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Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (CME, DRI, ICE, MYGN, NVS, ALXN, MDRX, NNI, NOK)

247wallst — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:14:08 +0000

There were many analyst calls this morning, but the problem is that most were on smaller companies or were by second and third tier boutiques. These were the top call from Wall Street this Friday morning.

CME Group (CME) Started as Outperform at JMP Securities.
Darden Restaurants (DRI) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) Started as Outperform at JMP.
Myriad Genetics (MYGN) Started as Buy at Soleil.
Novartis (NVS) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Alexion (ALXN) Started as Sell at Think Equity.
Allscripts (MDRX) Cut to Hold at Auriga.
NelNet (NNI) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
Nokia (NOK) Cut to Neutral at UBS.

JON C. OGG

JULY 17, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ALXN, CME, DRI, ICE, MDRX, MYGN, NNI, NOK, NVS

The 52-Week Low Club (NNI)(TEG)(PSYS)

247wallst — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:05:20 +0000

Nelnet Inc (NNI) Trouble with Moody’s and S&P. Falls to $4.50 from 52-week high of $16.35.

Integrys Energy (TEG) Lowers earnings outlook. Drops to $26.26 from 52-week high of $53.92.

Psychiatric Solutions (PSYS) Bad earnings. Weak outlook. Sells down to $16.76 from 52-week high of $40.90.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in HI/LOW Tagged: NNI, PSYS, TEG

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ALD, T, BA, NDAQ, NNI, PBT, RL, RGC, TIBX, WINN)

247wallst — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:11:36 +0000

These are not all of the calls we are seeing in pre-market coverage, but these are ten of the calls impacting shares this Wednesday morning:

Allied Capital (NYSE: ALD) Started as Underweight at JPMorgan.
AT&T (NYSE: T) raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Boeing (NYSE: BA) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
NASDAQ OMX (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Raised to Buy from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE: PBT) Raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL) Raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Morgan Keegan.
Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC) Raised to Outperform at BMO Capital.
Tibco Software (NASDAQ: TIBX) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Winn-Dixie (NASDAQ: WINN) Raised to Outperform from Market Perform at FBR.

Jon C. Ogg
June 25, 2008

Big List of Private Equity Targets in Financial Services

247wallst — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:32:00 +0000

There is a recent boutique research report from earlier in the week showing a list of potential private equity targets from a specialty brokerage firm that I was very positive on from even before its IPO: Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW). The truth is that this company is probably only behind Goldman Sachs (GS) as far as its knowledge of what is going on in the North American financial services sector, and the argument is that KBW is considered the number one firm as far as independent coverage of the financial services sector. It is too bad the company did not get this out at the end of last year to include many other names that have been gobbled up, but it really feels as though every firm is ‘cramming for finals’ in the M&A world with the private equity superstars.

PROCESSING: Fidelity National Information Services (FIS); FairIsaac (FIC); ChoicePoint (CPS). On a side note, Total SystemsSolutions (TSS) is Jim Cramer’s pick in the sub-sector. RATINGS: Moody’s (MCO). INSURANCE BROKERS (P&C): Marsh and McClennan (MMC), AON Corp. (AOC). INSURANCE: AFLAC (AFL), Conseco (CNO), and American Safety (ASI). MONEY MANAGEMENT: Legg Mason (LM), Janus Capital (JNS), Waddell & Reed (WDR), Federated Investors (FII), National Financial (NFP). LOANS, STUDENT LOAN: Nelnet (NNI).

We have our own list of targets in this financial services sector for our newsletter subscribers. Some of these companies make sense, and there are many others elsewhere in overlapping segments in financial services that may actually make more sense.

Jon C. Ogg
May 31, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

The Week of Buyout Picks (April 9-13, 2007)

247wallst — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 07:55:00 +0000

Stock Tickers: GOOG, AQNT, VCLK, TFSM, MSFT, YHOO, TWX, SLM, NNI, FMD, MEDI,HAL, WHT, MEH, AAI, COT, IPS, PALM, DELL, NFI, BCE, AA, DOW, WYN, NDAQ,GFI, KR, ABN, BNI, DCX

This week was a huge week for the all of the buyout investors and speculators. There were more ongoing discussions being reported in the media than you could imagine. In a world of private equity gone wild, its hard to not be a bit cynical on the raw number of these. This is also after Google (GOOG) announced it would pay $3.1 Billion to acquire the master online advertising company DoubleClick.

Since the Google buyout of DoubleClick you might as well go ahead and throw these three into the hat: aQuantive (AQNT), ValueClick (VCLK), and 24/7 Real Media (TFSM). We addressed these back pre-market on April 2 when the DoubleClick buyout was starting to surface. Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), and even Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL unit may have to all look after these companies now that they let Google takeover DoubleClick.

Sallie Mae (SLM)….media saying it could go to private equity, of course. This even has Nelnet(NNI) and First Marblehead (FMD) up in hopes that if one student loancompany gets gobbled it means the others could too (or at least maybethe worst could be behind)…. who knows.

MedImmune (MEDI) exploring alternatives…."put itself up for sale."

Halliburton (HAL) for Weatherford (WFT)….WFT up 3% today as a result.

Midwest Air (MEH) snubbing Airtran (AAI) again, Airtran says the bid is high enough. Do you believe them?

Cott (COT) in talks with private equity firms on a Cadbury Beverage combination…..stock up 28%…."Welcome Back Cot….."

IPSCO (IPS)….up $20 since earlier in the week, company confirmed "talks that could lead to a sale," but not with whom…..

Palm (PALM) re-rumored as potential bait for Dell (DELL), these rumors just won’t die.

Novastar Financial (NFI) exploring options….a Takeunder for subprime slime?

Bell Canada (BCE) now under potential takeouts by the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund, so to speak.

Alcoa (AA) survived its earnings after a crummy history…..many think this one still gets gobbled…..

Dow Chemical (DOW) rumors of a private equity buyout just won’t die,even if they deny the rumor and fire 2 executives for "holdingunauthorized talks" with outside parties.

Wyndham Worldwide (WYN) could be the next buyout for its valueaccording to Cramer, as the only Cendant piece that hasn’t made thegrade.

Kroger (KR) denied it is interested in going private…..maybe WallStreet recalls that grocery store margins are low. The good news isthat you can now get a huge portion of the items you can at WholeFoods, without the "Whole Paycheck" price.

NASDAQ (NDAQ) held talks with the Oslo Stock Exchange. Supposedly nodeal is imminent, but right now if you are an exchange you arebasically takeover bait (hence, our BAIT SHOP).

ABN AMRO (ABN) still on deck…..who, what, when, where????? Barclays (BCS)?

Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI) went up on what may have been a fake "buyout rumor or interest" from a Mr. Pastorini…..can you say "Weird?"

Interest in rails after Warren Buffett disclosed stake in BurlingtonNorthern Santa Fe Corp (BNI)….looks like Buffett feels differentlyabout rail companies than airline companies.

Magna International confirmed its role in ongoing Chrysler talks, part of DaimlerChrysler (DCX).

Jon C. Ogg
April 14, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Rumor Friday (APR 13, 2007)

247wallst — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 12:54:40 +0000

Stock Tickers: SLM, NNI, FMD, MEDI, HAL, WHT, MEH, AAI, COT, IPS, PALM, DELL, NFI, BCE, AA, DOW, WYN, NDAQ, GFI, KR, ABN, BNI, DCX

What preceeds "Merger Monday"? The answer isn’t really Sunday. It’s "Rumor Friday," of course.

This week we even heard about private equity guys admitting the deals are getting crazy because of the financing available. By the size of this list, you can tell that there is no way under the sun that these can all occur. It’s truly an M&A world gone wild. Oh well, here is the list of stocks that have been rumored to be in merger discussions or potential targets this week, and there are probably a dozen or more others: