24/7 Wall St. » RF

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AAPL, IRE, BWLD, CYMI, DPZ, ETH, FITB, ISRG, JCP, LEG, MCD, RF, SYMC, TWC, UTX, WMT)

Administrator — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:17:11 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls this Wednesday.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Raised to Outperform at Scotia; Maintained Buy with $775 target at Canaccord Genuity.

Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Cymer Inc. (NASDAQ: CYMI) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Domino’s Pizza (NYSE: DPZ) Raised to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE: ETH) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) Started as Outperform at Raymond James; Named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) Raised to Market Perform at BMO.

Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE: LEG) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Cut to Hold at Argus.

Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) Raised to Buy at Rochdale Securities.

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) Cut to Sector Perform at RBC.

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) Started as Buy at Citigroup.

United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) Raised to Buy at Argus.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) Cut to Hold at Argus.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox. We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, BWLD, CYMI, DPZ, ETH, FITB, IRE, ISRG, JCP, LEG, MCD, RF, SYMC, TWC, UTX, WMT

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (AAPL, T, XRX, GE, LNKD, BIG, AZO, APD, BHI, COH, ITW, MHP, RSH, RF, HSY, NFLX, IBM, NAT, EGLE)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:11:08 +0000

Markets opened mixed this morning, with the DJIA showing much more strength than the S&P 500, which opened higher, or the Nasdaq, which opened lower. The S&P Case-Shiller house price index showed another decline in home prices (our coverage here), although new home sales rose slightly. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index was lower this month as well (our coverage here). Tech stocks have been weak all day as sentiment about the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) earnings report faltered following comments from AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) related to iPhone connections (our coverage here). The US dollar index fell today, now down -0.25% at 79.220. The GSCI commodity index is down -0.28% at 675.82, with commodities mostly rising on the weaker dollar. WTI crude oil closed up 0.4% at $103.55/barrel, and Brent crude trades down -0.48% at $118.14/barrel. Gold settled up 0.7% today, at $1,643.80/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 74 points to 13,001.56 (0.58%), the NASDAQ fell nearly 9 points (-0.30%) to 2,961.60, and the S&P 500 rose 0.37% or about 5 points to 1,371.97.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) reiterated ‘buy’ with a target price of $13 at Argus; General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) reiterated ‘buy’ with a target price of $22 at Argus; LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) started as ‘overweight’ at Piper Jaffray; Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) cut to ‘hold’ at Deutsche Bank; and AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) raised to ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: AT&T is up 3.9% at $31.81; Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) is down -4.3% at $84.91; Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) is up 5.3% at $43.23 (more coverage here); Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) is down -4% at $72.10 (more coverage here); Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) is up 2.7% at $56.71; McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. (NYSE: MHP) is down -3% at $47.65; RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) is down -10.3% at $5.36 after posting a new 52-week intraday low of $5.27; Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) is up 5.4% at $6.42; The Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) is up 5.7% at $65.86 after posting a new 52-week intraday high of $66.94; and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is down -14.6% at $87.01.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is up .0.8% at $200.24. The tech giant raised its dividend today. More coverage here.

North American Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: NAT) is up 1.5% at $14.01. Shipping rates for dry bulk shippers are rising and tanker rates, especially for the smaller (1 million barrels) crude carriers of the Suezmax class. Many other shippers are also getting a boost today, including Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (NASDAQ: EGLE), which is up 6.8% at $1.88.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee wraps up its two-day meeting and Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a press conference this afternoon. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
11:30 a.m. – 5-yr note auction
2:00 p.m. – FOMC forecasts

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AAPL, APD, AZO, BHI, BIG, COH, EGLE, GE, HSY, IBM, ITW, LNKD, MHP, NAT, NFLX, RF, RSH, T, XRX

Top Earnings Previews For Early In The Week Ahead (COP, ILMN, NFLX, TXN, AMGN, AAPL, T, BIDU, COH, JNPR, MMM, RF, X, UTX)

Administrator — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:35:20 +0000

Earnings season is in full swing and we have many key reports due in the coming week. 24/7 Wall St. has provided some detailed previews for the key earnings reports we expect to show in detail on Monday and Tuesday.

We are monitoring earnings reports from the following companies for Monday and Tuesday: ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP); Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN); Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN); Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL); AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU); Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH); Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR); 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM); Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF); United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X); and United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX).

More earnings report previews will come on Sunday or Monday for the reports due on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Consensus estimates and price targets are from Thomson Reuters. Color has been on added on each if applicable.

MONDAY, April 23

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is set to report Monday morning and the break-up is going to make any real apples to apples comparison difficult to interpret. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $2.07 EPS. Shares are trading around $73.15 and the 52-week range is $58.65 to $81.50; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $81.05.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is no market mover with a $5.4 billion market cap, but it is a recent merger candidate even if that appears to be off the table. Earnings estimates are $0.32 EPS and $263.6 million. Shares are trading around $44.00 and the 52-week range is $25.57 to $79.40; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $52.71.

Filed under: Calendar, Earnings, The Week Tagged: AAPL, AMGN, BIDU, COH, COP, ILMN, JNPR, MMM, NFLX, RF, T, TXN, UTX, X

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AIG, CMA, CNO, DE, DRQ, GOOG, HBAN, JEF, KEY, NVDA, OFG, PNRA, P, PEG, RF, URS, VE, ZUMZ)

Administrator — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:08:25 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Thursday.

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) Reiterated Buy with $40 target at BofA/ML.

Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.

CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: CNO) Started as Buy with $9 target at Goldman Sachs.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) Reiterated Buy with $104 target at BofA/ML.

Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE: DRQ) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Reiterated Buy with $730 target at Argus.

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ: HBAN) Started as Neutral at Citigroup.

Jefferies Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF) Raised to Buy at Rochdale Securities.

KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) Started as Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Oriental Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: OFG) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.

Panera Bread Company (NASDAQ: PNRA) Started as Outperform with $190 target at Credit Suisse.

Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE: P) Started as Underweight at Barclays.

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (NYSE: PEG) Reiterated Buy with $40 target at Argus.

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) Started as Neutral at Citigroup.

URS Corporation (NYSE: URS) Reiterated Underperform with $49 target at BofA/ML.

Veolia Environnement (NYSE: VE) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.

Zumiez, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AIG, CMA, CNO, DE, DRQ, GOOG, HBAN, JEF, KEY, NVDA, OFG, P, PEG, PNRA, RF, URS, VE, ZUMZ

Regions Financial Repays TARP Funds (RF, ZION, AIG)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:40:14 +0000

The largest of the remaining institutions in the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) re-paid its $3.5 billion loan today. Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) has also paid US taxpayers $593 million in interest on the loan it took out in 2008. The US Treasury still holds warrants that would allow it to purchase common stock in Regions.

The US government has now made a profit of $18 billion on the bank bailout portion of the $700 billion TARP fund. The largest outstanding bank loan is now the $1.4 billion bailout advance to Zion Bancorp. (NASDAQ: ZION).

Of the initial TARP fund, about $32 billion is not expected to be returned. The bailout of American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) and the US auto industry bailout account for most of that money.

Filed under: Banking, Economy, Politics Tagged: AIG, RF, ZION

Plenty of TARP Recipients Still Delinquent

Paul Ausick — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:02:24 +0000

The federal government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has recovered all but about $11 billion in the funds it distributed to US financial institutions in 2008 and 2009. Last week Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) and Zions Bancorp. (NASDAQ: ZION) demonstrated their ability to repay $3.5 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively, that they received under TARP.

That leaves about 360 institutions still owing that $11 billion to the federal government. Unfortunately, 143 of those institutions are unable to make their February TARP dividend payment. The worse news, for these banks, is that the dividend rate is set to rise from 5% to 9% beginning next January.

Filed under: Banking, Politics Tagged: RF, ZION

Unusual Options Trading Action In Regions Financial (RF)

Administrator — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:15:54 +0000

Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) is usually no longer very active when it comes to stock options trading. So what happens when it makes the screen of highly unusual trading volume in speculative call options. The unusual activity is taking place in the $7 and $8 MAY CALL options rather than in the front-month of April. The $7 call options in May have seen 5,228 contracts trade against an open interest of 5,716 contracts. The real activity is out in the $8 calls where a whopping 15,547 contracts have traded today against a prior open interest of 2,498 contracts.

So far today there has not been any corresponding put option activity so this is unlikely going to be viewed as hedging.

Regions shares are up 1.2% at $6.43 on more than 32 million shares as of 2:07 PM EST. The 52-week range is $2.82 to $7.45 and the average daily volume is about 23 million shares.

It sure looks like someone is thinking that there is a lot of room left to run in Regions. Even if that $8.00 strike price does not get hit, those May $8 calls will offer a lot of leveraged return if the shares make another considerable move higher in a short period of time.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking, Options, Trading Alert Tagged: RF

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALU, AWK, BLK, CMA, DPZ, KBH, LOW, PCS, MWW, MSI, RF, TAL, TCBI, TRV, UNM)

Administrator — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:31:04 +0000

These are some of this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls.

Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. (NYSE: ALU) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.

American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK) Cut to Neutral at Baird; named as Momentum stock of the day at Zacks.

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) Cut to Market Perform at Raymond James.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $46 at Argus.

KB Home (NYSE: KBH) named as Bear of the Day with Underperform rating at Zacks.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) Raised to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.

MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) Maintained Buy with $15 target at Argus.

Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW) Cut to Neutral at UBS.

Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) Raised to Outperform at Raymond James.

TAL International Group Inc. (NYSE: TAL) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.

Texas Capital Bancshares (NASDAQ: TCBI) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Travelers Companies (NYSE: TRV) Cut to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.

Unum Group (NYSE: UNM) Raised to Outperform at RBC Capital.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: ALU, AWK, BLK, CMA, DPZ, KBH, LOW, MSI, MWW, PCS, RF, TAL, TCBI, TRV, UNM

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALTR, AMSC, BIIB, CELG, COH, CSTR, COP, FSLR, GILD, HAIN, MA, RF, TRLG)

Administrator — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:23:06 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street brokerage and research firms this Friday morning.

Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Coach, Inc. (NYSE: COH) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Cut to Neutral at Collins Stewart.
Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) Started as Overweight at Barclays; Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ: HAIN) maintained Outperform and named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $450 at Argus.
Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
True Religion Apparel, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG) Cut to Hold at Brean Murray.

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.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: ALTR, AMSC, BIIB, CELG, COH, COP, CSTR, FSLR, GILD, HAIN, MA, RF, TRLG

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (AAPL, GS, SBUX, ORCL, RF, ZNGA, AMD, ALTR, YHOO, COP, PX, WLP, LCC, XRX, ILMN, RBCN, INCB, GNOM, NUVA)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:08:16 +0000

Markets opened mixed this morning, with the DJIA and S&P 500 opening lower and the Nasdaq Composite opening higher. The Nasdaq was getting a big push from the very strong earnings report out of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). The FOMC’s announcement that interest rates would remain near zero until late 2014 started a Fed rally and pushed the S&P into positive territory where they spent the rest of the day. Oil prices were lower this morning, but the weekly status report from the US Energy Information Administration led crude prices to a gain. WTI crude oil is up 0.72% at $99.66/barrel and Brent crude is up 0.16% at $110.21. Gold closed up 2.61% at $1,707.90.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 83 points to 12,758.85 (0.66%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 32 points (1.14%) to 2,818.31, and the S&P 500 rose 0.87% or more than 11 points to 1,326.06.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) cut to ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan; Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) raised to ‘outperform’ at Oppenheimer; Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) cut to ‘neutral’ at Macquarie; and Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) raised to ‘outperform’ at RBC Capital and cut to ‘neutral’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch. Znyga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) gets starting calls from four brokers: ‘overweight’ at Barclays and JPMorgan; ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs; and ‘neutral’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Earnings reports since markets closed on last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Apple is up 6.4% at $447.17, after posting a new 52-week high this morning of $454.45; Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is up nearly 3% at $6.72; Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) is up 1% at $40.54; Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is down -0.6% at $15.60; ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is down -0.9% at $70.01; Praxair Inc. (NYSE: PX) is down -2.8% at $106.05; Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) is down -4.9% at $66.01; US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is up more than 18% at $7.59; and Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) is down nearly -10% at $7.81.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is up more than 46% at $55.16. The genetic testing instrument maker is the target of a $5.7 billion hostile takeover offer from Roche Holdings AG.

Rubicon Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) is down nearly -12% at $10.66. The LED lighting maker was downgraded from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’ at Needham yesterday on low demand.

Indiana Community Bancorp (NASDAQ: INCB) is up about 44% at $20.90 after posting a new 52-week high of $21.34 earlier. The bank holding company has agreed to be acquired by Old National Bancorp (NYSE: ONB) in an all-stock transaction.

Complete Genomics Inc. (NASDAQ: GNOM) is up 19% to $2.98. The DNA-sequencing company is getting a boost from the hostile takeover bid for Illumina.

NuVasive Inc. (NASDAQ: NUVA) is up about 19% at $16.31. The medical device maker had its shares stopped today following a report that it would not receive an injunction against selling a disputed product.

Stay tuned for Thursday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
10:00 a.m. – New home sales
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply reports

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close, The Day Tagged: AAPL, ALTR, AMD, COP, GNOM, GS, ILMN, INCB, LCC, NUVA, ORCL, PX, RBCN, RF, SBUX, WLP, XRX, YHOO, ZNGA