24/7 Wall St. » PBH

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (T, FFIV, URBN, AMGN, BAX, CAG, GIS, NAV, SAFM, JEF, NKE, ORCL, TRGT, CIE, CSIQ, PBH, HOV, CVS)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:06:30 +0000

US equity markets opened sharply higher this morning and have been able to sustain and even add to those gains throughout the day. Business and consumer confidence indexes in Europe were higher, giving an early boost to share prices. Then an unexpectedly large jump in new housing starts, especially multi-family dwellings, put an extra charge into investors. Proposed Federal Reserve rules governing big banks have had little impact on financial stocks, which are up about 4% in the late afternoon. Today’s auction of five-year Treasury went out at 0.880%, a record low yield. Crude oil is also sharply higher today, with WTI trading at $97.22/barrel, up more than 3.5%, and Brent is up 3.34% at $106.98. The US dollar has traded weaker all day today. Gold settled on the Comex up about 1.3%, at $1,616.80.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly 336 points to 12,101.92 (2.85%), the NASDAQ rose more than 80 points (3.19%) to 2,603.73, and the S&P 500 rose 2.98% or nearly 36 points to 1,241.22.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) cut to ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan. Other ratings actions today include F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) cut from ‘perform’ to ‘underperform’ at Oppenheimer; Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) raised from ‘outperform’ to ‘Top Pick’ at FBR Capital; Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) added to ‘Strong Buy List’ at Zacks; and Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) lowered from ‘Top Pick List’ to ‘outperform’ and target price lowered from $61 to $58 at RBC Capital Markets.

Here are today’s post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is up 4% at $26.18; General Mills Inc. is down about -1% at $39.19; Navistar International Corp. (NYSE: NAV) is up nearly 7% at $39.05; Sanderson Farms Inc. (NASDAQ: SAFM) is down -4% at $48.66; and Jefferies Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF) is up more than 22% at $14.46. After markets close today we get earnings from Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) and Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL). See our 360 coverage on Oracle here and coverage of the ConAgra and General Mills reports here.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Targacept Inc. (NASDAQ: TRGT) is down more than -35% at $5.01, after posting a new 52-week low of $4.92 earlier in the day. The pharmaceutical maker’s anti-depressant drug, developed in conjunction with AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) has failed a late-stage trial.

Cobalt International Energy Inc. (NYSE: CIE) is up nearly 38% at $13.81. The oil & gas exploration company has signed a production-sharing agreement for a block offshore of Angola. Cobalt owns 40% of the project and is the operator.

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) is up nearly 33% at $2.93. The solar panel maker has sold about 86 megawatts of generation to TransCanada Corp. (NYSE: TRP) for approximately $455 million.

Prestige Brand Holdings Inc. (NYSE: PBH) is up nearly 21% at $11.27. The drug and cleaning supplies company paid $660 million for a selection of nonprescription drugs from GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK).

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: HOV) is up more than 18% at $1.50. The home builder is riding the wave of good news about new housing starts.

CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) is up about 9% at $39.85, after posting a new 52-week high earlier of $39.86. The healthcare company raised fiscal year guidance and boosted its quarterly dividend by 30%, to $0.1625/share.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. The most widely anticipated report for tomorrow is due at 8:30 a.m. from the National Association of Realtors, which will be revising its new home sales data from 2007 forward. Lower sales of up to -13% are expected. Here are other noteworthy events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
1:00 p.m. – 7-year Treasury note auction

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AMGN, BAX, CAG, CIE, CSIQ, CVS, FFIV, GIS, HOV, JEF, NAV, NKE, ORCL, PBH, SAFM, T, TRGT, URBN

Early Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (A, GNTX, PFE, AA, AGN, HOG, PBH, SSS, STM, TEN)

247wallst — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:31:25 +0000

These are some of the top early bird upgrades and downgrades we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Monday morning:

Agilent (NYSE: A) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Gentex (NASDAQ: GNTX) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Alcoa (NYSE: AA) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
Allergan (NYSE: AGN) Cut to Hold at Lazard.
Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Prestige Brands (NYSE: PBH) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Sovran Self Storage (NYSE: SSS) Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) Cut to Sell at UBS.
Tenneco (NYSE: TEN) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.

Jon C. Ogg
January 12, 2009

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: A, AA, AGN, GNTX, HOG, PBH, PFE, SSS, STM, TEN

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