Reuters: Thain regrets nothing he did at Merrill Lynch and during its merger with Bank of America (NYSE:BAC).
Reuters: Trump put his support to the bondholders of his casino business.
FT: A Chinese court ruled against Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in an intellectual property case. Read More
This is the list of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) public US equity holdings as of September 30, 2009. As noted in the “A to F” and “G to O” lists, there have been changes since the cut off date and those have been noted where applicable. Here are Warren Buffett’s holdings and accompanying notes for the group ‘P to Z.’
WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) IS GONE after being 2.7 million shares last quarter.
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JON C. OGG
Reuters: House Democrats unveiled their healthcare bill.
Reuters: Senators may extend home purchase credits until April.
Reuters: China will launch a case against The Big Three auto companies.
Reuters: Galleon paid Wall St. bankers millions to give data that would allow a trading “edge.” Read More
Last week marked what was the crest of third quarter earnings season for 2009, yet there is still a flood of earnings reports coming out this next week. We have four more DJIA components set to report earnings this week, and that should make for 25 of the 30 DJIA components after the week is out. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM), Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG), and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) will all be on deck for earnings.
We have included Thomson Reuters consensus data for earnings and revenue estimates and added color on each where applicable along with recent share performance metrics.
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This week was the crest of 2009 third quarter earnings season. We still have a flood of reports next week and picking a mere top ten earnings to watch was very unfair to many key stocks. But the ten earnings we have flagged as the top ten for next week are Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL), Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO), Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME), ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG). We have included Thomson Reuters consensus data for earnings and revenue estimates and added color on each where applicable.
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Updated throughout the day.
Update 11.03 AM EST P&G (PG) may buy the household prooducts unit of Sara Lee (various)
Brian Moynihan, a Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) executive and possible CEO candidate is under scrutiny for his role in the Merrill Lynch buy-out (NYPost)
The head of Galleon operations in Asia may try to buy that arm of the fund company (Reuters)
China may cut stimulus programs now that its economy is expanding rapidly again. (MarketWatch)
Twitter may be able to use data deals with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to sharply increase its revenue. (NYTimes)
John Meriwether of the collapsed Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund may make his third run at the money management business (FT)
A New York Times (NYSE:NYT) executive accused The Huffington Post of “copyright theft on numerous occasions.” (SAI)
Douglas A. McIntyre
Reuters: China’s GDP rose 8.9% and the government said it would stick with its liberal monetary policies.
Reuters: Larry Summers said the US recovery is on track.
Reuters: More Americans will delay retirement.
Reuters: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOOG) set up real-time search deals with micr- blogging company Twitter. Read More
There are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.
24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)
Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.
24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?
Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”. Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless. How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business. Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.
24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?
Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets. A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value. If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.
The list: Read More
A123 Systems Inc (NASDAQ: AONE) is still likely going to be one of the highlights of trading activity for the week, but the valuation is all based on the future rather than on the performance of the past. The maker of lithium-ion car batteries turned out to be the second best IPO of 2009 in the United States, so the company’s execution from here is paramount. That is what a 50% gain on the first day will do for you. The deal was for 28.1 million shares at $13.50, although it opened at $17.00 and it never went below $16.56 in the aftermarket.
While a highlight is one thing, A123 has competition and its losses are off the chart. China Bak Battery, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBAK) and Advanced Battery Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABAT) are in the space but have far less hype.
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Clorox Corporation (NYSE: CLX) gave us a volume alert earlier today which was later summarized over for Volume Spike. This generally slow-moving consumer products company is trading up with elevated stock volume and with more elevated options trading. The rumor is that Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is a possible suitor, although there might be some pause over this notion.
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These are this Friday morning’s top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls from Wall Street affecting shares:
Allstate (ALL) Raised to Buy at Argus.
American Tower Corp. (AMT) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Apple (AAPL) Raised to Outperform at Macquarie.
Crown Castle International (CCI) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
E*TRADE Financial (ETFC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Hhgregg (HGG) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
KB Home (KBH) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
McAfee (MFE) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
PG&E Corp. (PCG) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Procter & Gamble (PG) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Starbucks (SBUX) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Toll Brothers (TOL) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
VMware (VMW) Target raised to $32 from $23 at Auriga.
You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.
JON C. OGG
Next week is still supposed to mark the initial public offering of what me be a very hot IPO. Auto electric-battery maker A123 Systems Inc. is tentatively set to launch and begin trading mid-next-week under the stock ticker “AONE” on NASDAQ. We have penciled in a date of September 23 or 24, but if you have been watching IPOs for years you know that date can change. This one has been in the IPO hopper almost forever as the IPO filing date was in August 2008.
We’ll get to this a little later, but we did note in the title that Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) may be the indirect winner here in this offering. A123 raised a fairly recent round led by General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and affiliates, which has a 11.7% stake. At the time the company filed to come public it has raised roughly $160 million and it has large stakes held by venture capital firms (North Bridge, Sequoia and others), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) has a 7.6% stake and Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has a 6.9% stake. Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, the co-Founder and Chairman of Sycamore Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMR), also has a 9.9% stake. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE: AB) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) are also listed under the investors of the company.
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Reuters: International bank regulators are looking at Brazil as a model.
Reuters: John Mack will step down at Morgan Stanley’s (MS) CEO.
Reuters: The SEC vowed reforms after its report on Madoff revealed mistakes.
Reuters: GM will sell control of Opel to Magna. Read More
Now that we are out of the woods in the crash scenario, assuming this week is no ill omen, investors may want to know which of the big companies would start to deploy their billions and billions of dollars in cash for large mergers or strategic bolt-on acquisitions. In all of these companies, we are not taking the long-term or short-term debt obligations into account. This is merely the cash, cash equivalents, and the long-term investments listed on the books.
But as these are the biggest companies in the world with what should be credible balance sheets (in most cases anyhow), we are also including a second combined figure for “receivables and inventories” for a few of these companies to show what the firms could use for additional sources of capital…. These figures do not include untapped credit lines and shelf registrations which could amount to untold billions more. Because of this calculation, our figures may differ slightly from what companies have listed as cash and equivalents.
Can all of this cash go for mergers? What about for dividends? No way. But a large portion of it could be used for mergers and buyouts under the right circumstances. We removed the companies which are either permanently out of the game of M&A or those which are temporarily out of it. But of the fourteen mega-caps (over $100 billion in market cap) which we did cover, you would be shocked at the cash balance these companies are sitting on without even considering the total cumulative effect of credit lines, inventories, receivables, and open shelf registrations. The first total cash figure comes to a whopping $335 billion. This number is far more if you count the companies with exceptions.
These major companies broken down by cash balance and what sort of merger these could consider are Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL). Even after a huge rally, $335 billion and then some could go a very long way.
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Wasn’t it just last week that we were up eight days in a row on the DJIA? And now we have a sell-the-news reaction to the recent growth numbers. Maybe it is because we ran too far too fast and because we started pricing in robust growth rather than muted growth. But generally when equities have stayed hot and then start to sell off in profit taking or in case things got too heated, you at least see a migration into some of the defensive stocks. That is not the case. In our normal 16 Defensive Go-To Stocks, only ONE was up. If you throw in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) as the ultimate defensive stock like we usually do, then you have only TWO of 17 trading up on the day….
PEPSICO INC (NYSE: PEP) $56.1805.. Down $0.4895; -0.86%
COCA COLA CO (NYSE: KO) $48.58.. Down $0.19; -0.39%
MOLSON COORS CO. (NYSE: TAP) $47.01.. Down $0.37; -0.78%
KRAFT FOODS INC. (NYSE: KFT) $28.08.. Down $0.27; -0.95%
CONAGRA FOOD INC. (NYSE: CAG) $20.13.. Down $0.40; -1.95%
CAMPBELL SOUP CO. (NYSE: CPB) $30.86.. Down $0.50; -1.59%
HORMEL FOODS CORP. (NYSE: HRL) $37.00.. Up 0.05; +0.14%
MCDONALDS CORP. (NYSE: MCD) $55.72.. Down $0.51; -0.92%
ALTRIA GROUP INC. (NYSE: MO) $18.13.. Down $0.16; -0.83%
VECTOR GROUP LTD. (NYSE: VGR) $15.71.. Down $0.07; -0.44%
REYNOLDS AMERICAN (NYSE: RAI) $45.17.. Down $0.54; -1.18%
PROCTER GAMBLE CO. (NYSE: PG) $53.05.. Down $1.06; -1.96%
COLGATE PALMOLIVE (NYSE: CL) $71.82.. Down $0.89; -1.21%
MERCK CO INC. (NYSE: MRK) $31.79.. Down $0.64; -1.97%
JOHNSON & JOHNSON (NYSE: JNJ) $59.88.. Down $0.56; -0.92%
NOVO NORDISK (NYSE: NVO) $60.024.. Down $0.986; -1.62%
Oddly enough, Wal-Mart is the ONLY one of the DJIA 30 components trading higher this afternoon.
JON C. OGG
SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
Reuters: A faltering stock market may make it hard for China to cut financial support to the capital markets.
Reuters: Roubini warned of a double dip recession.
Reuters: Warner Chilcott will buy the P&G (PG) drug business.
Reuters: The head of Germany said GM must make an immediate decision on Opel. Read More
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) has released its public stock holdings for Q2-2009 as of June 30, 2009. Buffett did make some portfolio changes that have been seen here from the end of Q1 and we have broken these down into 3 groups of ‘A to F’ and ‘G to O’ and ‘P to Z’ so these are easier to see on one page. Here are Warren Buffett’s holdings and accompanying notes for the group ‘P to Z.’
BUFFETT HOLDINGS ‘G to O’
JON C. OGG
AUGUST 14, 2009
These are this morning’s top day trader and active trader alerts. We have links through to VSInvestor.com for more detailed price and volume analysis on each stock:
American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) is down a sharp 20% on a wide loss and issue on its covenants.
Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) is up huge in pre-market trading after earnings were less-bad.
Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX) is soaring as one of NASDAQ’s most active issues. The company has manufactured a virus-like particle vaccine candidate against the H1N1 pandemic influenza virus.
On2 Technologies (NYSE AMEX: ONT) is up almost 55% at $0.59 after a Google buyout deal.
Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) is down almost 4% on weak earnings metrics and choppy guidance.
USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU) is up over 12% after a DOE delay on the loan guarantee application.
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) is hitting 52-week highs on strong earnings and a slight return to growth.
The 24/7 Wall St. Team
Reuters: A tech alliance between China and Taiwas is hurting Korea.
Reuters: Spple (AAPL) easily beat forecasts.
Reuters: CIT (CIT) still faces a number of financial challenges.
Reuters: Yahoo!’s (YHOO) outlook was below expectations.
Reuters: Bernanke says unemployment could hurt the recovery. Read More
Who needs Advil when it is more expensive than aspirin and probably does no better at reducing pain? Who needs Starbucks (SBUX) when Maxwell House has just as much caffeine?
A new survey of purchasing data from 23,000 stores conducted by the Pointer Media Network shows that many shoppers are simply walking away from their favorite brands because they can’t afford them due to high prices during a recession. Read More
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