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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMAT, ARBA, BX, CPLA, CHA, DELL, DNDN, EMC, FB, GMT, ICE, JAZZ, NDAQ, PCX, PG, SBUX, WY)

Administrator — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:22:37 +0000

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

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Ariba Inc. (NASDAQ: ARBA) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) Raised to Buy at Stern Agee.

Capella Education Co. (NASDAQ: CPLA) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) Cut to Neutral at Mizuho; Maintained Underperform and target cut to $14 at Credit Suisse.

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) Started as Underperform at Jefferies; Maintained Hold with $11 target at Canaccord Genuity.

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) Reiterated Buy with $36 target at Argus.

Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) Started as Buy with $40 target at Needham.

GATX Corporation (NYSE: GMT) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: JAZZ) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.

NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) Reiterated Buy with $70 target at Argus.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.

Weyerhaeuser Co. (NYSE: WY) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.

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: AMAT, ARBA, BX, CHA, CPLA, DELL, DNDN, EMC, FB, GMT, ICE, JAZZ, NDAQ, PCX, PG, SBUX, WY

Zynga’s 15% Stock Loss — Lemmings over the Cliff

247wallst — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:16:49 +0000

Zynga’s (NASDAQ: ZNGA) shares are down 15% over the past two days, a little more than those of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) after its initial public offering. There are several critical difference between the stocks, so that they should fall nearly in lockstep makes no sense.

The fall-off of Facebook shares can be traced to a number of things — whether or not they are legitimate. The first is that a some traders believe Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Facebook decided, at the last minute, to flood the market with stock to raise more money for the social network. There is a rumor that Morgan Stanley cut Facebook revenue forecasts right before the IPO. Major trading issues in the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) system, which delayed orders and rattled investors, might have been another cause. Two days before the IPO, General Motors (NYSE: GM) pulled its ads from Facebook. That seemed to be a bit of revenge, although no one can figure out why. And, perhaps most damaging, analysts attacked Facebook’s inability to make money on its mobile presence, which raised the question of its long-term viability as a growth company.

Zynga faced none of these problems. Its only trouble was being tethered to Facebook because it gets so much revenue from the social network. Facebook’s mobile strategy eventually could effect Zynga, but the balance of the long list of reasons Facebook shares declined really do not apply to the game firm. Zynga‘s shares may have fallen consistently since mid-April, but Wall St. had begun to warm to the company after its recent, better-than-expected earnings. Citigroup (NYSE: C) started coverage of the game firm with a “buy” and a $12 price target.

The Zynga share drop is no different from the reaction traders have when they sell Ford (NYSE: F) because of poor GM earnings, or drop Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) when McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) announces poor earnings. As often as not, two companies in a related sector have very different financial results, for good reasons most of the time. GM has strong sales in China; Ford does not. Yum!’s operations in the U.S. do poorly; America is a stronghold for McDonald’s. Pairings like Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT) or Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD) are often not pairs at all. If they really were parallel in almost every way, management skills would make no difference to results.

Zynga and Facebook may trade as a pair, but they are not one.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: IPOs Tagged: C, F, FB, featured, GM, HD, LOW, MCD, MS, NDAQ, TGT, WMT, YUM, ZNGA

Media Digest (5/21/2012) Reuters, WSJ, Financial Times

247wallst — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:31:07 +0000

Alibaba buys back a 20% share held by Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) for a combination of cash and preferred shares worth $7.1 billion. (Reuters)

The heads of Samsung and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will discuss a settlement to patent wars between the two companies over smartphone IP. (Reuters)

General Motors’ (NYSE: GM) Opel faces a harsh reaction from workers arising from plant closures. (Reuters)

Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) will change its trading systems after trouble with the Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) IPO. (Reuters)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) says its has Chinese approval to buy Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI). (Reuters)

Dalian Wanda Group, based in China, will buy the AMC movie chain for $2.6 billion. (WSJ)

Greece’s conservative parties, which favor austerity, begin to show improvements in U.S. polls. (WSJ)

The European Union’s José Manuel Barroso says Greece should expect pressure over austerity to remain high despite indications otherwise from the G8 meeting. (WSJ)

Some accountants say that Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) costs misrepresent the firm’s financial position. (WSJ)

The G8 meeting and the opinions of EU leaders may press Merkel to allow Europe to aid some large banks in the region. (WSJ)

UK and US bank regulators prepare for any failure of several financial firms, which include Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Barclays (NYSE: BCS). (FT)

China begins to cancel or delay some commodities imports — another sign its economy has slowed. (FT)

UK Prime Minister David Cameron says the EU should prepare for the departure of Greece. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, BCS, CHK, FB, GM, GOOG, GS, JPM, MMI, NDAQ, YHOO

Facebook Ruins Nasdaq, Naz Admits Blunder

247wallst — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:56:10 +0000

Blame was passed from Facebook’s bankers to Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) as the Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) IPO faltered and opening bids and offers failed to be properly matched and there was some evidence this occurred for hours. The IPO price point almost broke below the set price and bankers appear to have worked furiously to keep shares above $38

Was this primarily the fault of Nasdaq and a failure to check its infrastructure? First evidence shows “yes”. This has already–in only a day–undermined its image as the preferred platform for IPOs . The image has not been helped much by the drop in the values of Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN), Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA), and LinkedIn (NASDAQ: LNKD)

The net effect is that NYSE (NYSE: NYX),which lost the Facebook launch. The exchange will have a powerful case that the balance will list on NYSE.

Update: The Wall Street Journal writes that “Robert Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., on Sunday acknowledged design problems with Nasdaq’s technology after the exchange operator was widely seen as bungling the landmark listing of shares of Facebook Inc.on Friday.”

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: IPOs Tagged: FB, featured, GPRN, LNDK, NDAQ, NYX, ZYGA

BATS Volume Gains Despite IPO SNAFU

Administrator — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:40:28 +0000

BATS Global Markets was the worst of the worst of botched initial public offerings in recent financial history. How bad is it when an exchange cannot adequately handle its own offering? It was a disaster. What is amazing is that the botched IPO has apparently not destroyed its use an alternative exchange. The company is sending around media relations emails showing that the trading volume in April was one of its months ever as far as U.S. equity trading volumes.

The firm noted, “BATS reported one of the best U.S. equities months in its history, with 11.5% market share in April, up from 10.6% one year ago and 10.9% in March. The BATS BYX Exchange earned a new monthly market share record with 2.8% U.S. equities market share, and BATS Options reported 3.1% U.S. equity options market share, up from 2.4% in March. Seven new exchange traded funds were launched on the BATS Exchange in April, bringing the total number of ETFs now listed on BATS Exchange to 16.”

The NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) may have to be alone as far as the publicly traded exchanges that trade U.S. equities. BATS may keep its relevance in share volumes, but its chances of coming public have dwindled severely.

By the way, our inquiries never were answered over how many programmers and IT-workers were fired after that botched IPO.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Exchange, Exchange News Tagged: NDAQ, NYX

24/7 Wall St. Top Dividend Stories of the Week

Administrator — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:01:00 +0000

This was a huge week in dividends, particularly for the key DJIA components. We had a report calling for more and more dividend hikes of about 8% from the DJIA components in 2012. As it turns out, this week already started proving that as truth but the dividend hikes are coming on much stronger than the report was calling for. We also evaluated a “Sell in May and go away” theme to see if it was going to happen this year and this new wave of dividend hikes might be one more minimizing factor that prevents the May sell-off in 2012 compared to 2011 and 2010. The key dividend hikes were many, but we saw a serious move from Dow Jones Industrial Average components hiking their payouts.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is playing catch-up to other DJIA healthcare players and the new yield is closer to 3.8%. Call this the 50th consecutive year of dividend hikes.

Wednesday was a very different day in Big Oil. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) went ahead and raised its dividend to catch its yield up to Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX). Something strange happened along the way: Chevron went ahead and raised its dividend much sooner than expected… and on the same day! FULL STORY

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) tried something new, or old. It went back to the 1990s by announcing a stock split for the first time in well over a decade.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) lifted its payout by 13% and showed why it may still rise to $230 over the next year.

From the Department of It’s About Time… The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) finally decided to do the right thing by initiating its first-ever dividend.

Investors rely heavily on utilities now for the high dividend yields of 5% or so. In fact, utility stocks are the new CDs for safe income investors. We saw two very different takes on the outlook for utilities and their dividends ahead. This one hits American Electric Power Co., Inc. (NYSE: AEP) and several other key utilities.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Corporate Governance, Dividend, Shareholder Issues, Stock Splits, The Week Tagged: AEP, CVX, IBM, JNJ, KO, NDAQ, XOM

Media Digest (4/26/2012) Reuters, WSJ, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:41:43 +0000

Markets are lifted by Fed comments that the economy is recovering and that it will keep rates low. (Reuters)

Chrysler posts its best earnings since being partially taken over by Fiat. (Reuters)

Samsung says its new Galaxy phone will use a quad-core processor. (Reuters)

Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce and researchers from Harvard find that, for the first time in decades, young people are not better-educated than the generation before them. (WSJ)

AIG (NYSE: AIG) bonds attract a large number of investors. (WSJ)

The CEO of Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) says the company must mature to be more successful. (WSJ)

The China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology says foreign companies could team with China to produce rare earths. (WSJ)

The Senate passes legislation to underwrite Post Office losses and allow it to keep current services. (WSJ)

The UK falls back into recession in the first quarter. (WSJ)

The FDA will set a new system to detect faulty medical devices. (WSJ)

The European divisions of General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F) are likely to drag down corporate earnings. (WSJ)

US Airways (NYSE: LCC) continues a push for a buyout of American Airlines parent AMR. (WSJ)

Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) raises forecasts. (WSJ)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) to launch a new program hosted by Katie Couric. (WSJ)

Formula One plans a $2.5 billion IPO in Singapore. (WSJ)

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX) each raise dividends. (FT)

French presidential candidate François Hollande wants Germany to take up new stimulus plans for Europe. (FT)

Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) shortens a waiting period for the Facebook IPO as a way to get the social network’s listing. (Bloomberg)

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) posts poor earnings, which drags down its shares. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Press Digest Tagged: AIG, ALU, CAT, CVX, F, GM, GRPN, LCC, NDAQ, XOM, YHOO

NASDAQ Joins NYSE & CME In Paying Dividends, Finally (NDAQ, NYX, CME, CBOE, ICE)

Administrator — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:55:32 +0000

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) is finally going to start paying out a cash dividend to its shareholders. The company announced its plans to initiate a quarterly cash dividend at a rate of $0.13 per share of common stock to be paid on June 29, 2012 to all holders of record on June 15, 2012.

This is the first dividend paid out by NASDAQ to its common shareholders in the company’s history. If you annualize the $0.13 as static per quarter, the yield comes to 2% for shareholders based upon the $25.33 price. The rival NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) has a much higher dividend yield of about 4.5% and it has paid out a dividend since June of 2007.

Today’s dividend news is long overdue. We have listed this exchange as a dividend sinner before and Raymond James noted the call for a dividend as recently as February. If you look at the CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) it has been public far less time than NASDAQ and it has been paying a dividend since back in 2003. CME Group even went as far as declaring a special dividend earlier this year on top of its regular common dividend.

CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) has been public for less than two years and it has been paying a dividend since late in 2010. The leader in options trading has a dividend yield of about 1.8% and that dividend is likely to be raised in the next quarter or two.

IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) is now the last of the public U.S. securities exchanges which does not have a dividend yield. Today’s dividend news by NASDAQ is long overdue.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Corporate Governance, Dividend, Exchange, Exchange News, Financial Stocks, Shareholder Issues Tagged: CBOE, CME, ICE, NDAQ, NYX

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (GOOG, CMA, AIG, DE, PNRA, ANGO, HWD, PSMT, STZ, LEDS, WDFC, PLCM, ALTH, WOLF, NDAQ, RT)

Paul Ausick — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:09:11 +0000

Markets opened lower this morning and there was no news sufficient to unleash significant buying. The report on new claims for unemployment benefits came in about as expected (our coverage here), and investors are waiting for tomorrow’s official unemployment report, which is expected to be flat at 8.3%. The US dollar index rose today, now up 0.38% at 80.080. Commodities were mostly higher, with lumber and wool posting the largest gains. WTI crude oil closed up 1.8% at $103.31/barrel, and Brent crude trades up 0.90% at $123.44/barrel. Gold settled up 1% today, at $1,630.10/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 14 points to 13,060.14 (-0.11%), the NASDAQ rose more than 12 points (0.40%) to 3,080.50, and the S&P 500 fell -0.06% or less than 1 point to 1,398.08.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a target price of $730 at Argus; Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) cut to ‘sell’ at Citigroup; American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a price target of $40 at BofA/ML; Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a price target of $104 at BofA/ML; and Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) started as ‘outperform’ with a $190 target price at Credit Suisse.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: AngioDynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGO) is down -3.6% at $11.82 after posting a new 52-week low of $11.73 earlier today; Harry Winston Diamond Corp. (NYSE: HWD) is down -3.9% at $13.89; PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT) is down -4.7% at $74.41; Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) is down -11.8% at $21.78; Pier One Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR) is up 3.1% at $18.83 (more coverage here); Carmax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) is down -4.5% at $33.34; and SemiLEDS Corp. (NASDAQ: LEDS) is down -9.9% at $3.56 (more coverage here). After markets close today we get earnings from WD-40 Co. (NASDAQ: WDFC).

Next week marks the start of a brand new earnings season. See our preview here.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Polycom Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) is down more than -20% at $14.51 after posting a new 52-week low of $14.41 earlier today. The videoconferencing/enterprise phone maker cut its first quarter outlook today. More coverage here.

Allos Therapeutics Inc.(NASDAQ: ALTH) is up nearly 27% at $1.82. The drug maker is being acquired. More coverage here.

Great Wolf Resorts Inc. (NASDAQ: WOLF) is up 15.8%% at $6.60 after posting a new 52-week high of $6.65 earlier today. The company could be the prize in a bidding war between two private equity firms. More coverage here.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) is up 1.2% at $25.53. The company gets the stock listing for Facebook. More coverage here.

Ruby Tuesday Inc. (NYSE: RT) is down -18.2% at $7.27. The restaurant operator missed earnings expectations this morning.

Stay tuned for Friday. US markets are closed for Good Friday, but we have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – Non-farm payroll and unemployment rate
3:00 p.m. – Consumer credit

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AIG, ALTH, ANGO, CMA, DE, GOOG, HWD, LEDS, NDAQ, PLCM, PNRA, PSMT, RT, STZ, WDFC, WOLF

Facebook Opts For NASDAQ IPO & Listing Over NYSE (FB, NDAQ, NYX)

Administrator — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:09:44 +0000

CNBC has reported that Facebook is choosing to list on the NASDAQ rather than on the NYSE. The move seems a better fit considering the history of technology and internet companies through time. We still understand that Facebook will keep its proposed “FB” stock ticker, which may add a little confusion over the listing exchange. Still, more NASDAQ companies have less than the four-letter tickers now and many NYSE stocks have four-letter tickers as well.

The move may seem like a coup for NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) and a loss for NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX). Maybe it matters about the listing fees and the pride, but Facebook was not going be the end all be all for either exchange. There are quite literally thousands and thousands of companies listed between these two exchanges. Today is more about bragging rights than anything.

It is not as if Facebook was going to consider taking a BATS listing as the primary exchange after that SNAFU of an IPO.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Exchange, Exchange News, Internet, IPOs Tagged: FB, NDAQ, NYX