24/7 Wall St. » LTM

Short Seller Swarm: Highest Days To Cover (CADX, DMND, TSLA, OMEX, PACR, MNKD, WAVX, ENER, NTRI, ZIXI, MR, ZZ, RCI, MNI, HGG, AM, BPI, LTM)

Administrator — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:13:51 +0000

Many investors track the largest increase in short selling, but there is another crucial way to look at short interest: the days to cover often tells just how actively shorted a stock is, as does a large percentage of its float. More importantly, these often represent a longer-term bias by the trading community. We have tracked the NASDAQ and NYSE short interest data today to screen for companies with the highest days to cover ratios (all are over one months of trading volume). We also looked for a high percentage of its shares outstanding or its float to be in the short interest. Almost all of these also had an increase in the period from August 31 to September 15 settlement dates.

The NASDAQ stocks which fit this bill are as follows: Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CADX); Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND); Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA); Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMEX); Pacer International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PACR); MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ: MNKD); Wave Systems Corporation (NASDAQ: WAVX); Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER); NutriSystem Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRI); and Zix Corporation (NASDAQ: ZIXI).

The NYSE stocks which fit this bill, except for one, are as follows: Mindray Medical International (NYSE: MR); Sealy Corporation (NYSE: ZZ); Rogers Communication, Inc. (NYSE: RCI); The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI); HHGregg, Inc. (NYSE: HGG); American Greetings Corporation (NYSE: AM); Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI); and Life Time Fitness (NYSE: LTM).

We only looked at companies with an average volume of more than 250,000 shares and have added some loose color on these if applicable.

Filed under: Short Interest, Trading Alert Tagged: AM, BPI, CADX, DMND, ENER, HGG, LTM, MNI, MNKD, MR, NTRI, OMEX, PACR, RCI, TSLA, WAVX, ZIXI, ZZ

Share Buyback Announcements Continue In Droves (PFG, BIN, CLF, LTM, ACM, FRX, IPG, MYGN, RSG, LO, NWL, TIVO)

Administrator — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:18:32 +0000

It was just last week that we had identified literally 25 big share buyback announcements from companies in the preceding two weeks. These companies were actually buying back the stock as well rather than the historic buybacks that are not required to spend a penny. It turns out that the trend for August remains. Many new buyback announcements have been announced and it seems like companies are unlocking cash to repurchase their shares in droves.

Some of the larger and more impacting buyback announcements have been made by the following companies: Principal Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: PFG); Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (NYSE: BIN); Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF); Life Time Fitness Inc. (NYSE: LTM); AECOM Technology Corp. (NYSE: ACM); Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: FRX); Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG); Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN); Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG); Lorillard, Inc. (NYSE: LO); Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE: NWL); and TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO).

By now you already know that the attitude of 24/7 Wall St. is that dividends offer better long-term value than buybacks. We have shown what the dividend yield is for each here, or we have shown that there is no dividend.

Principal Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: PFG) announced that its board of directors has authorized a share buyback plan for up to $200 million in common stock. This represents about 8.5 million shares at current prices when average daily volume is 2.7 million shares. Its market cap is about $7.4 billion. The dividend yield is roughly 2.3% as of today.

Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (NYSE: BIN), also referred to as BFI Canada, announced a buyback of up to 4 million shares of common stock. That is about $80 million at today’s price. The market cap is $2.5 billion and the average daily volume is about 428,000 shares. The dividend yield is listed as being about 2.5%.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) has announced the authorization to buy back up to 4 million shares, close to $300 million in total per today’s dollars. The market cap is nearly $11 billion and the average volume is 3.7 million shares. The company’s dividend yield is only 1.5%.

Filed under: Corporate Governance, Dividend, Shareholder Issues, Stock Buybacks Tagged: ACM, BIN, CLF, FRX, IPG, LO, LTM, MYGN, NWL, PFG, RSG, TIVO

Top Analyst Upgrades (COF, EBAY, GS, JBLU, LTM, MA, SNDK, UPS, WYNN)

247wallst — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:18:28 +0000

There are still many upgrades coming considering the light and shortened week. These are this Wednesday’s top early bird analyst upgrades and positive research calls that we have seen:

Capital One (COF) Raised to Buy at Citi.
eBay (EBAY) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Goldman Sachs (GS) Raised to Outperform at JMP Securities.
Jetblue (JBLU) Raised to Buy at Argus.
Life Time Fitness (LTM) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Mastercard (MA) Raised to Hold at Citi.
SanDisk (SNDK) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
UPS (UPS) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) Raised to ‘Perform’ at Oppenheimer.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: COF, EBAY, GS, JBLU, LTM, MA, SNDK, UPS, WYNN

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (LNT, CNP, ESLR, FORR, IFF, LTM, LQDT, NTRS, OPXT, REG)

247wallst — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:24:29 +0000

These are the top analyst downgrades and negative research calls we have seen on Wall Street this Friday with more than two hours until the market opens:

Alliant Energy (LNT) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
CenterPoint (CNP) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Evergreen Solar (ESLR) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Forrester Research (FORR) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
International Flavors (IFF) Cut to Underweight at KeyBanc.
Life Time Fitness (LTM) Cut to Market Perform at Morgan Keegan.
Liquidity Services (LQDT) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Northern Trust (NTRS) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
Opnext (OPXT) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Regency Centers (REG) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
February 6, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: CNP, ESLR, FORR, IFF, LNT, LQDT, LTM, NTRS, OPXT, REG

Margin Calls Hit Execs Left & Right (AIV, BSX, CPE, CHK, DNR, LTM, PROV, PHM, SPA, STRL, WSM)

247wallst — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:06:55 +0000

There are many C-Suite executive from Wall Street to main Street that didn’t exactly get their stock priorities right. Many company executives are getting margin calls and are being forced to liquidate their stocks. Some are for stocks in their own company, some are for stocks and general, and some are just forced to sell to meet margin calls for entirely different reasons unrelated to their companies. below is a partial list of margin call victims from this week:

Apartment Investment and Management Co. (NYSE: AIV) Executive VicePresident David Robertson sold another 14,800 company shares early thisweek after the company stock had dropped some 7).

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) co-founder and Chairman Peter M.Nicholas was forced to sell over $29 million worth of BSX shares, butdon’t feel too bad for him. He’s got plenty more.

Callon Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: CPE) chairman and CEO Fred Callon unloaded110,000 company shares at an average price of $7.84 to meet margincalls.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) CEO Aubrey McLendon has alreadybeen wiped out of essentially all of his shares worth more than 41billion back at the peak. The sad part is his forced selling may havebeen right at the lows.

Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE: DNR) CEO Garteth Roberts had 513,000shares sold in involuntary margin calls. Interestingly enough, thiswas to meet a real estate loan rather than any stock event.

Life Time Fitness Inc (NYSE: LTM) Chairman & CEO Bahram Akradi wasforced to sell roughly $5.6 million in involunarty stock sales sales tocover margin calls.

Provident Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PROV) senior VP Richard Galesold 5,000 shares of company stock at an average of $5.76 to meet amargin call. CEO & President Craig Blunden disclosed early thisweek that he had to unload 11,929 shares of stock the prior week tomeet margin calls.

Pulte Homes Inc. (NYSE: PHM) chairman and founder William J. Pulte soldsome 760,000 Pulte shares to meet margin calls. These were apparentlyrelated to loan agreements that involved family members
and a charitable organization. And who said charity was so great….

Sparton Corp. (NYSE: SPA) Chairman Bradley Smith dumped 12,000 sharesof company stock to meet a margin call. This sale only netted about$22,000.00, but he has had to unload over $500,000.00 so far.

Sterling Construction Co. (NASDAQ: STRL) Chief Executive PatrickManning sold an additional 3,594 shares over margin calls, and it lookslike this brings his tally to more than $750,000.00 in margin callsales. A builder, in Houston….

Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NASDAQ: WSM) Chairman & CEO W.Howard Lester has now sold roughly 2.15 million shares to cover margincalls after a last filing this week showed that he sold 1.15 millionshares. Sadly enough, he nearly sold at the 52-week low.

Jon C. Ogg
October 31, 2008

Posted in Insider Activity Tagged: AIV, BSX, CHK, CPE, DNR, LTM, PHM, PROV, SPA, STRL, WSM

Analyst Upgrades 8/8/2008

247wallst — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:46:15 +0000

Apple (APPL) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse

Dell (DELL) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.

EMC (EMC) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse

Gibraltar Industries (ROCK) Raised to Outperform at Baird.

Green Mountain Coffee (GMCR) Started as Buy at SunTrust.

Lifetime Firness (LTM) Started as Outperfoprm at Morgan Keegan

Qwest (Q) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Jon C. Ogg
August 8, 2008

Life Time Fitness, Health Sacrificed With Weak Consumer (LTM)

247wallst — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:01:00 +0000

If you thought that health and fitness was a secular trend, you wouldn’t know it if you looked at Life Time Fitness Inc. (NYSE: LTM). The health club operator found itself in a precarious spot Friday.

Life Time’s earnings weren’t a problem, but the guidance is. Its earnings were in-line at $0.48 EPS as expected and $171.1 million in revenues versus $171.9 million. The company gave forecasts of $2.05 to $2.08 EPS on revenue of $780 to $800 million for 2008, while First Call had estimates at $2.18 EPS on $806.8 million in revenues.

Shares fell as hard as a 10 pound plate falling off a dumbbell. It saw a 17% drop to $33.50 Friday, and its intraday low of $30.40 marked a new 52-week low. This is roughly a 50% haircut from the $65.09 high over the last year. Now its forward multiple is in-line with the overall market, and its valuation looks OK. If the growth beyond 2008 slows too much then this will have to be more of a simple earnings play, but all in all this looks fine on the surface for value and GARP investors alike. We’ll see later on this year if the look on the surface is right or if anything is lurking underneath.

It looks like as the US is slowing and as customers are reviewing their bills, gym memberships at around $1,000 or more per year may get cut some too. It costs money to stay in good shape.

Jon C. Ogg
February 23, 2008

The 52Week Low Club (CBEY)(BRLC)(BX)(DGX)(LTM)(AVR)

247wallst — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:00:10 +0000

Aventine Renewable Energy (NYSE: AVR) Bad earnings and liquidity issues. Down to $6.79 from 52-week high of $20.85.

Life Time Fitness (NYSE: LTM) Bad outlook from 2008. Sells off to $30.40 from 52-week high of $65.09.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) Forecast is below Wall St. numbers. Falls to $46.44 from 52-week high of $58.63.

Blackstone (NYSE: BX) Environment getting worse for private equity. Drops to $15.25 from 52-week high of $38.

Syntax Brillian (NASDAQ: BRLC) Falls on problems with creditors. Down to $.83 from 52-week high of $9.04.

Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY) Investors not happy with quarterly numbers. Sells down to $15.58 from 52-week high of $46.51.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Pre-Market Analyst Calls (October 26, 2007)

247wallst — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 07:09:57 +0000

ABK cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
ADVNA cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
BBY started as Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
BEN cut to Mkt PErform at FBR.
BG cut to Neutral at HSBC.
CC started as Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
CPS cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
ELX cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
ETEL cut to Mkt Perform at JMP Securities.
EXBD raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
FADV cut to Equal Weight at Lehman.
FVE raised to Buy at Jefferies.
GIS raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
HES raised to Buy at B of A.
KND raised to Buy at Jefferies.
LVLT cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
LTM cut to Mkt Perform at Piper Jaffray.
MBI cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
NILE raised to Hold at Citigroup.
ORCC cut to Sector Perform at CIBC.
PENN cut to Hold at Jefferies.
POWI cut to Hold at Citigroup.
RRI started as outperform at Wachovia.
SE started as Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
STD raised to Buy at Citigroup.
STLD cut to Neutral at UBS.
TRID too 3 downgrades: Jefferies, Deutsche Bank, and Oppenheimer.
TSM raised to Overweight at HSBC.
USU started as Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
WCG raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
October 26, 2007