Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML; Maintained Buy but cut target to $7 at Canaccord Genuity.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Maintained Buy with $255 target at BofA/ML.
The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) Started as Neutral at Stern Agee.
Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Celestica Inc. (NYSE: CLS) Started as Market Perform at BMO.
Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE: DRQ) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
InterMune, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITMN) Reiterated Buy with $44 target at Canaccord Genuity.
Jabil Circuit Inc. (NYSE: JBL) Reiterated Buy and $24 target at Argus.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (NYSE: KKR) Started as Buy at Stern Agee.
ONEOK Partners. LP (NYSE: OKS) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

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.

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JON C. OGG

No money was injured while filming

The mania of stock splits is not quite as fast and furious as it was earlier in June on the split calendar, but we are still seeing some key splits on the docket which are set to take effect. The splits featured are only in the true splits rather than including the myriad of companies forced to enter into reverse stock splits in order to maintain listing requirements.  These are all challenging all-time highs or multi-year highs as you would expect.

During the month of July, we still have stock splits coming from the following:

• Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU);
• ONEOK Partners, L.P. (NYSE: OKS);
• Triumph Group, Inc. (NYSE: TGI);
• Sun Hydraulics Corp. (NASDAQ: SNHY);
• and Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH).

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) is one phenomenal stock and is fastly becoming a yoga-monopoly along with being a sports apparel winner.  It is also one that we expected the split to take effect in June before it updated its calendar at the end of last month.  This will also mark the first split for Little-Lulu.  We now have an ex-date of July 12 to reflect its 2-for-1 stock split.  Shares just hit a new all-time high yet again of $123.50 on Thursday.  Here is some food for thought: LULU has risen so much since it announced its split that the company should have considered announcing a 3-for-1 split rather than just a 2-for-1 split.

ONEOK Partners, L.P. (NYSE: OKS) is also set to go ex-split next week.  This 2-for-1 split, rare considering it is a limited partnership, will have an ex-date of July 13.  This was announced on June 7.  Shares just hit another all-time high of $87.00 on Thursday.  This one carries a market-premium as far as what is an implied dividend yield (capital distribution) compared to common stocks.  Its general partner is a wholly owned subsidiary of ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE: OKE) and it owns 42.8% of the overall partnership interest.  As a reminder, that is pronounced as “One-Oak” rather than “On-ee-okk” as many call it.

Triumph Group, Inc. (NYSE: TGI) is the aircraft components player rather than the maker of old unreliable cars and it certainly isn’t an old rock group.  Its 2-for-1 split is set to reflect the early June announced split with an ex-date of July 15.

Sun Hydraulics Corp. (NASDAQ: SNHY) is thinly traded enough and now high-priced enough for a stock of its sort that many investors may have forgotten all about it.  Those who stuck with this hydraulic systems player are glad they stayed.  With shares close to $50.00, this one has been a screaming stock in the last year and in the year before that.  This recently hit all-time highs.  Its ex-date to reflect its 3-for-2 split is July 18.

Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH) is a $100+ environmental remediation player and it has also performed well with shares hitting an all-time high of $110.30 just this Thursday.  This appears to be the company’s first stock split ever and that 2-for-1 split will have an ex-date late in the month on July 27.

Stock splits usually occur when company shares are at all-time highs or at least at multi-year highs.  What is interesting is that many companies today are refusing to embrace the old stock split game.  There are literally about 15 or 20 high-profile splits that could come down the pipe in the future if those companies decide to loosen up on having that mystique of a higher share price.

JON C. OGG

No money was injured while filming

Stock splits usually bring back memories of the old tech bubble and dot-com bubble.  Fundamentally, nothing changes at the company other than that smaller investors get to invest in shares at a lower nominal share price.  Now that the markets have recovered so much, with the recent weeks as an exception, we are seeing many companies with higher share prices starting to announce stock splits. There may even be more current stock splits pending and freshly affected than we can remember seeing in years.

We have seen major stock split announcements from the likes of many companies.  Some of the larger splits are from the following: Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH); Oneok Partners LP (NYSE: OKS); Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN); Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN); Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM); California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT); Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE: OII); CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX); Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX); II-VI Inc. (NASDAQ: IIVI); Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE: FLO); and Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (NYSE: CHD).  We even have a fresh reverse stock split from Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIXD).  You might think it learned from Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) but Pacific Ethanol did not have a choice if it wanted to keep its listing.

There is also no way to have an article about stock splits without pondering when or what it would take for great companies like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) or Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) to consider splitting their shares.

The road to stock splits has really become more common.  We have not seen this many pending splits in years.  These are not presented in any significant order.

Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH) announced a two-for-one stock split in the form of a dividend payable on July 26, 2011 to holders of record at the close on July 6, 2011.

On Tuesday came word from Oneok Partners LP (NYSE: OKS) that it planned to conduct a two-for-one split of its common and class-B units.  This was its first split and you rarely see “units” split.  It is 43% owned by its general partner, Oneok Inc. (NYSE: OKE).

In May came a biotech stock split from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN).  It previously approved a 2-for-1 stock split and shares began trading on a split-adjusted basis on May 23.  Shares went from almost $100 to under $50…

Also in May came word from Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN) that its board of directors had approved a 2-for-1 stock split in the form of a dividend for holders of record on June 15, 2011. The distribution date for the new shares is June 24, 2011.

Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) announced last month after its pact with H-P that its board of directors approved a two-for-one split of its stock in the form of a stock dividend for holders of record at the close of business on June 15.

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERII) Raised estimates at Janney Capital Markets.
Humana, Inc. (NYSE: HUM) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Dat Zacks Investment Research.
Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) Reiterated Buy at Jefferies.
Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) Raised to Neutral at Zacks Investment Research.
Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL) Reiterated Buy at Janney Capital Markets.
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) Reiterated Buy and $32 target at Gleacher & Co.
RC2 Corporation (NASDAQ: RCRC) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.
Strategic Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: BEE) Started as Buy at BofA/ML.
ONEOK Partners (NYSE: OKS) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Union Drilling Inc. (NASDAQ: UDRL) Raised to Buy at Gabelli & Co.

JON C. OGG

For 2009, ONEOK expects EPS of $2.25-$2.75, while ONEOKPartners is looking at net income of $3.15-$3.75 per common unit anddistributable cash flow of $490 million to $550 million. In the first nine monthsof 2008, ONEOK Partners contributed $512 million to ONEOK’s operatingincome. The 2009 guidance is nowhere near that figure.

It’s not often that master limited partnerships like ONEOK Partnersproject lower income and less distributable cash. But ONEOK Partners isexposed to substantial commodity price risk and the company expects "asignificantly lower commodity price environment" in 2009. Thepartnership expects to offset some of this weakness with new fee-basedrevenue, but as the guidance shows, the difference is just too great.

ONEOK shares are off more than 2% in early trading this morning. ONEOK Partners’ common units are down about 2.5%.

Paul Ausick
February 6, 2009