24/7 Wall St. » LAZ

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (FDX, WY, CMA, GLW, RDS-A, IDTI, MCK, PCL, CYOU, HUM, LAZ, L, SYY, SURW, CHUX, SOHU, GBG, DNDN)

Paul Ausick — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:07:48 +0000

US equity markets opened lower this morning and never moved into positive territory all day. Greek debt swap negotiations made no discernible progress today and there was no scheduled data on tap to move the market one way or the other. The dollar picked up strength against the euro today, but faltered against the British pound and the Japanese yen. The dollar index rose 0.1385 to 79.051. Crude oil was mixed with WTI crude down -0.76% at $97.10/barrel and Brent crude up 1.39% at $116.17/barrel. Gold closed down -0.9% at $1,724.90/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down about 17 points to 12,845.20 (-0.13%), the NASDAQ fell almost 4 points (-0.13%) to 2,901.99, and the S&P 500 fell -0.04% or less than 1 point to 1,344.33.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) raised to ‘buy’ at BofA/ML; Weyerhaeuser Co. (NYSE: WY) cut to ‘sell’ at UBS; Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) raised to ‘outperform’ at RBS; Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) raised to ‘outperform’ at Piper Jaffray; and Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) cut to ‘neutral’ at Credit Suisse.

Earnings reports since markets closed last week have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Integrated Device Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: IDTI) is down -0.98% at $6.60; McKesson Corp. (NYSE: MCK) is up 1.71% at $82.18; Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc. (NYSE: PCL) is up 0.32% at $39.81; Changyou.com Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYOU) is down -12.43% at $25.50; Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is down -5.8% at $84.90; Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) is down -4.3% at $27.65; Loews Corp. (NYSE: L) is down -0.85% at $38.28; and Sysco Corp. (NYSE: SYY) is down -4% at $29.66.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

SureWest Communications (NASDAQ: SURW) is up more than 44% at $22.50 after posting a new 52-week high of $22.69 earlier. The telecom provider has agreed to be acquired by Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSL) for about $341 million, or $23/share.

O’Charley’s Inc. (NASDAQ: CHUX) is up nearly 42% at $9.81 after posting a new 52-week high of $9.88. The company has agreed to be acquired by Fidelity National Financial Inc. (NYSE: FNF) for $221 million, about $9.85/share.

Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: SOHU) is down nearly -15% at $53.61. The Chinese internet company posted solid earnings, but its Q1 forecast was below expectations.

Great Basin Gold Ltd. (AMEX: GBG) is down -11% at $1.05. The junior gold miner reported preliminary results today that were worse than expected and lowered first quarter production estimates.

Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) is up about 17.6% at $16.66. The drug maker is getting a boost from a negative report on a prostate cancer drug treatment that would compete with Dendreon’s Provenge.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke testifies before Senate Budget Committee. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

11:30 a.m. – 4- and 52-week Treasury bill auction
3:00 p.m. – Consumer credit report

Paul Ausick

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire Tagged: CHUX, CMA, CYOU, DNDN, FDX, GBG, GLW, HUM, IDTI, L, LAZ, MCK, PCL, RDS-A, SOHU, SURW, SYY, WY

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AKS, AU, FTE, GGP, HON, LAZ, PNW, GOLD, TEF, TEVA, TMK, UNFI, URI, MTN, WCG)

Administrator — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:23:47 +0000

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

AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE: AKS) Raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU) Cut to Sell from Neutral by Goldman Sachs.

France Telecom S.A. (NYSE: FTE) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.
General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.

Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) Raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE: PNW) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Randgold Resources Limited (NASDAQ: GOLD) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Telefonica, S.A. (NYSE: TEF) Cut to Neutral from Overweight at HSBC.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NASDAQ: TEVA) Reiterated Buy with $52 target at Canaccord Genuity.
Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) Raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
United Natural Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: UNFI) Raised to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity.
United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) Raised to Top Pick at RBC.
Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG) named as value stock of the day at Zacks Investment Research.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AKS, AU, FTE, GGP, gold, HON, LAZ, MTN, PNW, TEF, TEVA, TMK, UNFI, URI, WCG

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ANF, ALTR, AIG, APA, CIEN, EXPE, LAZ, LDK, MDC, NSM, NVDA, QCOM, URBN, VRTX)

Administrator — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:12:23 +0000

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

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) Reiterated Buy but raised target to $52.50 at Gleacher & Co.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.
Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) Raised to Hold at Argus.
CIENA Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) Reiterated Buy at Argus.
LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) Cut to Sell at Collins Stewart.
MDC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: MDC) Raised to Hold at Credit Suisse.
National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) Reiterated Buy with $18 target at Gleacher & Co.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.
Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) Cut to Neutral at SunTrust.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.

You can 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: AIG, ALTR, ANF, APA, CIEN, EXPE, LAZ, LDK, MDC, NSM, NVDA, QCOM, URBN, VRTX

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/16/2009) (AKAM)(KFT)(BRCD)(MSFT)

247wallst — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:18:04 +0000

Updated throughout the day.

Update 10:41 AM EST: Two traders calling Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) as a takeover stock, again… We are inclined to treat this as a failed Friday rumor that is trader-generated or chat-room-generated rather than credible as this rumor comes up on many Friday mornings now (and stock is down 1.9%). -Jon Ogg

China car maker SAIC and GM may team up to move into the India market (India Economic Times)

Updated 10.15 AM EST: Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) won’t buy Akamai (NSADAQ:AKAM) (GigaOm)

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac OSX 10.6 runs faster than Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7 in new tests. (AppleInsider)

Pirated copies of Windows 7 are already widely available in Chine. (Reuters)

An S&P analyst says Brocade (NASDAQ:BRCD) is not likely to be acquired (Barron’s)

Charles Ward may be the most likely candidateto become CEO of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) (NYPost)

Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, may try to cut Bank of America’s (NYSE:BAC) CEO Ken Lewis’s retirement package. (WSJ)

Unilever may bid for Carbury which already is a takeover target for Kraft (NYSE:KFT) (FT Alphaville)

VW may raise $16 billion, probably to retire debt after its Porsche merger. (Bloomberg)

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates each morning on analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in Rumors Tagged: AAPL, AKAM, BAC, BRCD, GOOG, KFT, LAZ, MSFT

Wasserstein And The CEO Health Disclosure Issue (NYSE:LAZ)

247wallst — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:51:50 +0000

Bruce Wasserstein, the CEO of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) and by far its most important employee, became ill over the weekend, with heart problems. He died on Wednesday. The company described his condition as serious but stable when it released news about his illness on Sunday.

Wasserstein was stricken while travelling in his private car according to WSJ.com. He driver called for help. There is no way to tell, at least for now, what the Lazard board knew about Wasserstein’s illness or whether it should have disclosed more about his health. Lazard’s stock did drop on Monday and many investors probably assumed he would recover. There was certainly nothing in the public disclosure that would show otherwise.

Steve Jobs of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the signature case of a CEO who may be too ill to function. The Apple board played cat-and-mouse with both the media and investors as Jobs took time off earlier this year and secretly had a liver transplant. A number of public company disclosure experts believe that Apple should have been more forthcoming in its statements about Jobs. He lived and is back at work, so the effects on Apple may be academic.

Wasserstein was as important to the fate of Lazard as Jobs is to Apple’s Wassertein may have died suddenly on Wednesday or he may have been critically ill when he reach the hospital on the weekend. Lazard’s stock traded “in the dark” the day after Wasserstein was stricken. That might not have been necessary.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in Management Change Tagged: AAPL, LAZ

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/15/2009) (ERTS)(CLWR)(MSFT)(ARUN)(GS)(LAZ)

247wallst — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:10:50 +0000

Updated throughout the day.

Updated 2.15 PM: Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) may buy social game business Playfish for $250 million. (Business Insider)

Updated 1:40 PM EST: CKX Inc. (NASDAQ: CKXE) refuting reports that it is selling stock (VSInvestor.com)

Updated 11.50 AM EST: Shares in J. Sainsbury, the UK supermarket chain, ran up on rumors that the Qatari sovereign wealth fund is interested in increasing its 26% stake in the firm. (MarketWatch)

Updated 11.10 AM EST: Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) may get a large investment from partner Sprint (NYSE:S) (Barron”s)

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) division Skype may buy Gizmo5 for $50 million (TechCrunch)

The family of deceased Larard (NYSE:LAZ) CEO Wasserstein may sell New York Magazine. (NYPost)

Shares of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) are down because earnings missed Wall St. “whisper” numbers (ClusterStock)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) may build an FM tuner into iPods and iPhones so that users can buy music they listen to on the radio through iTunes. (9 to 5 Mac)

Aruba Networks (NASDAQ:ARUN) may be for sale. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU), Siemens (NYSE:SI), Juniper (NASDAQ:JNPR), and IBM (NYSE:IBM) are considered possible buyers. (Barron’s)

Acer may overtake Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) as the No. 2 PC maker in the world. (Digital Daily)

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) may launch an online bookstore which could provide competition to Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle. (Reuters)

Apple is planning to planning to take advantage of the launch of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7 to sell Macs (BusinessWeek).

Apple’s Steve Jobs may be more popular than Jesus. (Fortune)

GM may make a financial rescue of its Korean Daewoo Auto & Technology Center.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in Rumors Tagged: AAPL, AMZN, ARUN, CLWR, DELL, EBAY, ERTS, GOOG, GS, IBM, JNPR, LAZ, MSFT, S, SI

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (ACOR, IP, OPEN, PBR, SPWRA, ASML, LAZ, PETD, TRW, WDC)

247wallst — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:27:15 +0000

These are this morning’s top 10 pre-market analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations which we have seen early from Wall Street research firms:

Acorda (NASDAQ: ACOR) Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford; Raised to Outperform at Baird.
International Paper (NYSE: IP) Started as Outperform at RBC.
OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
PetroBras, or Petrobras Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) Started as Outperform at Bernstein.
Sunpower (NASDAQ: SPWRA) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) Cut to Sell at Citi.
Lazard (NYSE: LAZ) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Petroleum Development (NASDAQ: PETD) Cut to Neutral at Sun Trust.
Travelers Cos (NYSE: TRV) Cut To Market Perform at KBW.
Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 15, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ACOR, ASML, IP, LAZ, OPEN, PBR, PETD, SPWRA, TRW, WDC

Media Digest (10/15/2009) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:04:41 +0000

Reuters: Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is having trouble justifying its huge bonuses.

Reuters: Bruce Wasserstein, M&A giant and head of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ), died.

Reuters: Congress will probe compensation at AIG (NYSE:AIG).

Reuters: US foreclosures fell for a second month but stayed high.

Reuters: The Fed discussed rasing its asset purchases at the last FOMC.

Reuters: Roche’s results were helped by Tamiflu sales.

Reuters: JPMorga (NYSE:JPM) had a $3.6 billion profit setting a high bar for rivals.

Reuters: RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) launched a touchscreen version of the Blackberry.

WSJ: “Calpers said a former board member had reaped $50 million in fees for arranging investments that could saddle state taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.”

WSJ: AT&T (NYSE:T) slammed Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) over call blocking by its Voice application

WSJ: Sumner Redstone will cut his stakes in CBS (NYSE:CBS) and Viacom (NYSE:VIA).

WSJ: Overseas Chinese Banking Corp bought certain assets of ING.

WSJ: BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) dropped a plan to co-market some of their products.

WSJ: Sour mortgages could hurt GE (NYSE:GE) earnings.

WSJ: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is opening its first retail stores.

WSJ: Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is expanding its wireless programs.

WSJ: Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) results are likely to show that the recession is passing.

WSJ: China’s foreign currency reserves hit $2.273 billion.

WSJ: Obama is proposing at $250 payment to 57 million seniors, veterans and people with disabilities next year.

WSJ: Congress is concerned about the usefulness of first time homebuyer credits.

WSJ: Options traders are favoring IBM’s (NYSE:IBM) earnings prospects.

WSJ: China faces a big retrenchment of its factories as exports remain slow.

WSJ: GM predicted big growth in China.

WSJ: Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) is targeting IBM with some of its new products.

WSJ: Skype’s founders are trying to get an injunction against a sale of the company by eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY)

WSJ: The Wall Street Journal (NYSE:NWS) is likely to pass USA Today (NYSE:GCI) in paid circulation.

NYT: Electronic markets are threatening The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:NYX).

NYT: Treasury officials want more banks to pay back bailout money.

NYT: A suit filed against the SEC claims it did not detect the Madoff scheme.

NYT: Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) will buy Breakingviews.

NYT: The head of EADS said the aircraft industry will do better than expected.

NYT: Crédit Agricole will repay bailout money.

NYT: About 7,300 people gave offshore tax data to the IRS.

FT: The dollar was hit on signs from the Fed that rates will stay low.

FT: Geithner aides made million on Wall St.

Bloomberg: Xstrada dropped its $49 billion bid for Anglo American.

Bloomberg: Consumer prices will probably show that inflation is not a risk.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in Press Digest Tagged: AIG, BHP, CBS, EBAY, GCI, GE, GOOG, GS, IBM, JPM, LAZ, MSFT, NWS, NYX, ORCL, RIMM, RTP, T, TRI, VIA, WMT

M&A Legend Bruce Wasserstein Dies, Leaving Open Fate Of “The Deal” And “New York Magazine”

247wallst — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:24:18 +0000

Bruce Wasserstein, one of the great M&A bankers in Wall St. history and CEO of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) died at age 61.

His passing leaves open the eventual fate of his two premier media properties “The Deal” and “New York Magazine” Both are rumored to be operating in the red since the huge downturn in print and online advertising began more than a year ago.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in Media Tagged: LAZ

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/12/2009) (LAZ)(F)(AAPL)

247wallst — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:28:26 +0000

Updated throughout the day.

Updated 1.39 PM EST: Charles G. Ward, III, a senior executive at Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) will be named interim CEO at the company pending the recovery of Bruce Wasserstein. (various)

Updated 12.32 PM EST: Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone sales in China are weak, but, as Barron’s points out, the iPhone has not gone on sale there yet.

Updated 12.30 PM EST: Ford (NYSE:F) up sharply on rumors that it will beat earnings (various)

Vivendi may be able to block the Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) deal to take control of NBCU from GE (NYSE:GE) (NYSE:GE).

One of Morgan Stanley’s (NYSE:MS) co-presidents may leave after being passed over for the CEO job (The Deal)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) may pay out $22 billion in bonuses for its last fiscal year (The Telegraph)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in Rumors Tagged: AAPL, CMCSA, F, GE, GS, LAZ, MS