this morning and have wiggled around the neutral line all day. No significant news came out that would have influenced market action much one way or another. The dollar index gathered strength all day, though, and is up 0.47% to 80.567. The stronger dollar pushed down commodities prices, with crude oil closing lower for the first time in about a month. WTI crude closed down -1.2% at $105.43/barrel and Brent crude is trading down -0.86% at $125.14/barrel. Gold settled at $1,642.90/ounce, down 3%, in the yellow metal’s worst showing in two months.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 16 points to 13,194.10(0.12%), the NASDAQ rose less than 1 point (0.03%) to 3,040.73, and the S&P 500 fell -0.12% or about 2 points to 1,394.28.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) maintained as ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse; Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) cut to ‘market perform’ at BMO; Vodafone Group plc (NASDAQ: VOD) cut to ‘underperform’ at BNP Paribus; Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) maintained as ‘outperform’ but estimates lowered at Credit Suisse; and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) raised to ‘buy’ at Stifel Nicolaus.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Energy Solutions Inc. (NYSE: ES) is up 2% at $4.54; FXCM Inc. (NYSE: FXCM) is up 10% at $11.55; Global Ship Lease Inc. (NYSE: GSL) is down -7.3% at $3.18; Marcus Corp. (NYSE: MCS) is down -1.5% at $12.31; and Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANAC) is up 2.5% at $5.73.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Helios & Matheson Information Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: HMNY) is up more than 87% at $5.33 after posting a new 52-week high of $7.00 earlier today. The business software company posted a surprise profit for fiscal 2011.

Endocyte Inc. (NASDAQ: ECYT) is up nearly 58% at $5.87. The drug maker posted better-than-expected quarterly and annual results last night.

SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SCLN) is up about 22% at $6.39 after posting a new 52-week high of $6.97 earlier. The biopharmaceutical company beat estimates and provided a strong outlook for 2012.

Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. (NASDAQ: PSUN) is down nearly -18% at $2.06. The apparel maker posted a larger than expected loss last night. More coverage here.

Guidewire Software Inc. (NYSE: GWRE) is up more than 17% at $30.09 after posting a new 52-week high of $32.79 earlier today. The business software company announced a new contract this morning.

NuPathe Inc. (NASDAQ: PATH) is up nearly 20% at $3.91. The biotechnology company’s transdermal patch for migraine sufferers got a strong review from a financial web site today.

Federal Signal Corp. (NYSE: FSS) is up more than 22% at $5.61. The specialty truck maker posted better-than-expected revenues this morning.

Sterling Construction Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: STRL) is down more than -16% at $8.58 after posting a new 52-week low of $8.57 earlier today. The construction firm posted an unexpectedly weak earnings report this morning.

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

8:30 a.m. – New US unemployment benefits claims
8:30 a.m. – Producer price index
8:30 a.m. – Empire State manufacturing index
9:00 a.m. – Treasury International Capital (TIC) report
10:00 a.m. – Philadelphia Fed survey
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet and money supply

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Market Close, Market Roundups Tagged: ANAC, APC, CVX, ECYT, ES, FSS, FXCM, GE, GSL, GWRE, HMNY, JNPR, MCS, PATH, PSUN, SCLN, STRL, VOD

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (GAS, ALU, AMT, APC, ADP, CVX, CCI, GE, GPC, HMA, JNPR, VOD, ZAGG)

Administrator — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:16:34 +0000

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

AGL Resources, Inc. (NYSE: GAS) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Alcatel-Lucent SA (NYSE: ALU) Raised to Outperform at BMO.

America Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) Maintained Buy with $60 target at Argus.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) Maintained Outperform but lowered estimates at Credit Suisse.

Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Maintained Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Genuine Parts Co. (NYSE: GPC) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Health Management Associates Inc. (NYSE: HMA) Maintained Hold but cut estimates at Argus.

Juniper Networks Inc, (NYSE: JNPR) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.

Vodafone Group PLC (NYSE: VOD) Cut to Underperform at BNP Paribas.

ZAGG Inc. (NASDAQ: ZAGG) named value stock of the day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: ADP,, ALU, AMT, APC, CCI, CVX, gas, GE, GPC, HMA, JNPR, VOD, ZAGG