The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 135 points to 12,286.96 (1.12%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 24 points 0.92%) to 2,613.74, and the S&P 500 rose 1.07% or more than 13 points to 1,262.96. With just one trading day left in 2011, the Dow is up 5.8% and the S&P 500 is up 0.1%, while the Nasdaq is down 1.7%.

There were a few analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including LinkedIn Corp. (NASDAQ: LNKD) started as ‘buy’ at Collins Stewart; Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) named ‘value stock of the day’ at Zack’s Investment Research; and News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS.A) raised to ‘top pick list’ at RBC Capital Markets.

There are no earnings reports of note scheduled today. After markets closed last night, Flanigan’s Enterprises Inc. (AMEX: BDL) reported earnings and the shares are trading down more than -7% at $6.89 in the last half hour of trading today.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

LiveDeal Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVE) is up more than 33% at $4.08. The customer acquisition company regained its compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements.

American Realty Investors Inc. (NYSE: ARL) is up nearly 38% at $1.86. The real estate investment company is probably reacting to the pending home sales report and the report of a sale by PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) of an unfinished development in Colorado.

Cyanotech Corp. (NASDAQ: CYAN) is down more than -15% at $7.56. The natural foods maker has had a recent run-up its stock price, and today’s fall may simply reflect some profit-taking.

Diamond Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) is up more than 8% at $31.87. The snack foods company is rumored to have had a stake in the company acquired by David Einhorn and Greenlight Capital Inc.

China Sky One Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: CSKI) is down nearly -10% at $1.02, after posting a new 52-week low of $0.89 earlier today. The medical device maker’s stock is down -46% for the year and today’s increase likely indicates some value hunting on the part of investors.

Stay tuned for Thursday. Here are the noteworthy events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 3:00 p.m. – US Department of Agriculture farm prices report

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Paul Ausick

Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRN) maintained Underperform and named Bear of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.

Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) named as the value stock of the day at Zacks Investment Research.

First Niagara Financial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) Started as Buy at Jefferies.

Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ: IBKR) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) Started as Buy at Collins Stewart.

Mattress Firm Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: MFRM) Started as Outperform at William Blair.

News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS.A) Raised to the Top Pick List at RBC Capital Markets.

United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX) Cut to Hold from Buy at Argus.

Read Also: Top Oil & Gas Stock Targets For 2012

Read Also: Analysts’ Top Biotech Picks for 2012

JON C. OGG

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair; Reiterated Outperform at Credit Suisse; Raised target to $90 at Argus.
Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) Maintained Neutral but cut estimates and target to $87 at Credit Suisse.
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) maintained Neutral but target to $4 from $10 at Credit Suisse.
News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS.A) Removed from the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM) named Value stock of the day at Zacks.
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) Reiterated Outperform on Focus List at Credit Suisse.
Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Polycom Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) Raised to Buy at Argus.
PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ: RYAAY) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) Cut to UNderperform at BofA/ML.
Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

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JON C. OGG

Hulu is owned by Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) via NBC, News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS-A), Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, and the Hulu team.  The bidders are said to include Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Yahoo! INc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).  What is interesting is that some have included SK Telecom Co. Ltd. (NYSE: SKM) of South Korea as a bidder.  Others say that is not the case in more recent news.

The fight over values is somewhat confusing and it brings up the idea that the process could either be delayed further or could be cancelled.  The Wall Street Journal said earlier in the week that bids might be as low as $500 million, but Reuters said sellers are looking for $2 billion or so.

Hulu was originally going to raise $200 to $300 million in an initial public offering, which would have come close to the $2 billion value.  Then it changed its IPO plan to focus on subscription models.

Here is what is interesting, and something we have toiled with for valuing Hulu… Do you value it on subscribers or on ads?  Huffington Post showed something that Hulu online advertising was twice as effective as TV.

It seems a bit surprising that Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is not considering this.  The company has not really wanted to have an ad-model, and maybe it fears that it would have to bundle the service for free rather than as an upsell.

Hulu Plus is an ad-supported subscription service with current and back season shows from ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, and MTV to connected devices for $7.99 monthly.  The free Hulu service aggregates some 260 content companies and the company claims some 625 top advertisers.

This sounds a lot like a situation that is not going to end with a mere press release, but we aren’t implying more than what we have seen at face value.  As I am about as anxious as one can be to get away from a PC after work, I am not the person to value Hulu.

JON C. OGG

Each year, 24/7 Wall St. regularly compiles a list of brands that are going to disappear in the near-term.  Last year’s list proved to be prescient in many instances, predicting the demise of T-Mobile among others. In late May, AT&T (NYSE:T) and Deutsch Telekom announced that AT&T would buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. The deal would add 34 million customers to the company and create the country’s largest wireless operator.

• Read the Ten Brands that Will Disappear in 2012

Other 201o nominees – including Blockbuster – bit the dust, while companies, such as Dollar Thrifty are on the road to oblivion. Last September, after finally giving in to competition from Netflix and buckling under nearly $1 billion in debt, Blockbuster filed for  Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In April of this year, Dish Network acquired the company for $320 million. Car rental chain Dollar Thrifty is still entertaining buyout offers from Avis and Hertz.  On June 6, the embattled company recommended that its  shareholders not accept Hertz’s recent offer, valued at $2.24 billion, or $72 a share.  Meanwhile, on June 13th, Avis Budget announced that “it had made progress in its discussion with the Federal Trade Commission  regarding its potential acquisition” of the company. Although Dollar Thrifty can remain choosy, a sale is a matter of when, not if.

We also missed the mark on a few companies.  Notably, Kia, Moody’s, BP, and Zales appear to be doing better than we expected.

Brands that have stood the test of time for decades are falling by the wayside at an alarming rate.  For instance, Pontiac – a major car brand since 1926 – is gone, shut down by a struggling GM. Blockbuster is in the process of dismantling, after it once controlled the VHS and DVD markets. House & Garden folded after 106 years. It succumbed to the advertising downturn, a lot of competition, and the cost of paper and postage. Its demise echoed the 1972 shutdown of what is probably the most famous magazine in history–Life. That was a long time ago, but it serves to demonstrate that no brand is too big to fail if it is overwhelmed by competition, new inventions, costs, or poor management.

This year’s list of The Ten Brands That Will Disappear takes a methodical approach in deciding which brands will walk the plank.  The major criteria were as follows: (1) a rapid fall-off in sales and steep losses; (2) disclosures by the parent of the brand that it might go out of business; (3) rapidly rising costs that are extremely unlikely to be recouped through higher prices; (4) companies which are sold; (5) companies that go into bankruptcy; (6) firms that have lost the great majority of their customers; or (7) operations with rapidly withering market share. Each of the ten brands on the list suffer from one or more of these problems. Each of the ten will be gone, based on our definitions, within 18 months.

Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN) is due Wednesday morning and shares were down 2.3% at $78.52 late on Tuesday.  Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.74 EPS and $1.22 billion in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.92 EPS and $1.32 billion in revenues.  Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target objective of $80.75 and the 52-week trading range is $56.26 to $80.70.

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is due Wednesday morning. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.17 EPS and $536.35 million in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.22 EPS and $521.22 million in revenues.  The shares were trading around $20.30 late on Tuesday. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $24.77 and the 52-week trading range is $18.51 to $27.65.

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) has managed to hold up despite competition and changing demand concerns.  The stock was around $33.50 late on Tuesday with earnings early Wednesday morning. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.33 EPS and $413.09 million in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.65 EPS and $637.04 million in revenues.  Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target objective of $31.53 and the 52-week trading range is $26.11 to $39.05.

Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) may trade around gold more than earnings.  Shares were down 3.3% late in the day at $51.00. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.48 EPS and $1.26 billion in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.53 EPS and $1.36 billion in revenues.  Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target objective of $64.50 and the 52-week trading range is $38.07 to $56.20.

JDS Uniphase Corporation (NASDAQ: JDSU) will come Wednesday afternoon and shares have come back to about $20.25. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.20 EPS and $448.17 million in revenues; next quarter estimates are $0.25 EPS and $470.18 million in revenues.  Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target objective of $24.74 and the 52-week trading range is $9.05 to $29.12.

MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) is due Wednesday morning and Thomson Reuters has estimates of $1.26 EPS and $15.89 billion in revenues.  Shares were around $46.32 late Tuesday and Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target objective of $55.44 and the 52-week trading range is $35.38 to $48.72.

Adobe Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) Cut to Neutral at Robert W. Baird; Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) Maintained Buy but lowered target to $12 from $16 at Gleacher.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Cut to Hold at S&P Equity Research (late Tuesday).
American Express (NYSE: AXP) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Banco Santander SA (NYSE: STD) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) Started as Buy at Stern Agee.
MakeMyTrip Ltd. (NASDAQ: MMYT) Started as Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS.A) Started as Hold at Jefferies.
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) Cut to Underperform at Morgan Keegan.
Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) Started as Buy at Stern Agee.
VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) Raised to Buy at Canaccord.

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JON C. OGG

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) Raised to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Goodrich (NYSE: GR) Raised to Outperform at FBR Capital.
Harmony Gold (NYSE: HMY) Raised to Buy at Nomura.
Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
News Corp (NWS-A) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) Raised to Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Viacom B (VIA-B) Raised to Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for reminders of the top day trader alerts, analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG

Hearst, which said it would close it Seattle paper, the Post-Intelligencer, has told some members of its staff that they may be candidates to create an online version of the paper as its print version is shuttered.

According to the AP, “An unspecified number of the P-I’s 181 employees received `provisional offers’ Wednesday and Thursday to work for the online venture.”

Several large city dailies, including The Rocky Mountain News, have already folded. The Boston Globe is supposedly losing $1 million a week. Most analysts looking at figures from The Washington Post Company (WPO) say Newsweek loses money. The New York Times newspaper, owned by NYT (NYT) may loose money this year. The Wall Street Journal, part of News Corp (NWS) is losing advertising at an alarming rate.

The good aspect of having publications move to an “online-only” format is that the brands survive. The bad news is that most of the employees from the print property will not keep their jobs. Internet versions of publications often bring in only 5% or 10% of the sales that the physical versions of the properties do. But, the online business are not burdened with the costs of printing and distribution. Internet advertising is also more likely to grow than print is. Some major national weekly magazines and large business magazines like BusinessWeek have lost half of their advertising pages over the last two years. That trend is not likely to be reversed.

In the future, the big daily newspaper and national weekly magazine will not be printed at all. They will exist on the internet, run by much smaller staffs. But, at least they will exist.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Below is the consolidated Operating Income from each unit, with comparisons from Dec-2007 to Dec-2006 and a POS. or NEG. note (positive or negative) ahead.  Seven of the Eight units showed positive growth in operating income:
NEG.    Filmed Entertainment  $403M vs. $470M       
POS.    Television   $245M vs $112M   
POS.    Cable Network Programming  $337 vs $275M
POS.    Direct Broadcast Satellite Television     $62M vs. -$12M
POS.    Magazines and Inserts     $85M vs. $74M         
POS.    Newspapers and Information Services  $196M vs. $170    
POS.    Book Publishing  $67M vs. $54
POS.    Other  $23M vs. $1M

Frankly, we are not really concentrating on any EPS numbers because the integration from the monumental Dow Jones acquisition.  Same goes for guidance.  But what is obvious as can be is that the Rupert Murdoch model is working.  We can’t show you too many newspaper and magazine operators that are showing this strong of operating income for these segments.

These media conglomerate earnings take quite a bit of time to digest the fall-out for the entire sector because of so man moving parts.  The NWS-A more active shares closed down 0.3% at $19.35 in regulartrading and are essentially unchanged in after-hours trading.  The52-week trading range for NWS-A shares is $17.19 to $25.40. 

Stay tuned for Disney earnings tomorrow and Time Warner earnings on Wednesday.

Jon C. Ogg
February 4, 2008