24/7 Wall St. » OCR

FTC Sues To Block Omnicare/PharMerica Merger; Express/Medco Next? (OCR, PMC, MHS, ESRX, T)

Administrator — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:31:25 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission is suing to block the merger between Omnicare, Inc. (NYSE: OCR) and Pharmerica Corporation (NYSE: PMC), where Omnicare is seeking to acquire the rival pharmacy provider PharMerica….

It makes you wonder how far behind a potential blockage of the Medco Health Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MHS) and Express Scripts Inc. (NASDAQ: ESRX) merger is. Express Scripts is the would-be acquirer and the deal has been heavily criticized by many watch groups and we have noted how wide the merger-arbitrage spread is. The blocked AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) acquisition of T-Mobile started (or added to) much of the blocking concerns from investors.

The FTC issued a complaint to block the hostile acquisition of the rival long-term care pharmacy provider alleging that this combination of the two largest U.S. long-term care pharmacies would harm competition and also because the merger would allow Omnicare to raise the price of drugs for Medicare Part D consumers and others. As noted (full release):

“If Omnicare is allowed to purchase its biggest and only national competitor, it will diminish competition and raise health care costs – leaving taxpayers and patients to foot the bill,” said Richard Feinstein, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “The Bureau will continue to be vigilant in our efforts to prevent these sorts of anticompetitive deals.”

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Drug companies, Healthcare, Mergers and Buy Outs, Pharmaceuticals, Regulation Tagged: ESRX, MHS, OCR, PMC

America’s 10 Highest Paid CEOs (Which Are Worth It?)

Charles B. Stockdale — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:22:17 +0000

Several lists of the highest paid CEOs in America are published each year mostly by the business media and shareholder groups. All are based on proxy statements. Long before the lists are published, the boards of directors of these companies try to justify the compensation packages for shareholders. Investors often are skeptical of these defenses, and they should be. It is rare, but not impossible, to show that a chief executive deserves $50 million, or even $100 million a year.

Read America’s 10 Highest Paid CEOs

Based on the annual CEO Pay Survey 2011 by GMI, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 highest paid CEOs. We then analyzed company performance of the highest paid CEOs to determine which pay packages were worth the investment.

Such a review about management compensation is by its nature subjective and different from a board’s reasoning. A board may take into account the long-term record of a CEO who has held his or her job for several years. The board might set a pay package based on an extraordinary year. The directors also may pay a CEO well just before he or she retires. 24/7 Wall St. has downplayed each of these factors, but has not eliminated them. Our judgment of “fairness” is based on what shareholders received in the year as the CEO’s compensation year. Our primary measurements are revenue growth, earnings growth and stock price change.

This is the 24/7 Wall St. list of the 10 highest paid CEOs for 2010 and an analysis of whether their compensations were worth the payments in terms of shareholder returns. All compensation considerations used to set pay, which include board of director criteria from each company, come from SEC-filed proxies.

Filed under: General, Special Report Tagged: AET, CVS, GBL, GGP, MCK, OCR, RL, TRW, VNO, VRSK

Ten Highest Paid CEOs of 2010 (MCK, OCR, TRW, VRSK, CVS, GGP, RL, VNO, AET, GBL)

Paul Ausick — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:07:59 +0000

When it comes to executive pay, the amounts paid to today’s highest paid CEOs equals the GDP of a small emerging nation. The ten most highly compensated CEOs according to a recent survey by GMI took home about $770 million, more than the GDP of Vanuatu or Samoa, among others.

The GMI survey measures what the firm calls “total realized compensation,” which is further defined as “compensation that has been received by the CEO, rather than any notional estimates, accounting costs, or other uncertainties.” Here’s the list:

CEO	Company	Ticker	Compensation
John Hammergren	McKesson Corp.	MCK	$145,266,971
Joel Gemunder	Omnicare, Inc.	OCR	$98,283,242
John Plant	TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.	TRW	$76,841,646
Frank Coyne	Verisk Analytics, Inc.	VRSK	$69,416,726
Thomas Ryan	CVS Caremark Corp.	CVS	$68,079,823
Adam Metz	General Growth Properties, Inc.	GGP	$66,707,460
Ralph Lauren	Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.	RL	$66,651,515
Michael Fascitelli	Vornado Realty Trust	VNO	$64,402,468
Ronald Williams	Aetna, Inc.	AET	$57,787,786
Mario Gabelli	GAMCO Investors Inc.	GBL	$56,608,736

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Compensation Tagged: AET, CVS, GBL, GGP, MCK, OCR, RL, TRW, VNO, VRSK

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ALL, AOL, AZPN, STD, BPO, DRWI, JCP, K, M, MPEL, MSFT, OCR, PVH, PTP, UAL, VOD)

Administrator — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:06:59 +0000

These are some of this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research notes:

Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) Cut to Hold at Benchmark Capital.
Aspen Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: AZPN) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan; Started as Outperform at Cowen.
Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: STD) Cut to Neutral at Nomura Securities.
Brookfield Properties Corporation (NYSE: BPO) Raised to Sector Outperform at CIBC.
DragonWave Inc. (NASDAQ: DRWI) Cut to Underperform at Raymond James.
J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Macy’s inc. (NYSE: M) Cut to Neutral and $25 target at Goldman Sachs.
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) Raised to Neutral and $5.90 target (from Sell/$4.50) at Goldman Sachs.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) Cut to Neutral and $28 target (from Buy/$32) at Goldman Sachs.
Omnicare Inc. (NYSE: OCR) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. (NYSE: PVH) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Platinum Underwriters Holdings (NYSE: PTP) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) Raised to Equalweight at Morgan Stanley.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ALL, AOL, AZPN, BPO, DRWI, JCP, K, M, MPEL, MSFT, OCR, PTP, PVH, STD, UAL, VOD

Secondary Offerings Keep Coming (GTY, JAZZ, OCR, RCKY, BEE)

Administrator — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:41:57 +0000

The markets go way up, then down, then back up. And to raise capital and to bolster the books it seems that Corporate America will sell stock. There have been many secondary offerings in the market of late. This morning’s news on secondary offerings is from Getty Realty Corp (NYSE: GTY), Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAZZ), OmniCare, Inc. (NYSE: OCR), Rocky Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCKY), and Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: BEE). We have added color, underwriters, details and a reaction to each where applicable.

Getty Realty Corp (NYSE: GTY) filed last night to sell 4.5 million shares of common stock. It plans to use the proceeds “for the acquisition of properties in the gas station and convenience store sector, repayment or refinancing of outstanding indebtedness under its credit agreement and general corporate purposes.” J.P. Morgan and BofA Merrill Lynch are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Shares closed at $24.08, and shares are indicated down 2.8% at $23.27.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAZZ) filed to sell up to $12,247,438 worth of common stock, which would be 7 million shares, via Barclays. All of the net proceeds from the offering will be used to repay a portion of its outstanding senior secured notes. Shares are indicated down around $8.50 after a $9.06 close.

OmniCare, Inc. (NYSE: OCR) filed an automatic shelf registration statement with the SEC for it and its numerous subsidiaries. OCR did not disclose terms nor amounts, but listed that it could sell any combination of Debt securities, Guarantees of Debt Securities, Common Stock, Preferred Stock, and/or Warrants.

Rocky Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCKY) is trading lower this morning after pricing a 1.8 million share secondary offering at $8.40 per share. The close yesterday was $9.15. Proceeds to the company will be about $14.1 million, assuming no overallotment option is exercised, to be used to repay debt. The book runner was Robert W. Baird and the co-manager was D.A. Davidson.

Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: BEE) filed to sell 40 million shares of common stock for debt exchange tenders. J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and BofA Merrill Lynch will act as joint book-running managers for the Offering, and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. will act as co-manager. Shares closed at $5.93 yesterday, and shares are indicated down 13% at $5.14.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Secondary Offering Tagged: BEE, GTY, JAZZ, OCR, RCKY

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (BKS, BCO, K, NAV, OCR, SONS, TKC)

247wallst — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:56:08 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades we have seen early this Friday morning:

Barnes & Noble (BKS) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Brink’s (BCO) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Kellogg (K) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Navistar (NAV) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Omnicare (OCR) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Sonus Networks (SONS) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Turkcell (TKC) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Jon C. Ogg
January 16, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: BCO, BKS, K, NAV, OCR, SONS, TKC

Top Pre-Market Analyst upgrades (ABX, CVC, EMC, MOT, OCR, PWAV, RHB)

247wallst — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:31:08 +0000

These are not all of the analyst calls by far, but these are some ofthe calls that appear as impact calls this Friday morning witth morethan two-hours to the open:

Barrick Gold (ABX) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Cablevision (CVC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
EMC (EMC) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
Motorola (MOT) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Omnicare (OCR) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Powerwave (PWAV) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
RehabCare (RHB) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.

Jon C. Ogg
August 1, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ARM, BTUI, ELY, KO, INTC, JASO, K, LEH, OCR, OXPS)

247wallst — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:40:21 +0000

These are some of the top analyst calls we are looking at this Tuesday morning:

ArvinMeritor (NYSE: ARM) Raised to Buy From Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
BTU International (NASDAQ: BTUI) Started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) Started as Outperform at Raymond James.
Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) Raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) Started as Buy at ThinkPanmure.
JA Solar (NASDAQ: JASO) Started as Buy at Broadpoint.
Kellogg (NYSE: K) Raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
Lehman (NYSE: LEH) Cut to Market Perform from Outperform as Wachovia.
Omnicare (NYSE: OCR) Raised to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.
optionsXpress (NASDAQ: OXPS) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Merriman Curhan Ford.

Jon C. Ogg
June 10, 2008

52-Week Low Club (December 28, 2007)

247wallst — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:01:00 +0000

Some of these stocks hit 52-week lows and recovered off of lows so they won’t have a low close. But these did all touch or breach the 52-week lows. At the end we also broke out retail stocks, financial stocks, airlines & transports, and hotels. A separate report could have been compiled for REIT’s as well, but many of those were left off because of room or volume. There were enough 52-week lows today that you might even wonder if there had been a mini-crash in the markets. Here are the 52-week lows for December 28, 2007:

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD)… imagine if the company got Hector Ruiz to leave.
American Greetings (NYSE: AM)…again.
AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN)… new entrant.
Carmike Cinemas (NASDAQ:CKEC)
ChipMOS (NASDAQ:IMOS)
Corp. Office Property (NYSE: OFC)
Cryptologic (NASDAQ: CRYP)
Diebold (NYSE:DBD)
Fortune Brands (NYSE:FO)
Group 1 Auto (NYSE: GPI)
Infinera Corp. (NASDAQ: INFN)
Introgen (NASDAQ:INGN)
Japan Smaller Cap Fund (NYSE: JOF)
Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ: LAMR)
Legget & Platt (NYSE: LEG)
Martha Stewart (NYSE: MSO)
Marvell Tech (NASDAQ:MRVL)
Mattel (NYSE:MAT)
McClatchy (NYSE:MNI)
Micron Tech (NYSE:MU)
NGAS Resources (NASDAQ:NGAS)
Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)
Owens Corning (NYSE:OC)
Omnicare (NYSE:OCR)
Prestige Brand (NYSE: PBH)
PC-Tel (NASDAQ:PCTI)
Ruth’s Chris (NASDAQ:RUTH)
SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK)
Theravance (NASDAQ:THRX)
Tractor Supply (NASDAQ:TSCO)
Wendy’s (NYSE: WEN)
World Fuel Services (NYSE:INT)
U-Store-It (NYSE:YSI)

Retail Stocks on 52-week lows: Ann Taylor (NYSE:ANN), Big Lots (NYSE:BIG), Borders Group (NYSE:BGP), Bon Ton Stores (NASDAQ:BONT), Chico’s FAS (NYSE:CHS), Finish Line (NASDAQ:FINL), Liz Claiborne (NYSE: LIZ), Macy’s (NYSE: M), Office Max (NYSE:OMX), Petsmart (NASDAQ:PETM), Stage Stores (NYSE:SSI)

Financial stocks on 52-week lows: Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Canseco (NYSE: CNO), Discover Financial (NYSE: DFS), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB), Fortress Investment (NYSE: FIG), MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI), Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM)… urgh! When does it stop?

Airlines/Transports on 52-week lows: Airtran Holdings (NYSE: AAI)…again. Did they launch a Friends Die Free rewards plan? Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL), Fedex (NYSE:FDX), Mesa Air (NASDAQ:MESA), Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA)… near $100 oil is a real pain.

Hotels Hitting 52-week lows: Host Hotels (NYSE: HST), Lasalle Hotel (NYSE: LHO), Starwood Hotels (NYSE:HOT), Sunstone Hotel (NYSE: SHO), Wydham Worldwide (NYSE:WYN). Maybe these all wish they could get the private equity buyers back in the sector. If only they could still borrow.

These CEO’s new year’s resolutions are all the same: "In 2008 I want to keep my stock off the 52-week low lists."

Jon C. Ogg
December 28, 2007

The 52-Week Low Club

247wallst — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:02:26 +0000

Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) No real news here. Maybe high oil prices could hurt travel. So far, the drop is odd. Down to $8.50 from 52-week high of $15.

US Airways (LCC) Bad traffic. High oil. Drops to $22.69 from 52-week high of $63.27.

Omnicare (OCR) Recent forecast was poor. Down to $25.31. But, no big news. The 52-week $44.87.

Momenta Pharmaceuticals (MNTA) Drug trial fails. Drops to $5.50 from 52-week high of $21.98.

Cognizant Technology (CTSH) Q4 forecast misses Wall St. estimates. Down to $31.15 from 52-week high of $47.78.

Douglas A. McIntyre