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Top Earnings Previews For Thursday (ATVI, BG, CBOE, DNKN, EXPE, LNKD, MPEL, NUAN, PEP, PBR, PM, RSG, SIRI, SON, TDC)

Administrator — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:20:47 +0000

This week should be the last waves of the normalized quarterly earnings reports for companies with December 31 quarter-end dates. We are also starting to get a few of the first waves of the earnings reports from companies with off-normal quarter-ends. Wednesday is going to be another busy day with many earnings. The earnings previews are for the following: Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI); Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG); Carbonite Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB); CBOE Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE); Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DNKN); Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE); LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD); Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL); Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN); PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP); Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR); Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM); Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG); Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI); Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON); and Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC).

We have compiled earnings preview on each company using Thomson Reuters consensus estimates and added color on each if applicable. Some of these are market moving, some are sector moving, and some are just interesting for traders to watch around the earnings reports.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) estimates are $0.56 EPS and $2.2 billion in revenues. At $12.55, the maker of World of Warcraft has been very range bound.

Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG) estimates are $1.57 EPS and $13.73 billion in revenues.

Carbonite Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB) estimates are -$0.23 EPS and $16.78 million in revenues. This will be a first real look of a full quarter and unfortunately this one has been cut in half as investors have tempered expectations for the personal data backup service provider.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Calendar, Earnings Tagged: ATVI, BG, CBOE, DNKN, EXPE, LNKD, MPEL, NUAN, PBR, PEP, PM, RSG, SIRI, SON, TDC

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (MO, AEA, CCK, GE, HIBB, HBC, ITC, LNKD, PCS, SAP, SON, TSO, VZ)

Administrator — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:39:27 +0000

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

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Advance America, Cash Advance Centers Inc. (NYSE: AEA) named as value stock of the day at under 10-times earnings by Zacks.
Crown Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CCK) Started as Outperform with $43 target and was added to the Focus List at Credit Suisse.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Raised to Outperform by Bernstein (call was made late Monday afternoon).
Hibbett Sporting Goods (NASDAQ: HIBB) maintained Outperform with $47 target and named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC) started as Underperform and named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ITC) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE: PCS) Raised to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation by William Blair.
SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) Cut to Hold at S&P Equity Research.
Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON) Started as Neutral with $34.00 price target at Credit Suisse.
Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) Cut to Neutral with $34 target from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) Reiterated Buy with a $44 price target at Argus.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AEA, CCK, GE, HBC, HIBB, ITC, LNKD, MO, PCS, SAP, SON, TSO, VZ

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AGU, AEM, AXP, AMR, BHP, COF, CMG, SNP, CEO, JNY, ERIC, PTR, RVBD, SODA, SON, SWC, WRB)

Administrator — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:27:47 +0000

These are some of this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen having an impact from Wall Street research calls. Despite the weakness, there are still upgrades taking place.

Agrium, Inc. (NYSE: AGU) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR) Raised to Outperform at Rodman & Renshaw.
BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) Started as Outperform with $370 target at Credit Suisse.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (NYSE: SNP) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
The Jones Group Inc. (NYSE: JNY) Value stock of the day at Zacks.
LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ: ERIC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
PetroChina Co. Ltd. (NYSE: PTR) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON) Cut to Hold at Argus.
Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE: SWC) Removed from Focus List ar Credit Suisse.
W.R. Berkley Corp. (NYSE: WRB) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AEM, AGU, AMR, AXP, BHP, CEO, CMG, COF, ERIC, JNY, PTR, RVBD, SNP, SODA, SON, SWC, WRB

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (MT, BLK, BCSI, HAS, LOGI, NBG, NTRI, CRM, SAPE, SON, SYK)

Administrator — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:12:57 +0000

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

ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) Raised to Buy at ING.
BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) Started as Buy at Stern Agee.
Blue Coat Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BCSI) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) Started as Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Logitech International SA (NASDAQ: LOGI) Raised to Hold at RBS.
National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
NutriSystem Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRI) Raised to Buy at Lazard.
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Sapient Corp. (NASDAQ: SAPE) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Stryker Corporation (NYSE: SYK) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BCSI, BLK, CRM, HAS, LOGI, MT, NBG, NTRI, SAPE, SON, SYK

Refineries Try Shaking Higher Oil Prices (VLO, HES, SON, TSO)

Administrator — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:38:42 +0000

It is hard to not notice the $1.70 gain in WTI NYMEX Crude to over $86.50 per barrel this morning. This is on the heels of new reports of economic recovery after last week’s gains in non-Farm Payrolls. It is also days after OPEC and non-OPEC oil ministers argued that $70 to $80 would be a fair range for the price of oil for years. Higher and higher oil prices are good for those who drill oil, but the refinery sector gets squeezed by higher and higher oil prices. It cannot pass on the rise, and oil rising each day generates higher and higher operational costs. We have noted on several occasions how refining capacity has picked back up over 80% after spending a brief time under the 80% capacity level.

We wanted to see how this was first affecting Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO), as well as Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) and Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN). Lastly, it is hard to not notice how Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) is not participating today.

Valero has been facing lower refining margins and has pared down its portfolio of lower margin operations. The economic downturn hit it harder than others. Valero had a share price north of $60 and then even north of $70 during the peak oil craze in 2008. The company continues on restructuring and moving back toward consistent profitability, but the most obvious effect on business is that large swings in the price of oil make it harder and harder to manage profitability. Thomson Reuters is calling for $1.06 EPS in 2010. Its shares are up 2% at $20.42 today.

Hess has effectively remained profitable and its stock has not been punished the same as Valero and its market cap is now north of $20 billion with shares up over 1% at $64.35 today. While it may be the best here in refining, its stock is still down 50% from the 2008 highs north of $130 for a share.

Sunoco has a market cap of barely $3 billion. It faced some of the same profitability issues of losses as Valero did, but its stock highs around $45 in 2007 are far less bad in comparison to Valero with its shares flat today at $31.68.

Tesoro is the one we consider the baby and its stock has more than doubled off its lows. The difference between this and Valero is that the stock was performing even worse than Valero as it sold off almost 90% from the highs. It also shared in an annual earnings loss for 2009, and the earnings expectations for 2010 are barely profitable at $0.02 EPS for the year. An explosion at Tesoro’s Anacortes, Washington refinery along with an analyst downgrade (Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank) is making this the piglet of the sector today as a 5.7% drop has Tesoro down to $13.58 on more than 133% of normal trading volume at 12:30 PM EST.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Commodities, Oil & Gas Tagged: HES, SON, TSO, VLO

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ANF, CE, FLEX, FCL, HD, HMIN, LNC, MRO, OSG, SON)

247wallst — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:27:37 +0000

These are ten of the top analyst upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street we have seen early this Wednesday morning with more than two hours until the market opens for trading:

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Celanese (CE) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Flextronics (FLEX) Cuto Sell at Collins Stewart.
Foundation Coal (FCL) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Home Depot (HD) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Home Inns (HMIN) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Lincoln National (LNC) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
Marathon Oil (MRO) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Overseas Shipholding (OSG) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Sonoco Products (SON) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ANF, CE, FCL, FLEX, HD, HMIN, LNC, MRO, OSG, SON

Pre-Market Stock News (July 20, 2007)

247wallst — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:21:06 +0000

(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.