Posts for Ticker ‘PSO’

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (GSK, JPM, LEAP, MS, NLS, PSO, PETM, TOT)

Money_stack_picThese are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades we have seen early this Monday morning with more than two and a half hours to the market open:

  • GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
  • JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Leap Wireless (LEAP) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
  • Morgan Stanley (MS) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Nautilus (NLS) Raised to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
  • Pearson (PSO) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • PETsMART (PETM) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Total (TOT) Raised to Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Jon C. Ogg
January 26, 2009

Posted on: January 26, 2009 – 7:06 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ALU, BRLI, GPS, GD, PCK, PSO, PAS, PTR, PKX, RTP, COL, WXS)

Burning_money_picThe rate of downgrades versus upgrades is still coming out with a much more negative bias from Wall Street.  These are some of the downgrades and negative research calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Friday morning:

  • Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
  • Bio-Reference Labs (NASDAQ: BRLI) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) Started as Sell at Citigroup.
  • Pearson (NYSE: PSO) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • PepsiAmericas (PAS) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Posco (NYSE: PKX) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • Wright Express Corp. (NYSE: WXS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
January 9, 2009

Posted on: January 9, 2009 – 7:17 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fahrenheit 451 & The Internet (GOOG, MHP, PSO, JW-A, CBS)

Stack_of_books_picWe are seeing a historic event, and one which may outline the future of books.  Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has reached a settlement over its dispute with The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers.  This will expand online access to millions of copyrighted books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search.

Read More »

Posted on: October 28, 2008 – 9:40 am in Entertainment, Internet, Media, , , , ,

Many Monday Pre-Market Downgrades (CEG, FIS, FISV, DNA, KBW, NKE, PSO, SHW, SWIR, SWK, WERN, WIT)

These are among the top analyst Downgrades or negative analyst calls affecting shares this Monday morning in pre-market trading:

  • Constellation Energy (NYSE: CEG) Downgraded to Underperform at Jefferies.
  • Fidelity National (NYSE: FIS) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Genentech (NYSE: DNA) Raised to Overweight at Lehman.
  • KBW (NYSE: KBW) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
  • Nike (NYSE: NKE) Cut to Neutral at HSBC.
  • Pearson plc (NYSE: PSO) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
  • Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley; Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
  • Sherwin Williams (NYSE: SHW) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ: SWIR) Target cut to $20 from $25 at CIBC.
  • Stanley Works (NYSE: SWK) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ: WERN) Cut to Sell at UBS.
  • WIPRO (NYSE: WIT) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Jon C. Ogg
July 21, 2008

Posted on: July 21, 2008 – 7:52 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Murdoch Say Wall Street Journal Will Go “FREE”

Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp (NWS) told Reuters that the tough economy is not hurting his company in the current quarter. Good news for his shareholders.

But, the most important thing Mr. Murdoch said in his current trip to Australia is that "he was also planning to boost the numbers of subscribers to the Wall Street Journal’s Web site more than tenfold by making access free."

"We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having 1 million (subscribers) having at least 10-15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch added.

So, the mogul will assume that he will lose his one million subscribers who pay about $79 a year to get the paper online. But, with over 10 million or more daily readers, Murdoch must believe that he will pick up tons of new advertising. He recently bought Dow Jones (DJ) the Journal’s owner.

The effects of Murdoch’s decision could send a huge wave through the financial content business, threatening to take ad revenue from online versions of the New York Times (NYT), Pearson’s (PSO) Financial Times as well as the huge and profitable money sections of portals like MSN (MSFT) and Yahoo! (YHOO). In other words, it could change the dynamics of where online financial advertising is placed and which properties make money.

Murdoch has the instincts of a riverboat gambler. He may not win this hand, but he stands to do a lot of damage to the competition.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 13, 2007 – 5:53 am in Media, , , , , ,

A Conversation With FT.com Chief Ien Cheng

Those who believe that the newspaper industry is going the way of the Dodo and buggy whip
and can’t conceive that enhanced online versions of papers can ever do especially well
ought to pay a visit to the UK’s FT. The brutal calculus of newspapers in most developed
countries is that their audiences are being devoured by the internet. If news becomes
a commodity, that may indeed be true. Wall St. suspects it is, trading stocks like The
New York Times (NYT) and Gannett (GCI) at multi-year lows.

Industry observers might argue that the Financial Times and its FT.com stable mate have the
advantage of serving a rarified market because the paper covers global finance. But, the
competition in that market is keen with Dow Jones (DJ) playing in paper and online, and
firms like Reuters improving their web operations.

One trend that content companies may have failed to notice is that better writing and
better analysis can catch and hold a large audience. In the US the industry needs to
look no further than the high-end blog like TechCruch which has a huge readership and
spends virtually nothing on marketing. It has readers because it has stories that readers
must read.

In a conversation today with Ien Cheng, managing editor and publisher of FT.com, he made it clear
that the paper and the website offer products that readers cannot get elsewhere. The
company will not devalue this content by offering all of its services
to the reader for free. Instead, it is improving those services and making the paper and online
edition even more attractive.

Some significant portion of that plan must be working. Mr. Cheng says that FT.com monthly
unique visitors are up 70% over the last year to 6.3 million. Page views have jumped 50%
to 48 million per month

To keep the readers coming back and to build their ranks, FT.com is launching an enhanced
market data sight. The product will include interactive charts, intraday currency data,and
better portfolio tools among other things. The website is also moving some of its
more well-known columnists to its blogging community. Mr. Cheng’s theory is that readers
would like to see the work of these writers. Publishing their views more often will be a
magnet for repeat visits.

The new program is not without a marketing plan. FT.com already has traffic arrangements
with several of the large portals, and it now offers 30 stories a month per user for free.

Mr. Cheng says that much of the philosophy behind all of this work is that better analysis
and speed to market with news can trump pure size and scale. In the arena of global
business reporting it would be hard to quarrel that the FT is not in the first tier,
but the company does not feel it is at a disadvantage by being smaller than Mr. Murdoch’s
new Dow Jones/News Corp (NWS) financial information empire. Being nimble can best being massive.

When asked why the FT.com should simply not move to a "free content", ad supported model,
Mr. Cheng had a response that might prove educational to others in the content business.
He does not have to. Traffic to FT.com is growing despite the fact that a full online
subscription requires a payment. FT.com believes that it can enjoy the best of both worlds.
Mr. Murdoch may prove him wrong if the WSJ.com becomes an entirely free product.
That still remains to be seen.

FT.com and The Financial Times do have greater resources than many papers, but certainly
no more than The New York Times, Washington Post (WPO), or Gannett. The UK company may have
decided to use its fire power more wisely, and indications are that the approach is a
success.

Mr. Cheng promises more innovation at FT.com next year. He may want to hold the calls
from other newspaper companies who would like to stop by and benchmark his plans.

The FT Group is part of Pearson plc (PSO)

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com.

Posted on: November 7, 2007 – 10:44 am in Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Europe Markets 8/28/2007

Markets in Europe are lower at 6 AM New York time.

The FTSE is off .5% to 6,187. Barclays (BCS) is down 2.4% to 596.5. Pearson (PSO) is down 1.5% to 737.5.

The DAXX is off .3% to 7,468. Deutsche Bank (DB) is off 1.3% to 90.48. Siemens (SI) is down 1% to 89.8.

The CAC 40 is off .9% to 5,542. BNP Paribas is down 2% to 76.95. AXA (AXA) is down 1.6% to 29.33.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: August 28, 2007 – 5:05 am in International Markets, , , , ,

Media Digest 7/13/2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s

According to Reuters, Energizer (ENR) will buy Playtex (PYX) for just under $1.2 billion.

Reuters writes that GE (GE) plans to sell its WMC mortage unit.

Reuters reports that Boeing’s (BA) orders for the year still trail Airbus’s.

Reuters also reports that shares in Target (TGT) rose sharply after news that a corporate raider had taken a stake.

Reuters also writes that the head of Google (GOOG) said that Facebook will probably stay independent.

The Wall Street Journal writes that the CEO of Jones Apparel (JNY) stepped down as the company is looking at options in a tough clothing environment.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that the Financial Times (PSO) and CNBC (GE) are considering sharing editorial resources.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the CEO of Westwood One (WON) has left as the company is in the midst of negotiations with CBS (CBS) over a management contract.

The New York Times reports that Chinese cars are quietly entering the European market.

The FT writes that Google (GOOG) faces a lawsuit from an Australian goverment agency which says it does not distinquish enough between search results and text ads.

Barron’s writes that a Bank of America research upgrade sent Intel (INTC) shares up sharply.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: July 13, 2007 – 3:13 am in Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,

June Traffic For Major Business Websites

Below are the June stats for the top 20 financial websites

Top 20 Online Financial News and Information Destinations

 
Brand or Channel                   Unique Audience (000)                Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
Yahoo! Finance  (YHOO)         14,878                                        0:24:11
MSN Money  (MSFT)                 11,190                                        0:17:39
AOL Money & Finance (TWX)     9,827                                       0:16:08
Wall Street Journal  (DJ)           7,852                                        0:20:12
Forbes.com                            7,813                                         0:05:54
Reuters (RTRSY)                    6,608                                         0:05:41
CNNMoney                             6,263                                         0:15:49
FreeCreditReport.com             3,276                                          0:09:15
Bankrate.com                         2,928                                          0:05:31
TheStreet.com (TSCM)            2,921                                          0:06:59
American City Business          2,884                                          0:04:01
Motley Fool                            2,871                                          0:10:43
BusinessWeek (MHP)            2,429                                          0:05:06
Bloomberg.com                       2,146                                          0:04:21
About.com Business (NYT)      1,553                                          0:02:16
Smartmoney                           1,487                                          0:11:19
CNBC.com  (GE)                     1,469                                         0:06:28
FT.com (PSO)                         1,239                                         0:02:17
USATODAY Money (GCI)          1,196                                        0:03:54
Google Finance  (GOOG)           1,102                                        0:07:31

Nielsen NetRatings

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: July 12, 2007 – 4:24 am in Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

Europe Markets 6/28/2007

Markets in Europe were up at 6.10 AM New York time.

The FTSE rose .6% to 6,567. BP (BP) rose 1.7% to 597.5. Pearson (PSO) rose 1.1% to 838. Vodafone (VOD) rose 2.1% to 167.3.

The DAXX rose 1.2% to 7,896. DaimlerChrysler (DCX) rose 1.8% to 67.19. Siemens (SI) rose 1.7% to 105.24. Volkswagen rose 2.9% to 116.84.

The CAC 40 moved up 1% to 5,999. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) rose 1.7% to 10.39.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: June 28, 2007 – 5:15 am in Uncategorized, , , , ,

Dow Jones (DJ) Alternative: Buy The Financial Times

Dow Jones (DJ) shares are off a bit today on news that Rupert Murdoch and News Corp (NWS) will not raise his bid for the parent of The Wall Street Journal. It’s $60 or nothing. And, Murdoch says, if he does not have a firm deal in two to three weeks, it’s nothing.

The news brought all kinds of speculation that shares in Dow Jones would collapse back into the $30s, and, they would.

That only leaves open the question of what the company’s founding family, the board, and management would do to convince investors that it is not the end of the world. There is a plan. It just may take awhile, but perhaps less than the seven years it has been since the stock last traded at $60.

One of the intelligent deals that was considered when other bidders where looking at Dow Jones was putting it together with Pearson’s (PSO) Financial Times and GE’s (GE) CNBC. Create a little financial news empire in print, online, and on TV. That did not work.

But, putting The Wall Street Journal together with the FT does make sense, a great deal of sense.

Pearson is now primarily an education publisher. The Financial Times is, by industry estimates, worth about $1.4 billion. If Mr. Murdoch goes away, Dow Jones (DJ) will have a market cap of about $3.5 billion. The American company might have to take on debt to close a deal, but debt can create excellent discipline for a mangement that seems to have lacked same. And, debt makes a company somewhat less attractive to the the raider crowd.

In 2006, Dow Jones Consumer Media, mostly The Wall Street Journal, had revenue of $1.123 billion. Operating income was a modest $34 million. WSJ.com had a good year with subscriptions rising 6% to 811,000. But revenue from international operations was only about 6% of the total.

The Financial Times has 450 journalists and 23 editions around the world. Most of the paper’s circulation is in Europe and it has a strong operation in Asia.

How much money could The Wall Street Journal save by combining some of its operations with the FT?

A lot. Plants, People, Distribution. Probably $75 million to $100 million. A lot of cake.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com.

Posted on: June 27, 2007 – 11:09 am in Uncategorized, , , ,

Will Pearson (PSO) Sell The Financial Times?

According to the Observer of London, many Pearson (PSO) shareholders want the company to sell the Financial Times. They believe that the paper is worth well over $1 billion, perhaps based on the price that News Corp (NWS) has been willing to bid for Dow Jones (DJ).

In recent years, Pearson has moved away from financial publishing and toward educational information.

Potential buyers could be Thomson (TOC) which recently bought Reuters (RTRSY) and Murdoch.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: June 24, 2007 – 7:13 am in Uncategorized, , , , ,

Media Digest 6/22/2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s

According to Reuters, the IPO for Blackstone priced at the high end of its range, raising $4.13 billion.

Reuters writes that GE (GE) and Pearson (PSO) have dropped their potential bid for Dow Jones (DJ).

Reuters reports that Pfizer (PFE) got permission to market its drug Lyrica for treating fibromyalgia.

The Wall Street Journal reports that BP (BP) is near a deal to turn over its ownership in a $20 billion Russian natural-gas project to state-controlled Gazprom.

The Wall Street Journal writes that ADM (ADM) is going to enter Brazil’s sugarcane-ethanol market, backing a rival to corn-based ethanol made by most U.S. companies.

The Wall Street Jounal also writes the NYSE Euronext (NYX) is making a bid for the Italian stock exchange which will compete with one from the London exchange.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that investor Nelson Peltz has taken a 3% piece of Kraft (KFT) and want the company to sell certain assets.

The New York Times reports that Ebay (EBAY) will re-enter the Chinese markter this summer.

FT reports that Bear Stearns (BSC) will call of its IPO of Everquest, a company associated with two hedge funds that have collapsed.

Barron’s reports that Jabil Circuit (JBL) reported earnings in line with estimates.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: June 22, 2007 – 3:16 am in Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,