24/7 Wall St. » KSU

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (APOL, EXC, GAP, JDSU, KSU, MPEL, NTAP, NRG, NKE, NG, SODA, OVTI, UA, VRWY, WNR)

Administrator — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:32:13 +0000

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

Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.
Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. (NYSE: GAP) Cut to Sell from Hold at Citigroup.
JDS Uniphase Corporation (NASDAQ: JDSU) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) Maintained Overweight but Target Raised at Morgan Stanley.
NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) Raised to Buy at UBS.
NovaGold Resources Inc. (NYSE: NG) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
SodaStream International (NASDAQ: SODA) Started as Hold at Deutsche Bank; Started as Outperform at William Blair; Started as Neutral at JPMorgan.
OmniVision Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OVTI) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Verigy, Ltd. (NASDAQ: VRGY) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus; Raised to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Western Refining Inc. (NYSE: WNR) Cut to Underperform at RBC.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: APOL, EXC, GAP, JDSU, KSU, MPEL, NG, NKE, NRG, NTAP, OVTI, SODA, UA, VRWY, WNR

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ALTR, ACI, CBOE, FWLT, GE, JBHT, KSU, NFLX, NSC, PCX, CRM, MMM, UNP, URI, VVUS, XLNX)

Administrator — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:21:18 +0000

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

Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) Started as Neutral at Janney.
Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) Started as Hold at Jefferies.
Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ: FWLT) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Reiterated Outperform and $22 target at Credit Suisse.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE: PCX) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $158 at BofA/ML.
3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) Started as Outperform and $30 target at Credit Suisse.
VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) Raised to Buy and target raised to $12 from $6 at BofA/ML (full details).
Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) Started as Neutral at Janney.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ACI, ALTR, CBOE, CRM, FWLT, GE, JBHT, KSU, MMM, NFLX, NSC, PCX, UNP, URI, VVUS, XLNX

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (GENZ, IHS, KSU, MXIM, PBR, RIMM, SLRC, TUP, TKC, VOD)

Administrator — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:37:12 +0000

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

Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ: GENZ) Cut to Market Perform at Leerink Swann.
IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS) Started as Buy at Needham & Co.
Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) Raised to Strong Buy at Needham.
Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) Cut to Hold from Buy at S&P Equity (late yesterday).
Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) Cut to Neutral at Baird; target cut to $70 at Raymond James; target cut to $90 at RBC; target cut to $65 at UBS; target cut to $100 at TD
Solar Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ: SLRC) Started as Outperform at BMO Capital
Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Turkcell (NYSE: TKC) Raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) Raised to Buy at Collins Stewart.

JON C. OGG

Go through the list of the 20 least and most productive and give my take on what they have in common.

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Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: GENZ, IHS, KSU, MXIM, PBR, RIMM, SLRC, TKC, TUP, VOD

Transports Seeing Mixed Show on FedEx Guidance Hike (FDX, UPS, UNP, CSX, YRCW, NSC, KSU, BNI, JBHT, CNW, LSTR)

247wallst — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:33:59 +0000

We just noticed over at our volume spike alert service that FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) was already challenging 150% of its average volume and was triple volume what it normally has traded by this time of the morning. This was really ramping up rival United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) with a 4% gain, and was taking up lesser players in the space as well. But interestingly enough, this is not doing anything to boost the trading volume in railroad stocks. Railroad giants like Union Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) and CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) are even lower on the day. YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) is up significantly, and most truckers are up in sympathy.

Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) is up 0.35% at $49.41 and Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) is down 0.4% at $63.27. CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) is down 1.4% at $47.49 and Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) is down 0.9% at $27.69. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI) is one of the few rail players up with a 0.9% gain to $85.36.

The truckers are tracking well today though. YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) is so leveraged to news in the transport space that its shares are up almost 17% at $3.56 on more than 13 million shares of stock. Other truckers are doing well too. JB Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) is at $32.36, up about 5.5%; Con-way Inc. (NYSE: CNW) is at $44.09, up about 4.7%; and Landstar System Inc. (NASDAQ: LSTR) is at $38.49, up almost 3%.

JON C. OGG
September 11, 2009

Posted in Consumer Goods, Trading Alert, Transports Tagged: BNI, CNW, CSX, FDX, JBHT, KSU, LSTR, NSC, UNP, UPS, YRCW

Top Analyst Downgrades (KSU, NRP, NOK, SYK, TOL)

247wallst — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:53:46 +0000

These are this morning’s top research downgrades and cautious calls from Wall Street analysts this Monday morning with close to two hours until the market opens:

Kansas City Southern (KSU) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Natural Resource Partners (NRP) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Nokia (NOK) Cut to Hold at Deutsche bank.
Stryker (SYK) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
Toll Brothers (TOL) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: KSU, NOK, NRP, SYK, TOL

Transportation Stocks Set To Double (CAL, ITWO, KSU, OSG, R)

247wallst — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:45:37 +0000

Over the past week 24/7 Wall St. has picked several stocks from major sectors that are likely to double off of their lows. This group focuses on the transportation sector with the picks being Continental Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: CAL), i2 Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITWO), Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU), Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. (NYSE: OSG), and Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE: R).

We have more details on why we like these over peers, but there are several suppositions in our opinions here. The time frame is by the end of 2010, which is meant to coincide with some form of economic recovery next year. A number of the credit and financial issues facing the markets will be in place for the near-term or longer. The other assumption used for choosing the stocks is a market bottom of roughly 600 on the S&P 500. Unfortunately, there is also the added risk of energy costs and now a new emissions “cap-and-trade” tax to consider.

Continental Airlines is our possible double stock pick of the major legacy airline carriers. AMR Corp. (AMR) is too volatile in expectations, and the other legacy carriers have been involved in mergers that will take a long time to integrate. Just for disclosure purposes, it is very possible that there is some home field turf advantage mentally as this is one of the biggest carriers in Houston (and has hub operations from NYC/NJ as well). The company has not been immune to wild fuel prices or to the recession, but it has been able to maintain its balance sheet better than many carriers. It has fought the urge to merge on more than one occasion. If another acquisition occurs in the legacy space in the next 18 months, it is likely that Continental would be the prey. As with most airlines, you can pick apart the books and every item besides cash and debt is something that is up for interpretation. It continues to add international routes and has slowed growth domestically and cut lower profit routes. We also want to note that a recent crash in upstate New York was technically a crash of a partner rather than a company operated flight. A double from lows would put this at $13.00. We are very skeptical about “analyst estimates” for any quarter (let alone 2010) but those estimates are still $4.65, and that is down from $7.00 less than 2 months ago.

i2 Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITWO) is a software company. But it is a supply chain management software company that is involved in the transportation of goods. It also serves aerospace, auto, chemicals, consumer, defense, energy, industrial, metals, pharma, technology and telecom compnaies. Ryder (see below) uses its system as well. We featured this stock in our “Special Situation Newsletter” in late-January at $6.17 because this one has actually been a busted merger. It has also been beaten up in the recession. But this could actually be acquired when things normalize as Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, H-P, and others start looking for deals in the space. Shares sit at $7.60 and a double would take it to $11.00 from lows. Its 52-week high is $14.60 and this was a $20+ stock just two years ago. i2 currently trades at under 2-times tangible book value (with low ratios of goodwill and intangibles), has manageable debt, and trades at well-under 1-times revenue. Again, this is not a transportation stock in the absolute classic sense, but we can’t really think of it is a little software company that just writes lots of “1′s and 0′s” either.

Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) is our possible double in the rail sector. We could have probably just as easily picked Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) or Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP), but Kansas City Southern seems to offer slightly more leverage compared with forward estimates and it has a smaller market cap of $1.35 billion and is actively traded. What makes this also more attractive for a NAFTA trade is that it has Mexican operations. Whether that could be monetized outside of the company is something to debate. In just the last 75-days it has seen its 2010 earnings estimates cut by 25% and that is after prior cuts before that. A double in KSU from lows is technically just north of $26.00, and amazingly enough that would put the stock at less than half of its 52-week high of $55.90.

Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. (NYSE: OSG) is perhaps a riskier play than a good old fashioned shipper of goods across the high seas. It transports crude oil and petroleum products. It certainly has not been immune to the woes of energy nor the woes of international trade. OSG also recently posted a loss although that was after goodwill charges. Earnings from operations in 2008 was listed as $10.65 EPS. up from $6.16 EPS in 2007. If the economic recovery starts to be seen and this stock sees more action, then you don’t have to multiply a fraction of those numbers very often to still have a dirt cheap forward P/E ratio. A double from recent lows for us is also still under analyst targets of today even after all the cuts they have made. The analysts have also slashed 2009 and 2010 earnings in almost half just in the last 75-days and even more than that before. A double from recent lows would put this stock at around $40.00, which is still less than 50% of its $87+ highs of 2008. It also has a high dividend, although we are discounting that this analysis. It has expanded into adjacent carrier markets so it is not a pure-play energy transporter any longer, although many still think of it as a black gold shipper. We could have easily thrown a dart at DryShips (DRYS) or another much more leveraged player that could double in a month, but that isn’t our game. Nordic American Tanker (NAT) is the go-to safe stock, but a call for a double there is not as likely considering its low leverage and that would be “too bullish” even in the game of picking companies which could double.

Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE: R) is a hybrid stock transportation stock that could double. The company operates in three different segments of fleet management solutions, supply chain solutions, and dedicated contract carriage. You have seen its trucks on the road and it also operates fleets for companies. Where Ryder gets interesting is that it could double off of lows with an economic recovery, but there is also an asset and break-up play here in the story with the operating segments. The current price is fine for its tangible book value, but we wish it had a lower debt level even if that is just an unfortunate twist to trucking and transport stocks. Technically, Ryder has to only go to $38.00 to be a double from lows, but we are using the $20.00 mark of 5 trading days ago as the low. So we would expect hat Ryder could hit $40.00 by the end of 2010. This does get the stock above 10-times forward earnings of about $3.30 EPS, but that number for 2010 earnings has been cut down from $5.00 EPS in less than 90 days and even more than that before. A price of $40.00 is barely more than half of its 52-week high of $76.64 and that would still be less than the average analyst target prices. We considered YRC Worldwide (YRCW) for this pick, but it is so leveraged that it has already doubled and it is still much riskier in our mind.

Again, there are suppositions here and the time frame is out to the end of 2010. But just to let you know how beaten up this sector, the Dow Jones Transportation Average is down over 50% from last year and it is so far under the 200-day moving average that these stocks on a rally or turn in the economy could move massively. This is also (historically) the first group you get confirmation of a new market direction change.

JON C. OGG
March 17, 2009

Posted in Transports, Value Investing Tagged: AMR, BNI, CAL, DRYS, ITWO, KSU, NAT, OSG, R, UNP, YRCW

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (AINV, BHI, CNI, RDEN, KSU, PALM, RL, RRGB, SII, TER)

247wallst — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:51:57 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades on Wall Street this Tuesday morning:

Apollo Investment (AINV) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Baker Hughes (BHI) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Canadian National Railway (CNI) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Elizabeth Arden, Inc. (RDEN) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
Kansas City Southern (KSU) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Palm (PALM) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Polo Ralph Lauren (RL) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Red Robin Gourmet (RRGB) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Smith International (SII) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Teradyne (TER) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.

Jon C. Ogg
January 20, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AINV, BHI, CNI, KSU, PALM, RDEN, RL, RRGB, SII, TER

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ACTI, BCE, KSU, MYL, TEVA, AXP, AAPL, ROCK, SNV, TKC)

247wallst — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:37:09 +0000

It is getting rather thin in analyst coverage, but these are the top ten analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen this Wednesday morning:

ActivIdentity (NASDAQ: ACTI) Started as Buy at Stanford Group.
BCE (NYSE:BCE) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Mylan (NYSE:MYL) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Teva (NASDAQ: TEVA) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
American Express (NYSE:AXP) Started as Reduce at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Gibralter (NASDAQ: ROCK) Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Synovus Financial (NYSE:SNV) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Turkcell (NYSE:TKC) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
December 17, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, ACTI, AXP, BCE, KSU, MYL, ROCK, SNV, TEVA, TKC

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ALU, AUO, BEC, BA, GR, KSU, LULU, SEPR)

247wallst — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:49:11 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades or negative calls on Wall Street we have seen this Monday morning:

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
AU Optronics (NYSE: AUO) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Beckman Coulter (NYSE: BEC) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Boeing (NYSE: BA) Started as Sell at Societe Generale.
Goodrich (NYSE: GR) Started as Sell at Society Generale.
Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Sepracor (NASDAQ: SEPR) Started as Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
December 15, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ALU, AUO, BA, BEC, GR, KSU, LULU, SEPR

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ATI, AIV, DELL, GPS, JTX, KSU, NDAQ, PRU, SIRI, AUY)

247wallst — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:38:53 +0000

These are not the only analyst calls impacting stocks, but these are the top analyst calls that 247WallSt.com is focusing on this Friday in pre-market trading:

Allegheny Tech (NYSE: ATI) cut to Neutral from Outperform at Cowen & Co.
Apartment Investment (NYSE: AIV) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Gap Inc (NYSE: GPS) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Jackson Hewitt (NYSE: JTX) Raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) Cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
NASDAQ OMX (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Started as Neutral at UBS.
Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU) Raised to Overweight from Underweight at Lehman.
Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY) raised to Buy at UBS.

Jon C. Ogg
April 4, 2008