Posts for Ticker ‘LLNW’

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ADBE, ADSK, LLNW, NIHD, ORLY, QSFT, SLM, SNTA, USM)

These are the top pre-market analyst downgrades and negative research calls we have seen this Friday morning:

  • Adobe (ADBE) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
  • Autodesk (ADSK) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
  • Limelight Networks (LLNW) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
  • NII Holdings (NIHD) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • O’Reilly Autoparts (ORLY) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Quest Software (QSFT) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
  • SLM (SLM) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
  • Synta Pharmaceuticals (SNTA) downgraded at Lazard, Roth Capital, and Wachovia.
  • US Cellular (USM) Cut to Underperform at Baird.

JON C. OGG

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ELN, ESLT, LLNW, RDC, SLW, AIG, EAT, ENTR, HNT, INAP, NVS, OEH, PACR, TI )

Upgrades and Positive Calls:

  • Elan (ELN) Raised to Equal-weight at Lehman.
  • Elbit Systems (ESLT) Raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Limelight Networks (LLNW) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
  • Rowan Cos. (RDC) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
  • Silver Wheaton (SLW) Raised to Outperform at Raymond James.

Downgrades or Cautious Calls:

  • American International Group (AIG) Started as Sell at Societe Generale.
  • Brinker (EAT) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Entropic Communications (ENTR) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
  • Health Net (HNT) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Internap (INAP) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Novartis (NVS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Orient Express (OEH) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Pacer International (PACR) Cut To Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • Telecom Italia (TI) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
August 6, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (BKS, BBY, CMO, COP, DBD, DDS, LLNW, NOVL, SFLY, VG)

Below are the top analyst calls that 247WallSt.com is looking at this morning in early trading:

  • Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) downgraded to Underweight at JP Morgan.
  • Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) downgraded to Neutral at Banc of America.
  • Capstead Mortgage (NYSE: CMO) started as Outperform at Bear Stearns; started as Outperform at RBC Capital.
  • ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) downgraded to Equal-weight at Lehman Brothers.
  • Diebold (NYSE: DBD) raised to Outperform at Robert W. Baird; downgraded to Hold at Jefferies.
  • Dillards (NYSE: DDS) raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) raised to Hold at Jefferies.
  • Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) downgraded to Hold at Jefferies.
  • Shutterfly (NASDAQ: SFLY) started as Outperform at William Blair.
  • Vonage (NYSE: VG) raised to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.

Jon C. Ogg
March 4, 2008

The 52-Week Low Club (FMT)(RHD)(S)(JRC)(LLNW)(IACI)

Fremont General (FMT) Threatens more write-downs. Falls to $.73 from 52-week high of $13.80.

R H Donnelley  (RHD) Downgrades after poor earnings. Hits bottom of $6.26 from 52-week high of $84.49.

MF Global (MF) Still falling after trading loss. Drops to $14 down from 52-week high of $32.20.

Sprint Nextel (S) Still being punished for earnings. Falls to $7.08 from 52-week high of $23.42.

Journal Register (JRC) Newspaper company. Falls to $.78 from 52-week high of $7.23.

Limelight Networks (LLNW) Loses patent suit. Sells off to $3.82 from 52-week high of $24.33.

IAC Interactive (IACI) Underperforming e-commerce company. Drops to $19.76 from 52-week high of $39.06.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (T, CHK, KOF, CMCSA, KEY, LLNW, LUKOY, MTH, PPG, VZ)

These are not the only analyst calls today, but these are the top ten calls that 247WallSt.com is looking at this morning:

  • AT&T (NYSE: T) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
  • Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) started as Buy at Jefferies.
  • Coca-Cola FEMSA (NYSE: KOF) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Citigroup.
  • Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
  • KeyCorp. (NYSE: KEY) downgraded to Underperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.
  • Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
  • Lukoil (NASDAQ: LUKOY) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  • Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
  • PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Citigroup.
  • Verizon (NYSE: VZ) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Jon C. Ogg
February 20, 2008

Largest IPO Percentage Losses of 2007 (CHIP, DEEP, ZBB, BBND, MMPI, GLUU, IMRX, GSIT, XFML, PINN, LLNW)

247WallSt.com wanted to bring a best and worst in IPO’s for 2007.  Many investors look for recent IPO’s that have seen the shares hit hard since coming public.  Some of these may be overlooked, but always remember that there is usually a reason that an IPO would be down more than 50% since coming public.  As you can see below, there were some big losers for IPO’s in 2007:

  • VeriChip Corp (NASDAQ:CHIP) Feb. 9 at $6.50; recently $2.49 or -61.69%.
  • Superior Offshore (NASDAQ:DEEP) April 19 at $15.00; recently $5.85 or -61.00%.   
  • ZBB Energy Corp (AMEX:ZBB) June 15 at $6.00; recently $2.40 or -60.00%.
  • Bigband Networks (NASDAQ:BBND) March 14 at $13.00; recently $5.55 or -57.31%.
  • Meruelo Maddux Prop. (NASDAQ:MMPI) Jan. 24 at $10.00; recently $4.36 or -56.40%.   
  • Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU) March 21 at $11.50; $5.07 or -55.91%.
  • ImaRx Therapeutics (NASDAQ:IMRX) July 25 at $5.00; recently $2.23 or -55.40%.
  • GSI Technology (NASDAQ:GSIT) March 28 at $5.50; $2.51 or -54.36%.
  • Xinhua Finance Media (NASDAQ:XFML) March 8 at $13.00; recently $6.18 or -52.46%.
  • Pinnacle Gas Resources (NASDAQ:PINN) May 14 at $9.00; recently $4.30 or -52.22%.   
  • Limelight Networks (NASDAQ:LLNW) June 7 at $15.00; recently $7.29 or -51.40%.

Jon C. Ogg
December 26, 2007

Join our free email distribution list for previews on IPO’s, spin-off’s, reorganization, restructuring, merger-arb, buyouts, M&A, and more.

Why Wall St. Won’t Buy Akamai (AKAM) And Limelight (LLNW)

Research firm Kaufman put "hold: ratings on content deliver networks Akamai (AKAM) and Limelight (LLNW) with price targets below where the stocks currently trade.

The bull theory on the stocks was that as internet delivery of video and data moved up, these two companies would do exceedingly well as the two leader in quality media delivery.

What the market did not expect was that Level 3 (LVLT) would enter the business as a low cost provider using its international IP backbone.

But, that has not been the worst of it. Companies can get into the CDN market for a few hundred thousand dollars. And, the market is flooded with capacity. Some of the larger private operation are Mirror-Image, OnStreamMedia, RapidEdge, Swarmcast, and Panther Express, and EdgeCast.

Until some of these smaller CDNs are bought out or fail out of the market, it is going to be hard for AKAM and LLNW to move up.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AKAM, AXA, BP, CVX, LLNW, MYL, TTGT, TRW, BWA, LEA, AVB, EQR, BRE)

These are not the only impact analyst calls today, but these are the top calls that 24/7 Wall St. is focusing on:

  • Akamai Tech (AKAM) started as Sector Perform at CIBC.
  • AXA (AXA) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
  • BP (BP) & Chevron (CVX)  raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • Limelight Networks (LLNW) started as Outperform at CIBC.
  • Mylan ((MYL) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Techtarget (TTGT) raised to Buy at Oppenheimer.
  • Goldman Sachs turns cautious on the automotive supply group: TRW (TRW), Borg Warner (BWA), and Lear (LEA).
  • UBS extremely late downgrades on residential REIT’s: Avalon Bay (AVB) cut to Neutral; Equity Residential (EQR) cut to Sell; BRE Properties (BRE) cut to Sell.

Jon C. Ogg
November 27, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Media Digest 11/8/2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s

According to Reuters, Morgan Stanley (MS) has suffered a $3.7 billion loss from its mortgage portfolio,

Reuters writes that shares in Cisco (CSCO) were driven down on concerns that orders from the financial sector would drop.

Reuters reports that Fed officials mentioned more rate cuts would be necessary if the economy slows.

Reuters also reports that Merrill Lynch (MER) said that the SEC is investigating certain aspects of its subprime mortgage portfolio.

Reuters also writes that BT (BT) hit earnings estimate on strength of its broadband business.

The Wall Street Journal reports that AIG’s (AIG) net fell 27%, hurt by a write-down.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that the US is recalling another four million Chinese made toys.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Tivo (TIVO) is marketing a service that allows advertisers to see details  of people’s TV watching habits.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Moody’s say that certain asset pools to be protected by a superfund set up by banks are already liquidating their portfolios.

The Wall Street Journal writes that shares in content delivery firms Akamai (AKAM) and Limelight (LLNW) have taken a beating and could go lower.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Europe cellular giant Vodafone (VOD) will use the new Nokia ((NOK) music and internet services.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Kraft (KFT) added two board members approved by shareholder Nelson Peltz.

The New York Times writes that home owners are beginning to feel the pinch of lost equity.

The New York Times writes that high gas prices are adding to the strain on US consumers.

The New York Times reports that Ed Lampert, head of Sear (SHLD) has lost a large sum by investing in Citigroup (C).

The FT writes that Ford (F) may face a hurdle in selling Jaguar and Rover–a $2 billion pension fund deficit.

The FT writes that Wall St. expectations for fourth quarter earnings has fallen sharply.

Barron’s writes that shares in First Solar (FSLR) rose sharply after hours on strong earnings.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Media Digest 10/12,2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s

According to Reuters, a sharp fall in shares of China internet company Baidu (BIDU) raised fear that the tech market has topped.

Reuters (RTRSY) reports the Citigroup (C) has gone through another management shake-up.

Reuters writes that JC Penney recalled toys because of high lead content.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the wealthiest 1% of Americans earned over 21% of all national income in 2005.

Electronic Arts (ERTS) will buy a videogame developer for $860 million from private-equity firm Elevation Partners

The Wall Street Journal writes that doube-digit gains in Chinese IPO are now routine.

The Wall Street Journal writes that the major business magazines are being hurt badly by financial websites.

The New York Times writes that the sale of Jaquar is dragging.

The New York Times writes that Tata Motors will introduce a $2,500 car in India.

The New York Times writes that ABC is producing a 15 minute version of its evening new for the internet.

The FT writes that the head of Toyota’s (TM) Lexus operation is moving to Ford (F)

Barron’s writes that Limelight (LLNW) said it Q3 numbers would beat expectations.

CNN Money writes that oil prices jumped and a near a record.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Limelight (LLNW) Raises Q3 Guidance, Stock Up 8%

Limelight (LLNW), which has issued lackluster guidance for Q3 improved that forecast, and shares rallied over 8% after hours to $12.62.

The company announced that it expects 2007 third-quarter GAAP revenue to be in the range of $28.6 million to $29.1 million and non-GAAP revenue to be in the range of $27.5 million to $28.0 million, compared to earlier expectations of GAAP and non-GAAP revenue in the range of $27.0 million to $28.0 million and $25.5 million and $26.5 million, respectively, as provided on August 9, 2007.

Good news for all.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Will Level 3 (LVLT) Drive Down Akamai (AKAM) Margins

Alley Insider is reporting that as Level 3 (LVLT) moves into the content delivery network business dominated by Akamai (AKAM) that it will undercut what the industry charges most clients by a significant amount. The site reports that "Level 3 plans to sell CDN services at the same rates it sells plain-vanilla Internet bandwidth."

Akamai’s shares are already under tremendous pressue from lower pricing offered by several private companies and by recent IPO Limelight Networks (LLNW).

Akamai traded for almost $60 last February. It now changes hands at $30. Limelight traded above $24 after its IPO and now sits just above $9.

Because Level 3 has such a large network and bandwidth of its own, it may be able to offer content delivery at a large discount. It is hard to imagine that it can make much money by pursuing the tactic.

It could be that, as prices drop for customers, all three companies lose.

Douglas A. McIntrye

Akamai And Limelight: Content Delivery Gets Worse

In the age of internet video and data transportation, it would make sense that the companies that facilitate these functions would do well. But, the two leading public companies in the industry have stock prices that have been hammered to the floor. Akamai (AKAM), the larger of the two, has shares that moved from under $15 two years ago to almost $60 in February. Now they change hands at $30.

Limelight (LLNW) went public about six months ago. Its shares moved over $24 and now trade at under $8.50.

There is a school of thought that these price drops are temporary and that, as there is more evidence that video streaming and downloading are still growing, both stocks will move up.

Not likely. A number of smaller companies have gotten into the content delivery business. Operations like Swarmcast are pushing down margins with aggressive prices.

Large companies are getting into the business, too. Level 3 (LVLT) plans to start a CDN using its huge network. Google (GOOG) has a de facto content delivery business of its own for delivering it own content. It could resell some of that capacity.

Akamai and Limelight are in businesses with falling prices and too much capacity. Not good news for their shares.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Akamai, LimeLight, And Level 3: Is Internet Video Growth Slowing?

Shares in content delivery networks like Akamai (AKAM) and LimeLight (LLNW) have sold off sharply. So has the stock of internet infrastructure network Level 3 (LVLT).

The market believes that fierce price competition has hurt the margins at AKAM and LLNW. Over the last three months, Akamai shares are down 25% and new IPO LimeLight is off over 60%.

But, margin is not the only problem.Growth rates are flattening out. Akamai’s revenue rose just over 50% in the June quarter to $153 million. That was about the same as for the full year 2006.

In the June quarter, revenue growth at LimeLight was 43%. But, for the first six months, the topline grew at 72%. Quite a comedown.

LVLT, which provides quite a bit of the industry’s internet "pipes" had flat revenue in the last quarter. Its stock is down almost 15% in the last three months.

With the growth of video storage and streaming, these companies should be doing well, and their guidance should not be so modest.

But, a new look at video streaming on the internet shows that the business might not be as robust as assumed. According to comScore, the number of unique video streamers grew only 11% from January 2007 to June. YouTube’s growth rate was 36%, making it the exception. That means that the sites at the tier below it are showing almost no growth at all.

If the trend continues, the companies like AKAM and LVLT that are the service providers for web video have an unhappy future. And, that assumes that prices wars begin to end.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Limelight Networks: How Many Class Action Suits Can It Get? (LLNW, GS, MS)

One thing has held true since the bubble burst and long before then: When shares of a company get hit hard, attorneys file class action lawsuits against a company for misleading shareholders and causing losses.  There was a suit filed against Limelight Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:LLNW) today, but after looking on the surface there have been a slew of suits.  It looks like seven suits have been filed so far:

August 21: Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP
August 20: Klafter & Olsen LLP
August 20: Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP
August 17: Roy Jacobs & Associates
August 15: Federman & Sherwood    
August 15: Law Offices of Brian M. Felgoise, P.C.
August 13: Paskowitz & Associates

Interestingly enough, it seems that law firms never go after the underwriters.  That isn’t the always the case and a huge master settlement has been paid by top firms, but these law firms tend to file against the company itself.  When you see a stock price at $15.00 in June, gap over $20.00 on the IPO, come off and then go higher, just to fall off a cliff.  Shares are currently under $8.00 and the trading range since its IPO is $7.96 to $24.33.

Needless to say, the firms filing suits now may need to look elsewhere.  Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) were the lead underwriters in this last offering.

Jon C. Ogg
August 21, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Limelight’s (LLNW) Shares Shattered

Limelight Networks (LLNW), the content delivery network and Akamai (AKAM) competitor which recently went public is off over 37% in today’s trading. The company traded as high as $24.33 after its IPO and now sits at $8.85.

It must have been the earnings. For the second quarter, Limelight Networks reported revenue of $21.2 million up 43%. Off the small base and in the hot content hosting and delivery industry, Wall St wanted a much bigger jump. LLNW reported a second quarter loss per diluted share of $0.23. The company’s operating loss grew from $4 million to almost $11 million.

Investors also seemed disappointed with guidance which is for revenue to be in the range of $27 to $28 million in the next quarter and in the range of $101 to $103 million for the year. That would be more than poor for a business that did $21 million in the most recent quarter.

The numbers may well show that the anticipated growth of content hosting and streaming is slowing and that the YouTube era did not last very long.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Limelight Networks (LLNW): Friedman Billings Looks The Fool

On July 18, Friedman Billings put an "outperform" on Limelight Networks. The shares closed at $16.85 that day. Today, the stock is off over 17% to under $12.

What Friedman did not see was that there is s price war going on in the content delivery network business. It involves that largest company in the business, Akamai (AKAM), and that stock has fallen from $47 to under $33 in two weeks. The third company in the competition is Internap (INAP). Its shares have fallen from over $15 to $14 in the last two weeks.

It seems that the research firm missed that point.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Big Band (BBND), Akamai (AKAM), And Level 3 (LVLT): Bad Times For Multimedia

Big Band Networks (BBND) had a bad quarter. The provider of infrastructure for moving video around the internet lost 20% of its value after hours down to $11. It announced a modest $54.5 million in revenue and earnings $.07 a share. An IPO this year, Big Band is now off from a high of $21.63.

LimeLight (LLNW), a content delivery network that competes with industry leader Akamai (AKAM), is off from $24.33 just after its IPO to $16.54. Akamai’s stock is down 35% this year. It earnings disappointed investors.

In a related part of the internet infrastructure, Level 3 (LVLT) came up with flat revenue and lackluster earnings for the last quarter. Its shares went from $6.42 to $4.93 after its announcement. It has recovered a bit since then.

But, there is a trend here. The companies that provide the pipes and pipe parts to get video around the internet should be doing very well during the "YouTube" generation. They are not.

Two things may be happening. The first is the the service providers are in such fierce competition for business in a market that Wall St. views as hot that margins are being compressd by price cuts. The other possibility is that, after two years of extremely rapid expansion, video streaming and consumption is flattening.

Neither set of circumstances is good for these business, and neither is likely to go away.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Media Digest 7/30/2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTmes, FT, Barron’s

According to Reuters, ABN Amro (ABN) has withdrawn support for a bid from Barclays (BCS)

Reuters writes that Liberty Media (LCACA) may make a bid for UK cable company Virgin Media.

Reuters reports that Boeing (BA) raised its outlook saying India will need over $86 billion in planes over the next 20 years.

The Wall Street Journal writes taht Adobe (ADBE) is being criticized for a deal with Fedex Kinko which give the office support firm access to some of the software companies applications which could hurt outsets of smaller printing retailers.

The Hew York Times wirtes that the controlling Bancroft faimly has not made a decision about the sale of Dow Jones (DJ).

FT writes that Sony’s (SNE) proftts would drop if the yen strenthens.

Barron’s writes that Internap (INAP) and Limelight (LLNW) are taking market share from content deilvery network leader Akamai (AKAM)

Pre-Market Analyst calls (July 18, 2007)

ACI cut to Hold at Citigroup.
AKAM started as Outperform at FBR.
BAGL started as Outperform at Piper Jaffray.
BTU cut to Hold at Citigroup.
CPB raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
DAC started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
DSX started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
DVA cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
FBCM started as Buy at Jefferies.
FCL cut to Hold at Citigroup.
IMB cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
INTC cut to Mkt Perform at JMP Securities.
KEYS cut to Hold at BB&T.
KEYS cut to Mkt Perform at Morgan Keegan.
KND cut to Underperform at Wachovia.
LDK started as Outperform at CIBC.
LLNW started as Hold at Jefferies.
LLNW started as Mkt Perform at Piper jaffray.
MBRX cut to Hold at Jefferies.
OSG started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
PX started as Outperform at CIBC.
QMAR started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
RE cut to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
RSG cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
SNDK raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
SNY raised to Overweight at HSBC.
SSW started as neutral at Credit Suisse.
TK started as neutral at Credit Suisse.
TNP started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
TOT cut to Neutral at JP Morgan.
WLL raised to Buy at KeyBanc/McDonald.

Jon C. Ogg
July 18, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.