The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 76 points to 12,932.01 (-0.59%), the NASDAQ fell more than 11 points (-0.39%) to 2,946.27, and the S&P 500 fell -0.43% or nearly 6 points to 1,363.71.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) maintained as ‘buy’ with a target price of $19 at Argus; Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) maintained ‘outperform’ with a target price of $166 at Credit Suisse; Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) raised to ‘hold’ at Argus; BP plc (NYSE: BP) cut to ‘underweight’ at Barclays; and Synacor Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNC) cut to ‘underperform’ at BofA/ML.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) is down up 5.5% at $65.24 after posting a new 52-week high of $66.18 earlier today (more coverage here); Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL) is up 4.1% at $4.04 (more coverage here); OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX) is up 10.5% at $4.85; Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) is up 1.4% at $5.11; The Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) is down -4.3% at $4.66 (more coverage here); Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST) is up 18.4% at $12.64; and Pioneer Drilling Co. (NYSE: PDC) is up 5.5% at $8.03.

On Wednesday we are scheduled to get earnings from AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL), Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU), CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL), Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. (NYSE: DTG), Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M), Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL), News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM), and priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Fossil Inc. (NASDAQ: FOSL) is down -36.8% at $79.50. The fashion accessories company revealed a weak forecast today. More coverage here.

Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) is down -24.6% at $8.81. The drug maker’s earnings were not as strong as expected. More coverage here.

Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AMEX: AVL) is down -24% at $1.67 after posting a new 52-week low of $1.58 earlier today. The rare earths miner is delaying a feasibility study. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto and Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser are giving speeches. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 10:00 a.m. – Wholesale trade report
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 1:00 p.m. – 10-year note auction

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Paul Ausick

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 30 points to 13,008.53 (-0.23%), the NASDAQ rose less than 2 points (0.05%) to 2,957.76, and the S&P 500 rose 0.48% or less than 1 point to 1,369.58.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) cut to ‘neutral’ at Argus; Pepsico Inc. (NYSE: PEP) raised to ‘overweight’ at Morgan Stanley; Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) cut to ‘market perform’ at Wells Fargo; Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) raised to ‘outperform’ with a price target of $55 at Credit Suisse; and Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) cut to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Allied Nevada Gold Corp. (AMEX: ANV) is down about -10% at $25.59 after posting a new 52-week low of $25.37 earlier today; American States Water Co. (NYSE: AWR) is up 3.6% at $37.09; Breitburn Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BBEP) is down -2.4% at $17.54; Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE) is down -4.1% at $18.99 after posting a new 52-week low of $18.71; Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) is down -0.93% at $31.02; Louisiana Pacific Corp. (NYSE: LPX) is up 5.9% at $9.49; Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) is up 3.4% at $18.65; and HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) is down -2.4% at $28.82 (more coverage here).

On Tuesday we are scheduled to get earnings from Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR), Demand Media Inc. (NYSE: DMD), Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL), OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX), Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC), The Wendy’s Co. (NYSE: WEN), and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) is up about 55% at $58.05. The company’s cystic fibrosis drug study showed significant positive results. More coverage here.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH) is down more than -XX% at $XX. The IT-outsourcing firm showed good results, but guidance was weak. More coverage here.

BroadSoft Inc. (NASDAQ: BSFT) is down -17.6% at $33.68. The communications software maker posted good earnings, but followed that with soft guidance for the second quarter.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker and Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher are giving speeches. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:30 a.m. – NFIB Small Business optimism index
• 11:30 a.m. – 4-week bill auction
• 1:00 p.m. – 3-year note auction

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Paul Ausick

Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP) shares fell 8% drop today (with low and spotty earnings as well); Officemax Incorporated (NYSE: OMX) fell 4% and it now trades at 9.2-times expected 2012 earnings.  Staples is worth $10.25 billion after today’s drop, while Office Depot is worth $925 million and OfficeMax is worth only $482 million in market capitalization.
  
The office supplies giant reported that its net income rose to $283.6 million or $0.41 per share. This compared to almost $275 million or $0.38 per share a year earlier and it was in-line with the $0.40 estimate from Thomson Reuters.  Sales were up 0.7% to $6.46 billion from year ago and estimates were roughly $6.45 billion.  Staples is facing a scenario where growth is coming in, but at slower rates than what Wall Street wants. 

The company has slowed down its growth rate massively as it opened 12 stores and closed four stores in the U.S. and opened two stores and closed one store in Canada all in the fourth quarter.  Fourth quarter 2011 comparable store sales increased two percent versus the fourth quarter of 2010, reflecting higher average order size and a slight increase in customer traffic.

Adjusted diluted earnings rose 8% to $1.37 per share and total company sales increased by 2% to $25.0 billion and free cash flow of $1.2 billion for the full year 2011.  Does that sound like a turnaround team is needed?  Sure, Staples’ growth is slowing as the company is mature.

Staples used its cash flow to repurchase 37 million shares for $605 million throughout 2011 and it spent $278 million on cash dividends in 2011.  Translation: Staples is spending twice the amount of cash buying back stock than it is on dividends.  The office supplies destination also ended 2011 with $2.5 billion in liquidity, including $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

The problem is outside of the U.S. as Staples noted a drop of 5% in U.S. dollars on international sales and a drop of 4% on a local currency basis.  Europe has many problems and a turnaround team cannot really mitigate what is happening in Europe.  The company noted, “Top line growth in European Contract was more than offset by a nine percent decrease in comparable store sales in Europe and weak sales in Australia.”

So, what lies ahead for 2012?  The company’s 2012 outlook is for sales to rise in the low single-digits over 2011 and full year diluted earnings gains of high single-digits per share over the $1.37 EPS in 2011.  Staples also sees an effective tax rate of 32.5% and expects to generate more than $1 billion of free cash flow in 2012.

Staples is a low growth story, but we would ask literally how much growth it can achieve in “the new normal.”  Turnaround teams are needed when you have a booming economy and a company isn’t cutting it.  Businesses keep getting by with less and less.  Fewer employees, fewer office supplies, and fewer office perks. 

The turnaround that investors want is going to likely have to come from a different shareholder base. After today’s drop, Staples trades at 10.7-times trailing earnings and that implies roughly 10-times this coming year’s earnings.

Go look at the size and comparisons for rivals Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP) and Officemax Incorporated (NYSE: OMX) it really looks like this is not a management turnaround situation.  Staples is a mature situation.  It offers a 2.6% dividend yield, and that is well above average in the retail space.  Maybe the company should allocate a bit more cash and cash flow to dividends rather than share buybacks at its current ratio of 2:1. 

Investors will just have to be patient here, even if the stock could slide a bit more.  Is ten-times earnings expectations with better metrics than peers and a higher dividend all an unfair price?  It doesn’t seem unreasonable. 

Today’s drop was on more than five-times normal volume at 43 million shares.  We do have to note that the death-cross of the 200-day moving average falling under the 50-day moving average just recently came about in the last few days (see stockcharts.com chart below).

JON C. OGG

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 46 points to 12,984.91 (0.36%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 24 points (0.81%) to 2,956.98, and the S&P 500 rose 0.43% or nearly 6 points to 1,363.46.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) reiterated as ‘neutral’ at Credit Suisse; Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) raised to ‘overweight’ at Morgan Stanley; TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX) reiterated as ‘hold’ at Argus; Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) reiterated as ‘neutral’ at Credit Suisse; and Juniper Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) cut to ‘market perform’ at FBR.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Angie’s List Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI) is up 10.10% at $15.92; Boston Beer Company Inc. (NYSE: SAM) is down -4.5% at $99.88; Caribou Coffee Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOU) is down -1.8% at $17.28; DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is up 6.7% at $3.67; Flowserve Corp. (NYSE: FLS) is up 2.8% at $121.08; Fluor Corp. (NYSE: FLR) is up 6.2% at $64.11; Goodrich Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: GDP) is down -4.4% at $16.07; Hewlett Packard is down -6.4% at $27.08; KBR Inc. (NYSE: KBR) is up 9.1% at $36.01; American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT) is up 0.68% at $63.69; Bill Barrett Corp. (NYSE: BBG) is down -0.5% at $27.77; Charles & Colvard Ltd (NASDAQ: CTHR) is up 22.3% at $3.73 after posting a new 52-week high of $3.99 earlier today; Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE: DDS) is up 10.6% at $57.73; Dish Network Inc. (NASDAQ: DISH) is up 1.5% at $29.60 (more coverage here); Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ: FWLT) is up 7.5% at $25.58; Officemax Inc. (NYSE: OMX) is up 7.25% at $5.92; and Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) is up 3.5% at $54.80 (more coverage here).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Vivus Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) is up nearly 80% at $18.93 after posting a new 52-week high of $21.44 earlier. The drug maker yesterday received an FDA panel approval for its obesity drug. More coverage here, here, and here.

Onvia Inc. (NASDAQ: ONVI) is up about 34% at $4.21. The government contractor service provider has rejected a buyout bid at $4.25/share, boosting hopes of a bidding war.

Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) is up nearly 19% at $61.93. The retailer reported an enormous loss, but also announced plans to pare down the company. More coverage here.

Penn Virginia Corp. (NYSE: PVA) is down nearly -15% at $4.92. The independent oil & gas company missed EPS estimates badly, and lowered its production forecast for 2012.

GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE: GTI) is down more than -15% at $13.07. Volume is more than 10x the daily average of 1 million shares traded. The industrial products company reported a big revenue miss this morning.

Stay tuned for Friday. St. Louis Fed president James Bullard and New York Fed president William Dudley are giving speeches. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 9:55 a.m. – Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index
• 10:00 a.m. – New home sales

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Paul Ausick

Read The Twelve Retailers Flunking Customer Service

24/7 Wall St. examined ACSI’s annual retail and e-commerce satisfaction report and identified the 12 companies whose customer satisfaction decreased in 2011.

Many of the companies whose customer satisfaction scores dropped the past year have simply cemented their already terrible service reputations.

Walmart, which debuted strong on the Index in 1994, dropped to among the lowest ranked companies by 1996, where it has remained since. Winn-Dixie, a supermarket chain which does business in the southeast, is an example of a company that has never managed to break free of the lowest rungs of customer service. CVS Caremark and Staples, both on this list, have seen occasional improvements in customer service, but are among the worst.

For other companies, however, losing customer satisfaction is in conflict with their reputations. Amazon.com had a 1.1% decrease in its customer service score this past year, even though it still maintained the highest customer satisfaction score among retailers. Charles Schwab’s customer satisfaction also dipped slightly, despite the fact that customers are more satisfied with the company than with any other online brokerage firm.

These are the American retailers with customer satisfaction scores fell in 2011.

Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) Maintained Hold but cut estimates at Argus.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) Cut to Hold at Brean Murray.
Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE: LNG) Started as Outperform with $13.50 target at Credit Suisse
Cheniere Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: CQP) Started as Neutral with $20 target at Credit Suisse.
Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) maintained Buy with $33 target at Canaccord Genuity; Raised to Buy at ThinkEquity; Cut to Neutral at Ticonderoga.
Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) Started as Underweight at JPMorgan.
France Telecom S.A. (NYSE: FTE) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Janus Capital Group, Inc. (NYSE: JNS) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) Cut to Market Perform at BMO Capital.
MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP) Raised to Equal-weight at Barclays.
OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX) Raised to Equal-weight at Barclays.
PVH Corporation (NYSE: PVH) Started as Neutral with $72 target at Credit Suisse.
Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) Started as Outperform with $168 target at Credit Suisse.
Telefonica SA (NYSE: TEF) Cut to Sell at UBS.
Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

If you enjoyed the top analyst calls, you can sign up in the box below to join our morning email list to receive news directly in your inbox each morning. We include major analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO and M&A news, special situation developments, observations on Warren Buffett and key market gurus, as well as special exclusive feature stories.

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JON C. OGG

Read the ten best online stores this holiday
Read the ten worst online stores this holiday 

To put those customer service rankings in context, we looked at how the parent companies that own the websites have performed recently.  We found that a strong customer service rating often coincides with a company that has widely regarded brands.

It begs the question: Does Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) have such a high customer service ranking because so many consumers love the Apple brands? Or, is Apple’s customer service for online shoppers really superior to that of other e-commerce businesses? Apple is tied for second place in the index. Amazon.com is in first place. It also has a sterling reputation with consumers, as do some of its major products like the Kindle.

At the bottom of the ForeSee index are Gap (NYSE: GPS), Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Overstock (NASDAQ: OSTK). Gap recently said it would close 21% of its U.S. flagship stores. Sony has had trouble gaining sales for its PCs, games, smartphone and TV products. Overstock, an also-ran online department store, was founded in the days of the dial-up internet. It is hard to see how any of these could be at the top of the list. Or, perhaps if they were at the top of the list, they would not be in such deep trouble now.

ForeSee’s E-retail Satisfaction Index included the top 40 retailers by sales. The company surveyed 8,500 customers between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Despite its shortcomings, 24/7 Wall St. used the data from ForeSee as a foundation, because it is a reasonable measurement of the experience that consumers have with specific e-commerce sites, whether those sites are part of highly successful companies or ones on the verge of failure.

There is also some evidence that a few troubled retailers have actually performed well online. Whether that success is enough to save the companies themselves is impossible to tell. One such example is Avon (NYSE: AVP), with online service that is tied for second among all e-commerce sites in the ForeSee index. But Avon recently posted a disastrous quarter, and its CEO of 12 years was dismissed. Similarly, JCPenney’s (NYSE: JCP) online operations’ customer satisfaction is equal to Apple’s, which is also tied for second place in the ForeSee rankings. However, JCPenney has lost sales to big-box retailers such as Walmart (NYSE: WMT) for years. It is worth noting that JCPenney just hired the head of retail stores at Apple to turn the bricks-and-mortar retailer around. Apple is one of the few companies that was successful online long before it began to build physical stores.

These are the the companies with the best and worst online customer satisfaction. To draw our conclusions about why they are on the list and what the relationship is between the companies and their e-commerce operations, we examined three factors: the ForeSee satisfaction data, the annual sales of each of the companies, and the amount of traffic each site had in November — the most recent month measured by audience research firm Compete.com. Foresee describes its rating as “Average customer satisfaction with the top 40 U.S. e-retail websites increased by one point this year to tie 2009’s all time high score of 79 on the study’s 100-point scale. Satisfaction scores for individual e retailers span a 16-point  range, from a high of 88 (Amazon) to a low of 72 (Overstock).”

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) ranked first. That makes sense. Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce company. Without excellent customer service, it would not hold that position for long. Amazon’s revenue has grown at a rate near 50% for the past two quarters.

The bottom of the list is littered with some companies that have deeply offended customers in some way. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is there. It raised rates and confused its subscribers with a jumble of explanations. The Gap (NYSE: GPS) is near the bottom as well. Gap’s image probably was not helped when it announced that it would shutter 21% of its flagship stores in the U.S. The news almost certainly undermined employee morale as well. This should have spilled over into customer service problems.

The bottom of the list also contained some firms that have to improve customer relations if they are to recover from terrible sales problems that have persisted for years. All three office suppliers fall toward the troubled part of the list: Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) and Office Max (NYSE: OMX). And of course, as should be expected — Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) is there.

Customers probably see company e-commerce efforts through the same lens as efforts and satisfaction in bricks-and-mortar operations. That shows up in the ForeSee report.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Over the past four weeks, both Staples and Office Max have seen their target prices drop. At Staples, the median target price fell from $19.00 to $18.00. The share price today is $14.40, indicating a potential upside of 25%. At Office Max, the median price target fell from $7.50 to $6.75, indicating a potential upside of 42.1%. At its current earnings multiple of about 8, Office Max could be a contender, but the company is closing stores and only expects revenue to be flat with last fiscal year. The company’s price/book ratio is also a very low 0.62, but again, that could be deceptive.

Staples’ median target price has fallen further below its 52-week high in the past month and its price/book ratio is pretty high at 1.40. The company reported weak sales and earnings, and like all the office supply stores, traffic is down. The trend is particularly bad in Europe. Staples may hit its revenue and profit targets for the quarter and the year, but that’s only because the estimates have come down.

Barnes & Noble missed revenue and profit estimates yesterday, but the stock continues to rise because sales of the company’s Nook e-readers and tablets have risen sharply (85%, to $200 million) and investors believe the trade-off for book sales is a positive sign. B&N’s median target price rose from $15.50 to $20.00 over the past four weeks, and at today’s price of $16.15, the potential upside is 23.8%. Nook sales account for just over 10% of the company’s total revenue, so unless sales continue to climb at last quarter’s rate, B&N’s chances of fulfilling its promise are pretty slim. The company’s forward P/E is 37.42 and the price/book ratio is 1.09, which could lead one to believe that the stock may be approaching an overbought status. The company’s share price has risen by about 25% in the past 12 months.

Sotheby’s median price target fell from $51.00 to $45.00, and at a current price of $32.14, the stock’s potential upside is 40%. That figure would be cause for more joy if Sotheby’s share price hadn’t fallen by -7% in the past month and if the target price were still about the 52-week high. Sotheby’s forward P/E is 10.79, but its price/book ratio is 2.47. For the fiscal year ending this month, Sotheby’s EPS estimate has fallen by -$0.23 in the past 90 days. This does not look like a company about to bust its target price.

PetsMart has a median target price of $53.50, a rise of $3.50 over the past four weeks. At today’s share price of $48.95, the potential upside for the stock is 9.3%. The company beat third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations and boosted its fourth-quarter EPS estimate to $0.85-$0.89. Shares put up a new 52-week high of $49.03 today. The company’s forward P/E is 16.36, and its price/book ratio is a fairly high 4.66. But sales and profits have been growing, and the stock price is up about 25% this year.

Share price gains have fallen about equally on B&N and PetsMart in the past year. The other stocks we’ve looked at have lost between -25% and -75%, with Office Max the biggest loser. B&N also boasts a 5.7% dividend yield, compared with just 1.2% for PetsMart.

PetsMart’s 9.3% potential upside is within reach as long as the store sticks to its business, while B&N’s potential gain of nearly 24% depends on selling boatloads of its Nook devices, which is possible and  perhaps even likely. But as that happens B&N cannibalizes its old business and that may be hard to make up quickly.

Paul Ausick

The companies we’re looking at include Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP), Office Max Inc. (NYSE: OMX), Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS), Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR), Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID), Tractor Supply Co. (NASDAQ: TSCO), Titan Machinery Inc. (NASDAQ: TITN), PetSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PETM), and Luxottica Group S.p.A. (NYSE: LUX).

Diversity aside, most of these stocks have very high implied gains, which means either that they are worth a second look or that there is no hope that any will ever hit their targets and that a lower target is soon to come. Which result will occur depends to a large extent on competitors in the same business, the overall economy, and whether consumers regain some of their lost confidence.

All data from Yahoo! Finance, with current prices taken at about noon today.

Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP) has a median target price of $4.00 from 13 brokers. Shares are trading today at $2.30, for an implied gain of $1.70, or 74%. Office Depot’s forward P/E is 28.5 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $1.75-$6.25, and at today’s price that’s about 31% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 63% below the 52-week high.

Analysts didn’t expect much from Office Depot in the third quarter, and the company failed to deliver even that. EPS was break-even compared with an expected EPS of $0.01. Revenue also missed estimates. The implied gain in this stock is purely illusory when you consider its earnings and its immodest forward P/E.

Office Max Inc. (NYSE: OMX) has a median target price of $7.50 from 14 brokers. Shares are trading today at $5.10, for an implied gain of $2.40, or 47%. Office Max’s forward P/E is 7.39 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $3.90-$19.20, and at today’s price that’s about 31% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 73% below the 52-week high.

Office Max reported that net income rose last quarter but revenue fell, as a result of cost-cutting measures. The company expects full-year revenue to be flat with last year. The company also plans to continue closing stores. There’s little long-term happiness in store for the company.

Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) has a median target price of $19.00 from 16 brokers. Shares are trading today at $14.69, for an implied gain of $4.31, or 29%. Staples’ forward P/E is 9.58 and the company pays a 2.8% dividend yield. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $11.94-$23.75, and at today’s price that’s about 23% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 38% below the 52-week high.

Staples has been rumored as a possible buyer of either Office Depot or Office Max or both. The company’s market cap of $10.5 billion is about 10X the market cap of the other two combined, so such a deal is not out of the question. Staples’ target price is now lower than its 52-week high, a sign that analysts don’t expect a lot of growth. That could either spur the company to go ahead with an acquisition or cause it to sit on its hands.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) has a median target price of $15.50 from 4 brokers. Shares are trading today at $11.52, for an implied gain of $3.98, or 35%. B&N’s forward P/E is 33.87 and the company pays a huge 8.1% dividend yield. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $10.30-$12.65, and at today’s price that’s about 12% above its 52-week low, posted earlier this morning, and 9% below the 52-week high.

B&N is trying to keep up with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) in the e-reader/tablet market. The company is set to announce a new entrant in its Nook device family on Monday. Somehow, taking on the two biggest players in the market with a device that costs more than a comparable device from Amazon and has far less capability than an Apple iPad just doesn’t seem like a long-term winning strategy.