24/7 Wall St. » MA

Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway New Stock Holdings: Value, Dividends, Growth

Jon C. Ogg — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:18:58 +0000

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) and Warren Buffett released the conglomerate’s stock holdings as of March 31, 2013. This 13F filing with the SEC shows that the company’s total equity holdings came to $85.001 billion, up from $75.3 billion at the end of 2012. Portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler are getting even more entrenched as far as their ability to add to positions. You will see that the Berkshire Hathaway stock portfolio is concentrated in companies paying dividends, as well as value stocks and growth stocks alike.

The new Buffett holdings are below.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was roughly 151.6 million shares, SAME AS last quarter.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) was almost 19 million shares, which appears to be slightly lower but it had been raised before. What matters here is that it remains a substantial holding still.

Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. (NYSE: CBI) was a NEW POSITION at just over 6.5 million shares worth over $400 million.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) was more than 400 million shares due to the stock split of 2012, but this is virtually the SAME AS BEFORE.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is the SAME POSITION at 24.1 million shares, but this is lower than in prior quarters.

Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) was the SAME POSITION at 4,333,363 shares.

DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) was a LARGER POSITION and already more than a 10% stake and we recently saw that Berkshire Hathaway had entered into a standstill agreement not to buy more than 25% of the company after already having increased its stake recently. This was listed as 14.97 million shares as of March 31 versus 13.6 million shares before.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) was the SAME POSITION at roughly 4 million shares.

DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) was HIGHER YET AGAIN at 37.275 million shares versus almost 34 million shares and that was also higher than before.

Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI) was the SAME POSITION of 1.74 million shares.

General Electric Corp. (NYSE: GE) is listed as the SAME POSITION at 588,900 shares, but this is still way down from prior reports.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) is the SAME POSITION at 25 million shares, but this was previously up from smaller positions.

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) is the SAME POSITION at 1.51 million shares.

Filed under: Activist Investor, Buffett, Buffett Holdings, Conglomerates, Private Equity Tagged: ADM, AXP, BK, BRK-A, BRK-B, CDCO, COP, COST, DE, DVA, featured, GCI, GD, GE, GM, GSK, HNZ, IBM, JNJ, JPM, KFT, KO, LEE, LMCA, MA, MCO, MTB, NOV, PCP, PG, PSX, SNY, TMK, UPS, USB, USG, V, VIA, VRSK, WBC, WFC, WMT, WPO

Top Wall Street Analyst Downgrades: Active Network, MasterCard, SolarCity and More

Jon C. Ogg — Thu, 02 May 2013 12:45:23 +0000

Investors frequently get to see the analyst upgrades and Buy ratings from Wall Street firms. They often do not get to see when analyst downgrade stocks. We review many fresh research calls each and every day to find great ideas from value stocks to growth stocks to dividend stocks and we have broken out the negative analyst calls today. These are this Thursday’s top analyst downgrades and cautious research notes from Wall Street.

Active Network Inc. (NYSE: ACTV) was cut to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.

Allegheny Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATI) named Bear of the Day by Zacks Investment Research after earnings fell more than 80%.

American Public Education Inc. (NASDAQ: APEI) was downgraded to Neutral at Zacks Investment Research.

Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN) was cut to Neutral from Buy at Stern Agee.

Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. (NYSE: GNK) was cut to Underperform from an already cautious Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H) was cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was cut to Underperform from Outperform at CLSA.

SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) was cut to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE: WPZ) was cut to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Here are today’s top analyst upgrades and positive research calls.

Filed under: Active Trader, Analyst Calls Tagged: ACTV, APEI, ATI, BEN, GNK, H, MA, MU, SCTY, WPZ

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — Wednesday: Markets Cannot Shake-off Low Open and Sink to Close

Paul Ausick — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:08:40 +0000

U.S. equity markets opened lower this morning following a weaker-than-expected employment report from ADP and concern that Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will follow the ADP lead (more coverage here). In other U.S. data out today, the April ISM manufacturing index ready came in lower than expected and the March report on construction spending was substantially weaker than forecast (more coverage here). In Asia, China’s PMI was lower than expected and raised worries that the Asian growth is slowing down (more coverage here). Markets in China and Hong Kong were closed today for the May Day holiday. The FOMC announcement in mid-afternoon offered a slightly different view on how the Fed’s asset buying may proceed (more coverage here).

The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.28% today, now at 81.521. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.9% at 624.44. WTI crude oil closed down 2.6%, at $91.03 a barrel, following a massive increase in commercial inventories (more coverage here). Brent crude trades down 2.4% at $99.89 a barrel, as the spread between WTI and Brent now falls below $10 a barrel (more coverage here). Natural gas is down 0.4% today at about $4.32 per million BTUs. Gold settled down 1.8% today at $1,446.20 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down about 139 points to 14,700.95 (-0.94%), the NASDAQ about 30 points (-0.89%) to 3,299.13, and the S&P 500 fell -0.93% or nearly 15 points to 1,582.70.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) removed from “Conviction Buy” list and cut to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs; Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX) raised to ‘buy’ at Nomura; Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) raised to ‘buy’ at Nomura; Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) added to “Conviction Buy” list at Goldman Sachs; and Oil States International Inc. (NYSE: OIS) cut to ‘underperform’ at BMO Capital Markets and cut to ‘market perform’ at Raymond James.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Affymetrix Inc. (NASDAQ: AFFX) is down 8% at $3.35; Bankrate Inc. (NYSE: RATE) is up 14.7% at $15.46; Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) is down 3.2% at $5.54; Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPB) is down 4.6% at $53.44; Trulia Inc. (NYSE: TRLA) is up 13.1% at $32.86; Vanguard Health Systems Inc. (NYSE: VHS) is down 8.3% at $13.41; ADT Corp. (NYSE: ADT) is down 6.9% at $40.65; Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) is down 2.1% at $19.14 (more coverage here); Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is up 1.2% at $41.81 (more coverage here); Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is up 4.4% at $77.38; James River Coal Co. (NASDAQ: JRCC) is up 32.8% at $2.19; Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) is down 2.3% at $540.47; Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) is down 2.1% at $59.68 (more coverage here); and Viacom Corp. (NASDAQ: VIAB) is up 3.2% at $66.01 after posting a new 52-week high of $69.00 earlier today.

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM), Avis Budget Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR), CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX), Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO), Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR), Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI), Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG), and Monster Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: MWW).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is up 13.1% at $3.19. The chipmaker had no big news today, although it did introduce two new microprocessors and made some pricing changes that indicate that the company’s pricing may have stabilized.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is up 3.4% at $3.36 after posting a new 52-week (and 5-year) high of $3.39 earlier today. The satellite radio company posted a second consecutive high today, continuing to feast off yesterday’s earnings report.

Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) is down 2.8% at $45.67. The drug maker slid on its lackluster earnings results and took a slice out of its sales and earnings targets for the rest of the year.

Stay tuned for Thursday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:30 a.m. – Challenger job-cut report
8:30 a.m. – International trade
8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
8:30 a.m. – Productivity and costs
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: ADM, ADT, AFFX, AMD, AMGN, ANR, BIIB, BRK-A, CAR, CBS, CHK, CI, CMCSA, FB, FCX, GG, HUM, IOS, JDSU, JRCC, LEAP, LVS, MA, MRK, MWW, PSX, RATE, SIRI, SPB, STX, TRLA, TSO, V, VHS, VIA-B

Jefferies Top Stock Picks for Tech, Media, Telecom Ahead of TMT Conference

Lee Jackson — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:55:10 +0000

Wall Street firms have a tradition of hosting conferences to highlight market sectors in which they specialize in research coverage. Next week, May 7 through May 9, Jefferies will host its annual Global Technology, Media and Telecom conference in New York City at the Westin Hotel. With 240 participating companies and more than 1,500 attendees, the conference will feature an extensive range of public and private companies across the TMT landscape.

With keynote speakers ranging from Ajay Banga, the CEO of MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) to Bill Smith, president of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) Network Operations, every aspect of technology, media and telecom will be open for discussion.

Jeffries has asked all of its TMT analysts to present one controversial stock or theme ahead of the conference. It requested stocks or themes where the analysts felt that information or data presented at the conference may have an impact. It makes sense to keep an eye on the stocks mentioned during next week’s conference, as any catalyst may move the stocks one way or another.

We present the stocks from the Jefferies analysts by sector.

Semiconductors: Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) will be the featured stock. It is always volatile, as DRAM chip pricing tends to fluctuate, and Jefferies sees capacity restraint translating into long-term pricing stability. The Jefferies price target for this stock to buy is $15. The Thomson/First Call consensus estimate is $12.

Computer Services and IT Consulting: Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH) is one of the focus stocks in this category. Cognizant provides information technology (IT), consulting and business process outsourcing services worldwide. The issue to be discussed will be an immigration bill proposed in the Senate that could affect work visas for offshore hiring. The Jefferies price target for this stock to buy is $80. The consensus target is even higher at $86.

Workday Inc. (NYSE: WDAY) had a recent and highly successful initial public offering, and it is on the radar at Jefferies. The interest at the conference will be in the corporate switch from old line HR companies like Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) handling HR/payroll outsourcing to new cloud-based competitors like Workday. Jefferies has an Underperform rating on ADP and a $55 price target. The consensus is $63. Workday is a stock to buy, with a $76 price target. The consensus is much lower at $60. This could be an interesting pair trade.

Technology Software: Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) is another stock that will be looked at closely. The market fears that Red Hat’s strong growth rate may be slowing. Look for management to outline the strength of current bookings and discuss how Linux workloads are outperforming Windows workloads. The Jefferies price target for the stock is $65. The consensus target is lower at $59.

Technology Communication Equipment: Investors are concerned about the current pace of carrier capital spending, particularly in North America. Jefferies expects a relatively positive backdrop for communication infrastructure as carriers globally (particularly in North America, China and Germany) increase their spending on routing, optical and wireless infrastructure. Expected to benefit are JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU), Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) and Infinera Corp. (NASDAQ: INFN). All three are stocks to buy at Jefferies, but we did not have price targets.

Other Wall Street firms have been known to stake out observers at competitors’ conferences to gain access to information. You can be sure also that there will be lots of media coverage via CNBC and financial websites. Stocks in the past have shown movement either up and down over conference commentary, so investors may want to keep an eye on these stocks and see if they react.

Filed under: Active Trader, Analyst Calls, Media, Technology, Telecom & Wireless Tagged: ADP,, CTSH, INFR, JDSU, JNPR, MA, MU, RHT, T, WDAY

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — Tuesday: Markets Mixed at Open, Closes Slightly Higher

Paul Ausick — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:06:01 +0000

U.S. equity markets opened mixed this morning as investors weighed conflicting data from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. In Europe, retail sales declined more than expected in Germany, Italy’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 11.5%, and eurozone inflation moderated to 1.2%, below a forecast for inflation of 1.6%. In Asia, Japanese industrial production rose less than expected, retail unexpectedly fell, and unemployment came in below expectations. In the U.S., the S&P Case-Shiller housing price index rose more than expected (more coverage here), while the Chicago PMI came in well below expectations and chilled investors for a spell this morning (more coverage here). The latest U.S. consumer confidence index came in higher than expected, which put some heat back into the morning trading session (more coverage here).

The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.47% today, now at 81.762. The GSCI commodity index is up 1.2% at 629.99. WTI crude oil closed down 1.1%, at $93.46 a barrel, down 3.9% for the month of April. Brent crude trades down 1.6% at $102.19 a barrel. Natural gas is down 0.4% today at about $4.15 per million BTUs. Gold settled up 0.3% today at $1,472.10 an ounce, but lost 7.8% for the month, the largest drop in 16 months.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 20 points to 14,839.18 (0.14%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 22 points (0.66%) to 3,328.79, and the S&P 500 rose 0.24% or nearly 4 points to 1,597.45.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) initiated as ‘sector perform’ at RBC Capital Markets; Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) cut to ‘hold’ at KeyBanc; Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) raised to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank (more coverage here); PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) cut to ‘neutral’ at J.P. Morgan; and SINA Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) raised to ‘buy’ at Jefferies.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Embraer SA (NYSE: ERJ) is up 6.7% at $34.94; Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX) is up 1.6% at $59.38; General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP) is up 2.2% at $22.50 after posting a new 52-week high of $22.80 earlier today; Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) is up 2.7% at $39.78 (more coverage here); Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) is up 0.2% at $24.03 after posting a new 52-week high of $24.79 earlier today; Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) is down 5% at $32.27 after posting a new 52-week low of $31.33 earlier today; Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) is up fractionally at $14.86; 3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD) is up 7.3% at $38.39; Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) is up 2.5% at $57.55 after posting a new 52-week high of $58.63 earlier today; Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (NYSE: BUD) is up 0.3% at $95.72; Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) is up 4.5% at $23.23 after posting a new 52-week high of $24.30 earlier today; BP plc (NYSE: BP) is up 2.3% at $43.61 (more coverage here); Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: HNR) is down 5.5% at $3.25; Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) is down 4.9% at $78.39; Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) is up 4.9% at $3.88; United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) is up 0.3% at $17.59; and Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) is down 2.5% at $40.17 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Affymetrix Inc. (NASDAQ: AFFX), Bankrate Inc. (NYSE: RATE), Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP), Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPB), Trulia Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLA), Vanguard Health Systems Inc. (NYSE: VHS), ADT Corp. (NYSE: ADT), Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK), Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), James River Coal Co. (NASDAQ: JRCC), Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA), and Viacom Corp. (NASDAQ: VIAB).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is up 5.5% at $3.24 after posting a new 52-week high of $3.25 earlier today. The satellite radio company posted good numbers and made permanent the hire of interim CEO James Meyer.

Delcath Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: DCTH) is down 39.8% at $0.84. The pharmaceutical and medical device maker will have to repeat a clinical trial.

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) is down 16.6% at $13.52. The business equipment company had a 57% drop in profits and cut its dividend.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concludes a two-day meeting. We have also noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
8:15 a.m. – ADP employment report
8:58 a.m. – PMI manufacturing index
10:00 a.m. – ISM manufacturing index
10:00 a.m. – Construction spending
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
2:00 p.m. – FOMC meeting announcement

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: ADT, AET, AFFX, AVP, BBY, BP, BUD, BWLD, CHK, CMCSA, DCTH, DDD, ESRX, GGP, HLF, HNR, HTZ, HUM, JRCC, LEAP, MA, MPC, NEM, ODP, P, PBI, PHM, RATE, RVBD, SINA, SIRI, SPB, TRLA, VHS, VIA-B, VLO, X

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ABT, AMZN, APO, CAT, HD, MA, KORS, MSFT, OXY, SNDK, TTM, V, ZUMZ)

Jon C. Ogg — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:30:46 +0000

Investors and traders are looking for new ideas as the markets challenge new all-time highs to generate income and profits. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many analyst calls and research notes to find great ideas from value stocks to growth stocks to dividend stocks. Some are stocks to buy and some are stocks to sell. These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from select Wall St. research calls this Friday.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) reiterated Outperform with $334 price target at Credit Suisse.

Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE: APO) started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was one of our fresh stocks that need to catch up to the bull market. Now Credit Suisse is maintaining its Outperform rating but is cutting the price target down to $110 from $123 on the equipment and machinery giant.

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) cut to Neutral from Buy at Stern Agee.

Michael Kors Holding Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) started as Underperform at CLSA.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) took at least three big downgrades on Thursday, and now CLSA has downgraded the software giant to Outperform from Buy and the $36 target was cut to $34.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) reiterated Buy with $105 price target at Argus.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) started as Market Perform at BMO.

Tata Motors Ltd. (NYSE: TTM) started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) cut to Neutral from Buy at Stern Agee.

Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) raised to Neutral from Underperform at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Merrill Lynch sees upside earnings surprises from these eight large companies during earnings season.

UBS is calling the pullback in refining stocks a buying opportunity and the firm also gave a list of MLPs that are still very safe to buy.

Filed under: Active Trader, Analyst Calls, Dividends & Buybacks, Value Investing Tagged: ABT, AMZN, APO, CAT, HD, KORS, MA, MSFT, OXY, SNDK, TTM, V, ZUMZ

Safeway’s Prepaid Card Issuer Files for IPO

Paul Ausick — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:10:20 +0000

The unit of Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) that issues gift cards and other prepaid and reloadable cards this morning filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering. The unit, which will be called Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc., will trade on the Nasdaq Exchange under the ticker symbol HAWK.

Safeway currently owns about 96% of Blackhawk and “will continue to hold shares of Class B common stock representing a significant majority of the combined voting power” of Blackhawk’s outstanding shares after the offering. The lead underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, BofA/Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank Securities.

According to the filing, Blackhawk currently counts among its gift-card customers such high-profile companies as Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW), Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes. The company also serves the three large payment networks: American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP), Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) and Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA). Blackhawk also issues reloadable cards for Green Dot Corp. (NYSE: GDOT) among others, including its own PayPower brand.

Blackhawk’s filing indicates that the company will receive none of the net proceeds from the offering. Class A shares will have one vote and Class B shares will have 10 votes on all matters that are put to a shareholder vote.

According to the filing, Blackhawk posted net income of $48.165 million in 2012 on operating revenues of $959.07 million, up from $362 million in revenues and $22.7 million in operating profits in 2001, the year the company was founded.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Business Services, Financial Stocks, IPOs, Retail Tagged: AAPL, AMZN, AXP, GDOT, LOW, M, MA, SBUX, SWY, V

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (A, BBY, BFAM, DF, ICE, JCP, MA, QCOM, CRM, SKX, VVUS)

Jon C. Ogg — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:45:08 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall St. research calls.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) started as Outperform at Leerink Swann.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) raised to Buy at Jefferies.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions LLC (NYSE: BFAM) was started in new coverage as follows: Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch, Overweight at Barclays, Outperform at Credit Suisse, Buy at Stifel Nicolaus and Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Dean Foods Co. (NYSE: DF) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE) raised to Outperform at KBW.

J.C. Penney Co. (NYSE: JCP) was cut to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup and was cut to Perform from outperform at Oppenheimer.

MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) cut to Hold at Argus.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was maintained as Buy but was removed from the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) named Bear of the Day, while all-time highs are nice but outlook may be lower at Zacks Investment Research.

Skechers USA Inc. (NYSE: SKX) named Bull of the Day as new styles and global reach are returning it to profitability at Zacks Investment Research.

VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) started as Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Here are 11 stocks which analysts expect to rise 50% to 100% (or more) over the next year.

Also, here is how only seven of the 30 DJIA stocks will take the market to 15,000.

Oppenheimer listed two transportation stocks that will keep confirming Dow Theory with transports leading the way.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: A, BBY, BFAM, CRM, DF, ICE, JCP, MA, QCOM, SKX, VVUS

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (BCS, BHP, GME, GOOG, GRPN, HD, LOW, MA, V, NKE, OPEN, TLM, TSLA, UNH, PAY, OMX, ODP)

Jon C. Ogg — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:40:16 +0000

These are some of this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls.

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) raised to Outperform at Bernstein.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) cut to Neutral at Citigroup.

GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) maintained Outperform with $29 target at Credit Suisse, but firm gave cautious commentary on new console benefits.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) raised target to $1,000 from $820 by Bernstein, but we would count this as a late Wednesday call.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) raised to Overweight from Neutral and price target raised to $8.00 from $5.50 by Piper Jaffray.

The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) and Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) were both downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) were both upgraded to Neutral from Sell by UBS.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) raised to Buy at Citigroup.

OpenTable Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN) cut to Market Perform at Raymond James.

Talisman Energy Inc. (NYSE: TLM) raised to Outperform and $16 target price by Credit Suisse.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) cut to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.

VeriFone Systems Inc. (NYSE: PAY) cut to Neutral at J.P. Morgan, cut to Outperform at Raymond James, cut to Neutral at Citigroup, cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray and cut to Neutral at SunTrust.

Analysts differ sharply on the proposed OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX) and Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) merger. Janney downgraded both stocks to Neutral from Buy. Credit Suisse opines:

Both ODP and OMX were down significantly on the heels of their merger announcement, which we believe reflects the lack of a clear vision to a combined company, the absence of any discussion of retail synergies, concerns over the extended timing to both close and obtain the synergies, and profit taking after a healthy run-up year-to-date in anticipation of this announcement. We believe that there is value in the combined company and in this note we detail first why management did not provide the vision but also why we believe the math works.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: BCS, BHP, GME, GOOG, GRPN, HD, LOW, MA, NKE, ODP, OMX, OPEN, PAY, TLM, TSLA, UNH, V

The Stocks That Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Should Sell Now

Jon C. Ogg — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:25:09 +0000

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) and Warren Buffett released their full stock holdings for 2013 on Thursday after the close. Earlier in the week we highlighted how Berkshire Hathaway shares were not just outperforming the other conglomerates, but outperforming the broad stock market, That continues today:

Berkshire A-shares at 149,240.00, up 11.32%
DJIA 13,973.39, up 6.63%
S&P 500 1,521.38, up 6.67%

One thing we noticed when we first looked at the holdings leading his portfolio value higher was that Buffett’s portfolio has many stocks that are still attractive. It also has many old legacy positions that the investment team should sell out of. 24/7 Wall St. screened the dozens of holdings listed to identify the dogs in the portfolio or the positions that are too small to even matter now. This is a list of stocks that Warren Buffett and Team Berkshire should sell now.

These are not ranked in any order at all, other than how they are listed alphabetically on our full list of the Berkshire Hathaway holdings. The implied upside (when noted) is based on the Thomson Reuters consensus price target. Buffett is considered to be a value investor who buys great companies that he thinks he can hold forever. The new portfolio managers are Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, and they do not necessarily hold the same forever timeline. Some of these “stocks to sell now” are from the new managers, while others were picked by Buffett himself and have been on the books for years.

The first one that Buffett should sell is none other than General Electric Corp. (NYSE: GE). While this is our Top Conglomerate Pick for 2013, the GE stake is just too small to matter at Berkshire Hathaway. The company only owns 588,900 shares, and that was way down from prior quarters. If Buffett does not want to sell then maybe he should add to the position again. Some of this may be left from when it had the huge preferred stake, but a position worth $14 million is just too small for Berkshire Hathaway to mess around with. GE now yields about 3.2% after hitting a new multiyear high.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was a lower position yet again, at only 327,100 shares. This used to be a large holding for Berkshire, with millions and millions of shares. The company has been selling shares as is, but it needs to just clear out of the position. This is worth almost $25 million today, and that is just not worth the effort. One thing that may be keeping Buffett interested is that Johnson & Johnson still yields 3.2%.

Lee Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: LEE) was lowered before, and it was lowered again. What is amazing is that this is down to only 88,863 shares. That is hardly worth mentioning, with a value of almost $130,000. This is a position that Buffett has tried to keep confidential, and it ties into his current local media and newspaper ownership.

Team Buffett owns both MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V). While we can appreciate them wanting to participate on the “credit card toll road” trade, the historic aim of Buffett to make a big bet and to gain influence as a “partner” just does not apply when you own both. To top it off, Berkshire Hathaway owns more than $9 billion worth of American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) and has had that position for years and years. The Visa stake is worth more than $240 million today, and the MasterCard stake is worth about $211 million. Both have low dividends of less than 1%, and the implied upside to the consensus analyst targets is 10.3% for MasterCard and 10.8% for Visa. We will leave it up to Buffett’s two new portfolio managers to decide which one is better, but they ought to sell one and make a larger bet on the other. Both have very large market caps, and Berkshire Hathaway can easily do much more than a $200 million position.

Another almost split decision is between Kraft Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ: KRFT) and Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ). The latter is a position due to the spinoff from the former Kraft Foods, and Buffett already had sold shares of Kraft. With the Kraft stake being worth only worth $79 million, and with Mondelez being worth some $341 million as of now, the decision looks simple. It is time to get out of the old Kraft position. Buffett had been a seller on it anyhow. The only problem is that Kraft still yields more than 4%, against about 1.9% for Mondelez. That being said, Buffett has enough exposure to food now through the H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) preferred deal.

Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) is another position that we just don’t get. What happened to “avoid companies you do not understand” as part of the Buffett investing strategy? This was listed as 28.4 million shares, worth more than $1.4 billion at the end of 2012. This position was the same as the prior quarter, but it was way down from earlier quarters and years. The most recent government suit against S&P highlights that the ratings agencies still have a lot of risk. Buffett rode this one all the way down and back up during and after the recession, but just recently Bloomberg pointed out that Buffett might have lost close to $300 million in value on this of late. Moody’s remains a position that we consider as being a “legacy position.” We would bet serious money that neither Todd Combs nor Ted Weschler would commit new capital to this position if this was being evaluated as a new “buy, sell or hold” without knowledge that Buffett has stayed in this for years and years. The 1.7% dividend yield is also not enough to entice the team to stay in Moody’s.

United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is another one we just don’t get. Team Buffett kept the same stake of only 59,400 shares, worth less than $5 million at the end of 2012. They already had trimmed this from a 2012 peak of almost 1.43 million shares, and this hardly seems worth the Berkshire Hathaway effort. We really do not see anything wrong with the position as it hit a new 52-week high on Friday, and the analysts still have an implied upside of about 6.5% on UPS. The 2.8% dividend is also attractive. Our take is that Todd Combs or Ted Weschler simply forgot to sell out of the rest of this position.

Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) is a position taken on by the new managers in the portfolio. The team already lightened up even starting a year ago. The company made good gains here on a percentage basis, but it seems that the easy money has been made here, since shares have doubled from the late-2009 initial public offering. The market capitalization is up over $9 billion now, and at some point this company is going to have to find serious new markets with entirely different analytical products to drive value. The consensus analyst target only implies only 1.4% upside to the $55.55 target, but the peak analyst target implies closer to 15% upside ($63 is high target, versus $54.75 today). At almost 30 times trailing earnings and at almost 24 times forward earnings, this analytics outfit is going to have to get its growth from monitoring health care fraud to drive future growth. Verisk also pays no dividend now. Even if upside to the $9 billion market cap can be gained, it sure looks like the easy money trade has been made here.

The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) stake of about 1.72 million shares is currently worth about $710 million. This is a long-standing Buffett position and may be strategic, considering the media and papers that Buffett has gotten Berkshire Hathaway into. The problem here is that we are about as certain as we can be Todd Combs and Ted Weschler would both give the thumbs-down verdict on this position if they were evaluating it as a fresh “buy, sell, or hold” position with new money, if they did not know the Buffett history here. Buffett already left the board of directors here, and he promised to hold on to Washington Post shares for the long haul. That is fine, but Buffett’s successors are very likely to try to figure out how to get out of this position. The 2.4% dividend yield will not be enough to sway them. As a caveat, we cannot help but notice that Washington Post shares just hit their highest level since mid-2011. We also cannot help but notice that this is worth only about 40% of its peak value before 2005.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking & Finance, Buffett, Conglomerates, Dividends & Buybacks, Personal Finance, Value Investing Tagged: AXP, BRK-A, BRK-B, featured, GE, HNZ, JNJ, MA, MCO, UPS, V, VRSK, WPO