24/7 Wall St. » LUV

When Will Low Oil Help Airlines Out? (UAL, DAL, LCC, LUV, JBLU)

Administrator — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:53:14 +0000

Oil is tanking behind Europe, commodity inventories are up, and refineries are running at very high historic levels. And guess what, airplanes are full, fares are up, carriers are passing on endless costs to customers, and capacity remains high. As long as the U.S. does not follow Europe into a meltdown it should be a perfect storm for the U.S. airline sector. So why are airline stocks getting hit with the broad market so much?

Oh, and someone some day will probably buy AMR or parts of it out of bankruptcy for a song. Perhaps it is simply just another 100-point-plus drop in the DJIA or another double-digit drop in the S&P 500 Index. The major airline carriers are trading today:

United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is down 1% at $21.61 against a 52-week range of $15.51 to $26.50; UAL was above $24.00 just one week ago.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is down 0.8% at $10.45 with a 52-week range of $6.41 to $11.58; Delta is down almost 10% in less than two weeks.

US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is down only 0.4% at $10.58 against a 52-week range of $3.96 to $11.73; US Air is down about 10% in less than two weeks.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is performing the worst of the lot because most investors believe that are actively hedging and that means they won’t benefit as much from lower oil prices. Southwest’s share price is down 1.2% at $8.18 against a 52-week range of $7.15 to $12.04.

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) is an exception to the rule today. Its shares are up 3% at $4.40 against a 52-week range of $3.40 to $6.32 in part on follow-on buying after a director of the company bought more than $200,000 worth of stock.

The question that has to be asked is how the end of summer demand is going to be and how the end of 2013 will hold up. Right now investors are using anything as a source of funds but the movement here might be acting differently than it should be.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Airlines, Oil & Gas, Transports Tagged: DAL, featured, JBLU, LCC, LUV, UAL

Falling Oil Puts Airline Sector Up In First Class (UAL, DAL, LCC, LUV)

Administrator — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:19:27 +0000

Is the economy so weak that the summer and rest of 2012 will be punishing on the airline industry? Apparently not. Have you been to an airport and flown lately? Chances are high that if you then you probably noticed that planes are full and often overbooked. The drop in oil may be hurting the oil players today, but the airline sector is one of the few bright spots for investors despite a 20 point drop in the S&P 500 and a 160 point drop in the DJIA.

Here is how some of the major airline carriers are trading today: United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is up 3% at $22.22; Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is up 1.1% at $11.08; US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is up 1.2% at $10.84.

The one exception is Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) with its shares trading down 1.3% at $8.11 because it is a hedge-play. Southwest is an airline which often is more active in hedging out its oil price exposure, so a drop of more than 5% in oil prices from the peak in oil this week does not necessarily translate t quite as high of savings for Southwest.

What is important to remember here is that a $1.00 drop in crude is supposed to be worth about $400 million in profits to the airline industry.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Airlines, Oil & Gas, Trading Alert, Transports Tagged: DAL, featured, LCC, LUV, UAL

Does Delta Make Sense as an Oil Refiner?

Paul Ausick — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:04:50 +0000

A deal that first made it into public view less than a month ago has now been completed. Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL), through its wholly-owned Monroe Energy LLC subsidiary, has acquired the 185,000-barrel/day Trainer, Pennsylvania, refinery from Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX), the refining company spin-off from ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) that officially begins trading today.

Delta will pay $150 million for the refinery and expects to spend another $100 million to boost the plant’s capacity to make jet fuel, which is the reason Delta bought the refinery in the first place. The deal follows yesterday’s $5.3 billion acquisition by Energy Transfer Partners L.P. (NYSE: ETP) of downstream company Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN).

A couple of interesting questions follow Delta’s entry into the refining business. First, will other airlines follow? United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL), US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC), and Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), like other large carriers, follow a hedging strategy that tries to even out the ups-and-downs of crude prices. When it works, as it did for Southwest in 2006 and 2007, management looks like geniuses and the airlines makes a ton of profit. When it doesn’t work, as it didn’t for Southwest a few years later, the less said the better.

The only reason to buy a refinery is to mitigate price risk on crude oil. Delta claims the cost of the refinery is equivalent to the price it would pay for one widebody jet. The company expects to save twice that much annually on fuel costs going forward. Before United and the other carriers jump into the refining business they will want to see if Delta can actually realize its projected savings.

Which brings us to the second question: how does Delta expect to mitigate crude oil price risk? When the possible refinery acquisition first became known, there were reports that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) would take on the crude oil trading that would be needed to supply the refinery. As announced today:

[Delta subsidiary] Monroe is partnering with leading energy companies to supply crude oil and receive jet fuel in exchange for Trainer’s non-jet fuel outputs. Under a three-year agreement, BP will supply the crude oil to be refined at the facility. Monroe Energy will exchange gasoline and other refined products from Trainer for jet fuel from Phillips 66 and BP elsewhere in the country through multi-year agreements.

The “leading energy companies” are ConocoPhillips and BP plc (NYSE: BP). If BP is supplying the crude, the price will be set at or very near Brent crude prices. Jet fuel is generally more expensive than gasoline and other refined products. As Brent prices rise, jet fuel prices will also rise and probably rise faster than gasoline or diesel prices. Thus, Monroe/Delta will be trading lower-priced products for a higher-priced product. No savings there.

The only way for Delta to make sure it saves money is to source its crude more cheaply. In the US, that means getting crude from North Dakota’s Bakken field to the East Coast. There’s no pipeline (yet) to do that. Surely the lack of cheap crude is why JPMorgan is no longer in the picture. The proposed sale of Sunoco’s 335,000-barrel/day Philadelphia refinery to The Carlyle Group will not be concluded if the private equity firm cannot find a source of cheaper crude.

Delta apparently believes that by sourcing crude from BP the airlines has insulated itself from crude price risk. Not having seen details of the contract it’s hard to say. But oil companies are not charitable organizations and BP won’t have made any big concession on price.

Shares of Delta are up about 2.2% in the pre-market at $11.20 in a 52-week range of $6.21-$11.60. A new annual high is certainly within reach today.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Airlines, Mergers and Buy Outs, Oil & Gas Tagged: BP, COP, DAL, ETP, featured, JPM, LCC, LUV, PSX, SUN, UAL

American Companies with the Most Customers

Charles B. Stockdale — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:37:51 +0000

Last week, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced that it sold 35.1 million iPhones worldwide in the latest quarter. The figure is large, but not extraordinary. Some consumer products and consumer electronics companies sell their products to a considerably larger number of customers — in the U.S. alone. 24/7 Wall St. examined the corporations operating in the largest U.S. consumer-based industries to find the largest companies based on customer count.

Read The American Companies With the Most Customers

The customer bases of many of these companies are in the tens of millions. Each company operates in an industry that provides a product or a service to an extremely wide spectrum of American consumers. The leader in each sector reached its position through innovation, longevity or some combination of the two.

Each of the industries on this list serves a very large base of customers. For example, there are thousands of retailers, serving pretty much the entire population, but only Costco is the leader in membership with over 65 million members. Founded in 1983, Costco (NASDAQ: COST) is a relatively new company. It became a success largely because it charges customers a membership fee for access to its stores and in exchange offers extremely low prices that are never marked up more than 15% above the price Costco pays.

Some industries are huge, but only have a small number of competitors. While there are only a handful of national wireless carriers, there are over 330 million wireless subscriptions in the U.S. — more than the population itself. But there are only four competitors of any size — AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless, Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile. Each company has to battle for a share of a market that is no longer growing. The weapons the companies use to gain market share are products, customer service and price. AT&T is the leader. Its share of the market is based to some extent on history. It is a descendant from the original AT&T phone monopoly. But without strong products and intelligent pricing there is no assurance it can stay ahead of number two competitor Verizon Wireless.

24/7 Wall St. examined 10 of America’s largest consumer industries and the customer counts for the biggest two or three companies in each sector. We then reviewed the history of each industry in an attempt to find how the top company in each reached its leadership position. To rank the companies, 24/7 Wall St. took each leader and compared it in size to the leaders in the other industries chosen. We used company and industry data to confirm customer counts. Each company in this ranking is the largest company in its industry, based on customer count.

These are the American Companies with the Most Customers.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Special Report Tagged: AAPL, AMTD, AMZN, AXP, CMCSA, COST, CVC, DAL, DFS, EBAY, ETFC, featured, LUV, MA, MSFT, NWS, S, SCHW, SNE, T, TWX, V, VZ

Airlines Post Gains on Fuel Hedges, Revenues Up Too (DAL, LCC, LUV, AAMRQ, UAL, JBLU, FAA)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:24:29 +0000

Two of the US’s largest airlines reported earnings today, Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) and US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC), and both showed a profit thanks to mark-to-market gains on fuel hedges. At Delta, adjusted EPS actually showed a loss of -$0.05/share, right on the consensus estimate and far better than the EPS loss of -$0.38 that the company posted in the same period a year ago. Revenue of $8.41 billion topped the consensus estimate of $8.36 billion.

At US Airways, profits rose to $48 million, which included a one-time gain of $73 million on a transaction with Delta related to takeoff and landing rights at LaGuardia and Reagan National. Stripping out the one-time items, US Airways posted an EPS loss of -$0.13, far better than the EPS loss of -$0.68 in the same period a year ago and nearly two times better than the consensus analyst estimate for an EPS loss of -$0.25. Revenue of $3.27 billion was also better than the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion.

The two airlines follow Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) and AMR Corp.’s (OTC: AAMRQ.PK) American Airlines, both of which reported earnings last week. Southwest also posted a profit on hedging gains, and American’s loss, stripping out one-time charges, was 40% smaller than it was in the same period a year ago.

United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is scheduled to report earnings tomorrow, as is JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU). The consensus estimates call for United to post an EPS loss of -$1.03 on $8.58 billion in revenue and for JetBlue to post EPS of $0.08 on revenue of $1.19 billion.

The good news for airlines is that traffic is up, ticket prices have been raised, and some capacity has been wrung out. The wild card, of course, is fuel costs. Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicates jet fuel cost $3.245/gallon, down -2.4% from March, and down -1.9% from the same period last year. The IATA estimates the average cost for a barrel of jet fuel in 2012 will be $135, which will raise the industry’s total fuel bill by $41 billion over the year.

Delta’s shares are down about -0.3% in the early afternoon, at $10.45 in a 52-week range of $6.41-$11.60. US Airways’ shares are up 2.9% at $9.58, in a 52-week range of $3.96-$10.35.

The lightly traded Guggenheim Airline ETF (AMEX: FAA) is up 0.14% at $29.30 in a 52-week range of $23.82-$39.18.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Airlines, Earnings, Transports Tagged: AMR, DAL, FAA, JBLU, LCC, LUV, UAL

A Tempered Outlook of Key Earnings Expectations (AA, SNDK, CSCO, AAPL, GE, JPM, BAC, WFC, WMT, LUV, IBM, T, VZ, BAC, MCD, AAPL)

Administrator — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:45:02 +0000

The first quarter earnings reports will start to dribble out this week and expectations have been tempered in recent trading days ahead of Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) on Tuesday afternoon. The stock market had an incredible first quarter performance with double-digit gains but there has been some growing caution over real expectations. 24/7 Wall St. has taken a look at internal corporate commentary and external comments which show some continued caution toward the high income growth. This data features several DJIA components and also other industry leaders to get to the bottom of what to expect this earnings season.

This week’s review focuses on the most fresh data on Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA), SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO). We also have more fresh data on the following: General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM); Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT); Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV); International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM); AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); and also McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD).

The trends should not move investors towards a panic button, but there is some growing concern even compared to just three weeks ago. The news is far from positive and could act as a drag on the expectations that the market will keep rising.

Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) reports earnings on Tuesday and it is generally the first DJIA component to report earnings each quarter. Investors always try to use Alcoa as a benchmark for all major economic companies each earnings season. The issue goes far beyond Alcoa and far beyond just the base economy companies as one last tempering of earnings expectations for the first quarter of 2012. The company just noted at the end of last week ahead of earnings that it would be dialing down some capacity in the Atlantic region, a move which cannot exactly be interpreted as strengthening demand ahead of earnings.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Calendar, Earnings, Economy Tagged: AA, AAPL, BAC, CSCO, GE, IBM, JPM, LUV, MCD, SNDK, T, VZ, WFC, WMT

Q1-2012 Earnings Season Outlook, Lowered Expectations (AA, SNDK, CSCO, GE, JPM, WMT, LUV, IBM, T, VZ, BAC, MCD, AAPL)

Administrator — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:00:08 +0000

Earnings season is almost upon us for the first quarter of 2012. There is some growing caution over company expectations on the heels of a massive rally where the DJIA rose 8.1% and the S&P 500 rose 11.9% in the first quarter alone. We have taken a look at internal corporate commentary and external tempering of expectations on several DJIA components and also other industry leaders to get to the bottom of what to expect this earnings season.

Our review focuses on fresh tempering of expectations from Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA), and caution from SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO). There are also more very fresh concerns regarding the following companies: General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM); Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT); Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV); International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM); AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); and also McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD).

This is not an effort to move towards the panic button, but it is also full of evidence and inference showing that things might be a bit tempered compared to estimates of even two weeks ago. This tempering may still not kill the expectation that the DJIA will see 14,000 or higher this year.

Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) has taken a very interesting path here ahead of earnings season. The company is set to report earnings next week and it is generally the first DJIA component to report earnings each quarter. For better or worse, that means that investors try to use Alcoa as a benchmark for all major economic companies each earnings season. The issue goes far beyond Alcoa and far beyond just the base economy companies as one last tempering of earnings expectations for the first quarter of 2012.

While Alcoa is the current focus, we wanted to identify what other DJIA components and/or what other sector leaders have said ahead of earnings season. It may not be as cautious as many investors were braced for at the start of 2012, but it is far from positive and could act as a drag on the expectations that the market will keep rising.

If you tie in what flash memory maker SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) warned of lower demand and lower pricing hurting sales and margins. With it being the largest independent flash maker, this dimmed the hopes of the tech boom continuing and the drop was in all Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) component suppliers. Earlier this week came word from John Chambers of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) that government spending was going to get worse before it gets better.

Another concern, which seems to be a lame call rather than an insightful call, came from Moody’s where the credit ratings agency issued a formal downgrade on General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). We warned when the ‘negative review” came up last month that the call was unwarranted and/or very late because things have gotten better rather than worse. We would only expect that this tempered estimates mildly and the company has done what it can to give the all-clear signal in recent weeks and months.

Filed under: Accounting, Activist Investor, Analyst Calls, Annual Report, Banking, Brokerage Firms, Calendar, Conglomerates, Consumer Goods, Corporate Governance, Dividend, Earnings, Earnings Warning, Economy, Editor's Picks, Financial Stocks, International Markets, Metals, Personal Finance, Technology Companies, Value Investing Tagged: AA, AAPL, BAC, CSCO, GE, IBM, JPM, LUV, MCD, SNDK, T, VZ, WMT

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (IBM, MCD, LUV, SNDK, BX, TISI, MIND, MON, AYI, ANGO, PSMT, STZ, PIR, LEDS, CBLI, THTI, CLNT)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:08:06 +0000

Markets opened lower this morning and didn’t recover. The ISM services index came in lower than expected (our coverage here) and the EIA report on crude oil inventories pushed crude prices down (our coverage here). The markets haven’t recovered from yesterday’s release of the minutes of the FOMC meeting, which most observers saw as fairly hawkish (our coverage here). The US dollar index rose today, now up 0.37% at 79.776. Commodities were mixed on the stronger dollar, with corn and wheat down the most. WTI crude oil closed down -2.4% at $101.47/barrel, and Brent crude trades down -1.87% at $122.52/barrel. Gold settled down -3.5% today, at $1,614.10/ounce, its lowest price in three months.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 125 points to 13,074.83(-0.95%), the NASDAQ fell more than 45 points (-1.46%) to 3,068.09, and the S&P 500 fell -1.02% or more than 14 points to 1,398.96.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) cut to ‘neutral’ at BofA/ML; McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) removed from the ‘Conviction Buy List’ but maintained as ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs; Southwest Airlines Corp. (NYSE: LUV) raised to ‘overweight’ at Barclays; Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) cut to ‘outperform’ at RBC; and Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) added to ‘Top Pick’ list at Citigroup.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Team Inc. (NYSE: TISI) is down -12.3% at $28.83; Mitcham Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: MIND) is down -3.9% at $23.37; Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) is down -1.3% at $80.70 (more coverage here); and Acuity Brands Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is down -9.7% at $57.51. After markets close today we get earnings from AngioDynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGO), Harry Winston Diamond Corp. (NYSE: HWD), and PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT). Before markets open tomorrow we’ll get earnings from Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ), Pier One Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR), and SemiLEDS Corp. (NASDAQ: LEDS).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Cleveland BioLabs Inc. (NASDAQ: CBLI) is down more than -30% at $1.67 after posting a new 52-week low of $1.48. The biotech company’s funding from the federal government has been cut off.

Sandisk Corp. is down about -11% at $44.72. The flash memory maker revealed a weak outlook for the quarter. More coverage here.

THT Heat Transfer Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: THTI) is up nearly 80% at $2.30. The Chinese maker of heat exchangers reported decent earnings, but forecast revenues for the current quarter at half last quarter’s total. See our coverage yesterday of SmartHeat Inc. (NASDAQ: HEAT), another Chinese maker of heat exchangers. Just substitute the names.

CleanTech Solutions International Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNT) is up more than 177% at $6.10. The Chinese maker of metal components for wind turbines reported solid revenues last week, but profits were down. Another hard-to-figure move.

Stay tuned for Thursday. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard is giving a speech. We have also noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:30 a.m. – Challenger Gray & Christmas layoff report
8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
3:00 p.m. – Treasury STRIPS
4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet and money supply

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Market Close Tagged: ANGO, AYI, BX, CBLI, CLNT, IBM, LEDS, LUV, MCD, MIND, MON, PIR, PSMT, SNDK, STZ, THTI, TISI

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AIG, BV, BIIB, BX, CIEN, IBM, MCD, NVO, SNDK, SON, LUV, SBUX, SYY, TLAB, UAL)

Administrator — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:24:39 +0000

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

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.

Bazaarvoice Inc. (NASDAQ: BV) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse; Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley; Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank..

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) added to Top Pick list at Citigroup.

Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) removed from Conviction Buy List but maintained as Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) Cut to Outperform at RBC.

Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON) Started as Equal-weight at Barclays.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) Added to Conviction Buy List as Goldman Sachs.

Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) Started as Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Tellabs Inc. (NASDAQ: TLAB) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.

United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) Cut to Equal-weight at Barclays.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox. We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AIG, BIIB, BV, BX, CIEN, IBM, LUV, MCD, NVO, SBUX, SNDK, SON, SYY, TLAB, UAL

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMZN, BIP, XLS, GM, GPRN, ICE, LLTC, PRXL, PKD, PVH, GOLD, RIO, LUV, SHW, TXN)

Administrator — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:15:49 +0000

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

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE: BIP) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Exelis, Inc. (NYSE: XLS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) Cut to Neutral with $20 target at BofA/ML; Cut to Sell at Stifel Nicolaus.

IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: LLTC) Cut to Neutral at UBS.

PAREXEL International Corporation (NASDAQ: PRXL) Cut to Neutral at Stern Agee.

Parker Drilling Company (NYSE: PKD) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.

PVH Corporation (NYSE: PVH) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Rangold Resources Limited (NASDAQ: GOLD) Cut to Neutral at Nomura.

Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE: RIO) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE: SHW) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) Cut to Neutral at UBS.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AMZN, BIP, GM, gold, GPRN, ICE, LLTC, LUV, PKD, PRXL, PVH, RIO, SHW, TXN, XLS