24/7 Wall St. » MAKO

24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Calls of the Week (CARB, GLW, DG, INTC, LOGI, LULU, MAKO, MCD, MCP, NFLX, NBG, P, RENN, YHOO, YNDX, YOKU, LVS, WYNN, BAC, WFC)

Administrator — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 11:45:48 +0000

Each morning we review our top upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall St. research notes. We then look back over these at the end of the week to more closely review calls that highlight underlying catalysts or developments that go far beyond just a one-day impact. Many calls turn out to offer keen insight, but some get a failing grade.

This last week’s top analyst calls of the week were in the following: Carbonite Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB); Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW); Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG); Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC); Logitech International SA (NASDAQ: LOGI); Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU); MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ: MAKO); McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD); Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP); Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG); Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P); Renren Inc. (NYSE: RENN); Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO); Yandex NV (NASDAQ: YNDX); Youku.com Inc. (NYSE: YOKU); Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS); Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC).

Carbonite (NASDAQ: CARB) was one of the most mispriced IPOs for 2011, but to the downside by our take due to poor market conditions. The cloud storage player saw its quiet period end and the firms were mostly positive on the stock:

Started as Buy with a $16 target at Canaccord Genuity;
Started as Outperform with a $17 target at Oppenheimer;
Started as Outperform at William Blair;
Started as Overweight at JP Morgan;
Started as Buy with a $16 target at BofA/ML.

Corning (NYSE: GLW) is truly a tech value stock. Unfortunately, it is going to have a crummy Christmas in TVs and monitors unless can be massively offset and overcome by smartphones. The company already talked down its numbers a week or so earlier. On Friday it was named as the dubious Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Research, The Week Tagged: BAC, CARB, DG, GLW, INTC, LOGI, LULU, LVS, MAKO, MCD, MCP, NBG, NFLX, P, RENN, WFC, WYNN, YHOO, YNDX, YOKU

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMSF, BMY, BRCM, CBST, HOV, INTC, JNJ, KBH, LEN, LULU, MAKO, NFLX, ASGN, OKS, TSLA, TWX, YHOO, YOKU)

Administrator — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:14:37 +0000

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

Amerisafe, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMSF) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) Raised to Market Perform at JMP Securities.
Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: HOV) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
KB Home (NYSE: KBH) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) Started as Buy with $75 target at Argus.
MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ: MAKO) removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs; this is one of the best performing stocks of 2011.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS; Raised to Outperform at Wedbush.
On Assignment, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASGN) named the value stock of the day at Zacks.
ONEOK Partners, L.P. (NYSE: OKS) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) Started as Outperform at Robert W. Baird.
Time Warner. Inc (NYSE: TWX) Reiterated Outperform and $40 target at Credit Suisse.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Youku.com Inc (NYSE: YOKU) Removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AMSF, ASGN, BMY, BRCM, CBST, HOV, INTC, JNJ, KBH, LEN, LULU, MAKO, NFLX, OKS, TSLA, TWX, YHOO, YOKU

The 7 Best Performing Stocks of 2011 (AAPL, GENE, JVA, VRUS, GMCR, SIMO, MAKO, RIC)

Administrator — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:20:05 +0000

2011 has not exactly turned out the way many market pundits expected at the start of the year. The economy has slowed down to near-recession levels, the flight to safety has bond yields down to almost nothing, and most sectors remain under pressure. Still, there are almost always some stocks that manage to perform well despite the overall market. 24/7 Wall St. has evaluated the best performing stocks so far for 2011 based on year-to-date performance that fit within liquidity and size parameters.

Some investors might have guesses that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is among those stocks that are up the most, especially after it hit yet another all-time high this week. But Apple and its 27% move this year does not even come close. We screened out companies with market capitalization rates which had not reached the $100 million mark at some point this year and we put a $5.00 minimum share price in this screen as well. We also set an average daily volume of 200,000 shares. We also removed the companies which are up due to a merger premium. While we didn’t set this as a minimum threshold, all of these stocks have risen more than 100% year-to-date.

The best performing stocks within the criteria screened are as follows: Genetic Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: GENE); Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (NASDAQ: JVA); Pharmasset, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRUS); Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR); Silicon Motion Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: SIMO); MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ: MAKO); and Richmont Mines Inc. (AMEX: RIC). We have outlined the performance and the catalysts on each, as well as offered commentary on what lies ahead for each.

Genetic Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: GENE) is up the most of all the screened stocks so far this year with a gain of about 450%, but the caveat is that it is down substantially from its year highs as well. At $5.86, the 52-week trading range is $0.65 to $10.75, and it trades about 250,000 shares per day. This one has a market capitalization of only about $79 million, but that had been north of $100 million earlier this year.

The company is actually a genetic testing servicing company offering screening services for humans and animals, and it is located in Australia. A capital raise in Australia hurt the stock over the summer and the stock has not really recovered since. The company has launched a new breast cancer test in America, and it has filed patent infringement suits for its primary non-coding patent against at least ten companies this year. While shares had already risen sharply in January, it was the April approval of that breast cancer test that caused shares to skyrocket. We find it interesting that almost no analyst coverage exists on this company.

Filed under: Corporate Governance, Healthcare, HI/LOW, International Markets, Metals, Trading Alert, Value Investing Tagged: AAPL, GENE, GMCR, JVA, MAKO, RIC, SIMO, VRUS

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (AMGN, CPLP, DRIV, DSX, DNA, GNK, MAKO)

247wallst — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:16:59 +0000

These are some of the top upgrades we are seeing from Wall Street analysts this morning:

Amgen (AMGN) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
Capital Product Partners (CPLP) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Digital River (DRIV) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Diana Shipping (DSX) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Genentech (DNA) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
Genco Ship & Trading (GNK) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Mako Surgical (MAKO) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.

Jon C. Ogg
October 2, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: AMGN, CPLP, DNA, DRIV, DSX, GNK, MAKO

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AYR, ARST, GLS, HCBK, JRN, MAKO, PFCB, TLM, WAT, WW)

247wallst — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:05:39 +0000

These are the top analyst upgrades and downgrades that 247WallSt.com is focusing on in pre-market trading this Wednesday morning:

Aircastle (NYSE: AYR) Downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.
ArcSight (NASDAQ: ARST) started as Outperform at Wachovia; started as Equal Weight at Lehman Brothers.
Genesis Lease (NYSE: GLS) Downgraded to Neutral from overweight at JP Morgan.
Hudson City Banc (NASDAQ: HCBK) Downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at FBR.
Journal Commun (NYSE: JRN) started as Outperform at Bear Stearns.
MAKO Surgical (NASDAQ: MAKO) Started as Market Perform at Wachovia; Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
P.F. Chang’s (NASDAQ: PFCB) Downgraded to Underperform From Market Perform at FBR.
Talisman Energy (NYSE:TLM) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
Waters (NYSE: WAT) Raised To Overweight From Neutral at JPMorgan.
Watson Wyatt (NYSE: WW) raised to Buy from Hold at UBS.

Jon C. Ogg
March 26, 20008

MAKO Surgical Slashes IPO Terms (MAKO)

247wallst — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:35:06 +0000

MAKO Surgical originally filed to come public back in September 2007. It filed to sell up to $86.25 million in securities. Recently it had indicated a price range of $14 to $16 per share for a 5.1 million share IPO. Apparently market conditions won’t support anywhere close to that.

The new price target range for this IPO is $10 to $11 per share for this IPO. The company makes advanced devices for minimally invasive knee surgeries. It is also a revenue generating company, and frankly is in a sector that should have supported a normal IPO.

We still show that JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Cowen & Co. and Wachovia are the underwriters for this and the ticker will still be "MAKO" on NASDAQ.

If you have followed our IPO index here internally you will note how many withdrawals have happened in IPO’s of late.

Jon C. Ogg
February 14, 2008

IPO Filing: MAKO Surgical Corp.

247wallst — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:25:07 +0000

MAKO Surgical Corp. has filed to come public in an initial public offering and for nominal filing purposes, it lists that it will sell up to $86.25 million in securities. MAKO is taking the "MAKO" ticker on NASDAQ. The lead underwriters are J.P.Morgan and Morgan Stanley, and co-managers are listed as Cowen & Co. and Wachovia.

The company appears to be a revlutionary robotic device maker for less invasive knee surgery. It markets an advanced robotic solution and implants for minimally invasive orthopedic knee procedures under the name MAKOplasty, frequently to early to mid-stage osteoarthritic knee disease. MAKOplasty is FDA-cleared for its Haptic Guidance System, a interactive haptic robotics platform that utilizes tactile-guided robotics and patient-specific visualization. Unlike conventional knee replacement surgery, which requires extraction and replacement of the entire joint, MAKOplasty optimizes localized resurfacing of the specific diseased compartment of the joint by using the robotics technology to achieve consistently reproducible precision and optimal implant placement and alignment.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the total U.S. market for total knee replacement and knee resurfacing procedures was greater than $2.7 billion in 2006, and is expected to grow at approximately 8% per year to more than $4.6 billion by 2013. MAKO’s total sales in 2006 were $62.57 million and its loss attributable to shareholders was listed as $12.493 million (-$10.8 million from operations), but over 90% of that came at the end of the year after this started to be marketd. In the first 6-months of 2007, MAKO generated $205.94 million in revenues and net loss for shareholders was listed as $9.219 million (-$7.9 million from operations).

Jon C. Ogg
September 19, 2007