Posts for Ticker ‘OWW’

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/21/2009) (TWX)(AAPL)(BKS)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Updated at 1.11 PM EST:  Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) will sell First Republic for $1 billion.  (The Deal)

Updated 1.05 PM EST:  Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) may be teaming up with record labels to launch a music service  (Reuters)

Updated 1.00 PM EST: Credit Suisse says Orbitz (NYSE:OWW) may be a takeover target  (Barron’s)

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) knew about Merrill Lynch losses as early as November.  (Bloomberg)

The new Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) e-reader will run the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android OS   (Ars Technica).

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will soon release Mac OS X 10.6.2 (MacRumors)

Congressional officials want to talk to three banking officials in Massachusetts before continuing to pursue their investigation of the Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) buy-out of Merrill Lynch  (The Boston Globe)

Small online financial sites may soon be more valuable than Fortune Magazine (NYSE:TWX)  (The Deal)

The housing market may have bottomed (CNBC)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 9:16 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (CSIQ, EXPE, FCX, JNPR, K, LNC, OWW, TLEO, THS)

These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive research calls which we have seen from Wall Street early this Thursday morning:

Canadian Solar (CSIQ) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Expedia (EXPE) Started as Buy at Soleil.
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Kellogg (K) Started as Outperform at RBC.
Lincoln National (LNC) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) Started as Buy at Soleil.
Taleo (TLEO) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Treehouse Foods (THS) Started as Outperform at William Blair.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: May 21, 2009 – 6:42 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Priceline Soars, Expedia Lands In Hudson River (PCLN, EXPE, OWW)

money-stack-pic5burning-money-pic15It seems that the insatiable growth in online travel bookings might have reached the point that the crumbling economy has caught up to it.  It seems that the name your own or bid your own prices at Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) is still a winner as times get tougher and travel sources might be more likely to give tickets and bookings away for cheaper discounts.  But shares of Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) are taking a pounding this morning after the online travel service reported earnings with a writedown that is nothing short of staggering.
Read More »

Posted on: February 19, 2009 – 9:31 am in Airlines, Earnings, Entertainment, Internet, Luxury, Trading Alert, , ,

Top 10 Early Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (BBBY, BTI, PAG, VRTX, MT, STD, CRXL, FMCN, MR, OWW)

These are the ten early bird analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen early this morning with two and a half hours until the market opens:

  • Bed Bath & Beyond Raised (BBBY) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • British American Tobacco (BTI) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Penske Automotive (PAG) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) Started as Buy at piper Jaffray.
  • Arcelor Mittal (MT) Cut to Sell from Buy at5 Citigroup.
  • Banco Santander (STD) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • Crucell (CRXL) Cut to Hold at ING.
  • Focus Media (FMCN) Downgraded at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs (likely others as well).
  • Mindray Medical International (MR) Downgraded at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
  • Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
November 12, 2008

Posted on: November 12, 2008 – 7:06 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (SAM, CLWR, BAGL, JEF, MVSN, NSR, OWW, TS, WB, YRCW)

These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Thursday morning in pre-market trading:

  • Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM) cut to Neutral at HSBC Securities.
  • Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) cut to Sell at Citigroup.
  • Einstein Noah (NASDAQ: BAGL) raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • Jefferies Group (NYSE: JEF) cut to Neutral at Wachovia.
  • Macrovision (NASDAQ: MVSN) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Neustar (NYSE: NSR) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • Orbitz (NYSE: OWW) cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • Tenaris (NYSE: TS) cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Wachovia (NYSE: WB) raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW) cut to Sell at Stifel Nicolaus.

Jon C. Ogg
May 8, 2008

Posted on: May 8, 2008 – 7:36 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (CLX, EL, LAMR, RF, TMA, AMT, CCI, EXPE, OWW, PCLN, F, GM)

Here are some of the top individual analyst calls in pre-market trading:

  • Clorox (NYSE: CLX) downgraded to Underweight at Lehman.
  • Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL) raised to Equal-weight at Lehman.
  • Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ: LAMR) started as Buy at Jefferies.
  • Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) downgraded to Sell from Hold at Citigroup.
  • Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

Below are some sector calls:

  • COMM. TOWERS: American Tower (NYSE: AMT) & Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
  • ONLINE TRAVEL DOWNGRADES: Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) downgraded to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.  Priceline.com (NASDA: PCLN) and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) downgraded to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.  There was an upgrade though, as Credit Suisse raised its Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) raised to Outperform from Neutral.
  • US AUTO’s: Ford (NYSE: F) downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns. General Motors (NYSE: GM) downgraded to Underperform at Bear Stearns.

Jon C. Ogg
February 6, 2008

Posted on: February 6, 2008 – 7:35 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ABK, AEO, KR, OWW, PCLN, SD, SBUX, TSO, BAC, CFC, JPM, WB, WFC, COF, USB)

These are not the only analyst calls moving stocks today in pre-market trading, but these are the top calls that 247WallSt.com is reviewing this morning:

  • AMBAC Financial (ABK) raised to Outperform from Market Perform at FBR.
  • American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
  • Kroger (KR) raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • Orbitz (OWW) raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Lehman.
  • Priceline.com (PCLN) cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • SandRidge Energy (SD) initiated after quiet-period: Banc of America at Buy; Bear Stearns at Peer Perform; J.P.Morgan at Neutral; Lehman Brothers at Overweight; RBC at Outperform.
  • Starbucks (SBUX) downgraded to Sector Perform at RBC.
  • Tesoro (TSO) raised to Buy at Citigroup.
  • Citigroup makes lage downgrades in Financial Stocks: Bank of America (BAC), Countrywide (CFC) First Horizon (FHN), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), MGIC (MTG), PNC Bank (PNC), Wachovia (WB) and Wells Fargo (WFC) ALL CUT TO HOLD; Capital One (COF), Comerica (CMA), M&T Bank (MTB), Radian (RDN), and US Bancorp (USB) ALL DOWNGRADED TO SELL.

Jon C. Ogg
December 17, 2007

Posted on: December 17, 2007 – 8:04 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 52-Week Low Club

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

Posted on: November 6, 2007 – 4:02 pm in HI/LOW, , , , ,

An Unusual Screen: Expedia, On 52-Week Highs….Help on the Way for IAC/Interactive? (EXPE, IACI, OWW, PCLN)

After running a screen of new highs and lows this morning, a surprise came up on the list: Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) was on today’s list of 52-week highs.  This was a head scratcher when you consider they just blew-up a major share buyback last month and it became one of the first ‘financing’ casualties as the funny-money going around Wall Street was coming to a drastic halt.   In July it said that borrowing costs and lack of attractive financing was making it trim a more than 100 million share buyback announced in June down to 25 million shares.  The company was originally going to eliminate close to half of its outstanding shares, but recent performance is showing that Main Street wants to own this stock rather than having the stock go into the treasury. 

This made me wonder if Wall Street would turn attention to IAC/Interactive (NASDAQ:IACI), the ex-parent of Expedia, whose shares have been battered and tattered  this year.  IAC’s shares are under $28.00 and down from $40.00+ just in February, and this is the ‘other Barry Diller company.’  These businesses are quite different and have entirely different metrics that run the companies.  The companies are under different management teams, but Diller is the Chairman of both.

Perhaps the short interest has some cause and effect here.  There appears to be a large short squeeze that has helped Expedia of late.  Expedia’s short interest grew by 68% from July to August with the shorts having more than 22.7 million shares carried in the short interest there.  As Expedia hist 52-week highs on thin volume, you know that rise is causing some pain to short sellers.  IAC’s short interest is down less than 1% from July to August to 13.45+ million shares.

Orbitz (NYSE:OWW) has been a dismal post-IPO stock, although it is up off of recent lows.  Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) is also doing quite well for shareholders as its shares are over $80.00 even after a 0.7% drop today, and its 52-week trading range is $30.26 to $82.15.  Maybe investors looking for a repeat will turn attention to IAC/Interactive since it is the other Diller company.  Stranger things have happened before.

Jon C. Ogg
August 27, 2007

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

Posted on: August 27, 2007 – 11:46 am in HI/LOW, Internet, , , , ,

Credit Market Woes Killing Expedia’s Buyback Ambitions (EXPE, OWW, TZOO, PCLN)

Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) is showing that credit market woes (and probably online travel stock weakness) aren’t limited to its competitors.  The company came clean this morning by saying it is decreasing its number of shares sought in a tender offer.  The reason couldn’t be worse: due to the lack of available financing at satisfactory terms as a result of current conditions in the credit markets.  This could all be part of the tie-in and part of the reason that no one wanted Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE:OWW) shares last week, and you know the Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO) weakness in its outlook probably didn’t help matters here.

Expedia’s amended "Dutch tender" offering is to purchase up to 25,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price per share not less than $27.50 and not greater than $30.00.  This now represents approximately 9% of the number of shares of common stock currently outstanding and approximately 8% fully diluted. The tender offer is set to expire on August 8, 2007. This is a huge disappointment.

Shares rocketed much more than 10% back in June after the company said it was buying back up to $3.5 Billion in stock.  This was to represent 116.7 million shares at the time of the announcement, so 25 million now is going to be deemed paltry in comparison.  This even has Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) shares indicated down almost 1% on thin volume in early indications.  Shares of Expedia are down 6% at $27.50 in pre-market indications. 

Jon C. Ogg
July 23, 2007

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

Posted on: July 23, 2007 – 7:58 am in Internet, Shareholder Issues, Stock Buybacks, , , ,

Orbitz, A Busted IPO Out Of The Chute? (OWW, BX, TZOO)

Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (NYSE:OWW) came public as planned, but so far that is the only good news.  This was an anticipated IPO as the company used to be public, but most shareholders knew that the IPO commitment money was just going to Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) to let Schwarzman do more things to garner negative press.

Shares opened under the $15.00 pricing and have traded as low as $14.25 so far in early trading on more than 4 million shares.  That makes this a busted IPO by definition right out of the chute.  What is even more disappointing is that Orbitz priced under the initial $16.00 to $18.00 range.  That doesn’t mean the IPO will stay a busted deal as it is impossible to know if this closes up or down on the day. 

The weakness in Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO) and the new 52-week lows there probably isn’t helping either.  Orbitz priced under the $16.00 to $18.00 range at $15.00, and based on the initial reaction after the open it would appear that the IPO subscribers wished this one priced even lower.  These private equity firms may need to start letting at least a portion of IPO proceeds go to the underlying companies rather than going to pay back debt and pay a one-time looting dividend all to themselves.

Jon C. Ogg
July 20, 2007

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

Posted on: July 20, 2007 – 8:55 am in IPOs, Internet, , ,

Pre-Market Stock News (July 20, 2007)

(ACOR) Acorda COO resigned to pursue other interests.
(AMD) Advanced Micro Devices traded up 4% after revenues were ahead of plan on processor sales.
(AUY) Yamana Gold makes business combination offer for Meridian Gold.
(BVF) Biovail received a non-approval letter from the U.S. FDA for its NDA for BVF-033.
(C) Citigroup $1.24 EPS vs $1.13 estimate, Revenues $25.6 Billion vs. $24.88B est.
(CAT) Caterpillar $1.24 EPS vs $1.49 estimate.
(ERIC) Ericsson ADR’s trading down over 4% after earnings rose 12% overseas.
(MSFT) Microsoft traded down almost 1% after meeting expectations.
(OWW) Orbitz IPO priced 34 million shares at $15.00.
(GOOG) Google traded down 7% after missing EPS on higher expenses.
(PRSP) Prosperity Bancshares $0.52 EPS vs $0.52 estimate.
(RHHBY) Roche profit rose 24% overseas; named new chief for diagnostics unit.
(SLB) Schlumberger $1.02 EPS vs $0.95 estimate.
(SNDK) SanDisk trading up over 4% after beating earnings.
(SNTS) Santarus announces achievement of $5 million milestone payment under license agreement wit Schering-Plough.
(SON) Sonoco $0.56 EPS vs $0.59 estimate.
(WB) Wachovia $1.23 EPS vs $1.22 estimate.
(WHR) Whirlpool $2.00 EPS vs $1.83 estimate.

Jon C. Ogg
July 20, 2007

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

Posted on: July 20, 2007 – 7:21 am in Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Orbitz Prices IPO (OWW, BX, TZOO)

Online travel hub operator Orbitz did price its IPO of 34 million shares at a price of $15.00 per share.  Orbitz will trade under the "OWW" ticker on NYSE.  Unfortunately the original range was indicated as $16.00 to $18.00, so this is going to be deemed as a poor IPO pricing.

Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, GoldmanSachs & Co., Lehman Brothers Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.are the global coordinators with Credit Suisse and UBS Investment Bankacting as joint lead managers. Thomas Weisel Partners LLC, PacificCrest Securities, Piper Jaffray, and Stifel Nicolaus are co-managers ofthe offering.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) is receiving basically all of the IPO proceeds as they are regurgitating the company in a re-IPO.  Here is the backgrounder on the company explaining the history since this was public before, then was acquired by the old Cendant, and then became part of a larger sale to Blackstone just last year.  The weakness in Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO) is also partially to blame for a weak IPO here in the same space, as well as the relation to Blackstone and Wall Street’s poor reception of the private equity beast.

Jon C. Ogg
July 20, 2007

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

Posted on: July 20, 2007 – 6:12 am in IPOs, Internet, , ,

IPO Investors’ Cold Shoulder to Orbitz (OWW, BX, TZOO)

Investors are waiting for the pricing of Orbitz (NYSE:OWW) tonight in its IPO, which no one is foolish enough to not know this is a re-IPO.  The official terms were for 34 million shares in a $16.00 to $18.00 range from lead managers Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Lehman, and JP Morgan.

This isn’t the first time Orbitz has been public.  If you will recall it was public before under the "ORBZ" NASDAQ ticker, and then it was acquired for some $1.25 Billion in 2004 by Cendant when it was still in its mish-mash conglomerate stage and rolled up into the Travelport unit with Galileo (which Cendant bought in 2001 for $2.9 Billion or so).  Cendant then sold the whole Galileo unit to Blackstone (NYSE:BX) for a sum of $4.3 Billion.

This deal is important for more than one reason.  It is Blackstone’s (NYSE:BX) first real IPO of a company that it is acquired since it came public itself.  Blackstone is trading at a post-IPO low today, and investors who buy shares of Orbitz know they are just giving money to Blackstone in a rewarding move in a regurgitated company.  That is limiting the interest.

The other issue that is hurting Orbitz is that Travelzoo Inc. (NASDAQ:TZOO) has been trading like a pig.  It was already well off its highs, but then has drifted lower since it issued an earnings warning because of its expenses in expanding internationally to France, Hong Kong, and Japan.  Maybe they think everyone is following Nixon to China and cheering "Vive la Godzilla!"

So far, it has been a chore trying to find eager beavers looking at Orbitz.  There is still quite a bit of value to Orbitz as an online travel portal.  It is just price sensitive and the fact that investors know they will get to buy more shares from Blackstone down the road is keeping IPO investor demand limited.

Jon C. Ogg
July 19, 2007

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

Posted on: July 19, 2007 – 2:39 pm in IPOs, Internet, , ,