These are this Friday’s top analyst downgrades and cautious research calls we have seen from Wall Street firms:
athenahealth (ATHN) Cut to Sell at Auriga.
Charles Schwab (SCHW) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
FPL Group (FPL) Started as Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Genzyme (GENZ) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
IMAX (IMAX) Cut to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Sonic (SONC) Cut to Underweight at Piper Jaffray.
JON C. OGG
These are the top ten early bird analyst upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street early this Tuesday morning with more than two hours until the market opens.
BHP Billiton (BHP) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Bridgepoint Education (BPI) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
ConAgra (CAG) Raised to Buy at UBS.
ConocoPhillips (COP) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
E*TRADE (ETFC) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
FedEx (FDX) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Marvell Technology (MRVL) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Rio Tinto (RTP) Raised to Buy at ING.
Sonic (SONC) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Starbucks (SBUX) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Jon C. Ogg
June 23, 2009
If you like to invest in food chain restaurants, Thursday was a bad day as a group of bipartisan senators are trying to require chains to list calories on their menus. This is aimed at the big restaurant chains with 20 locations of the same name rather than mom and pop stores. If you can believe it, fast food and casual dining restaurant owners McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) and Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) already have this available online. Some of the big chains out there make this available and some do not.
Imagine if (or when) you are forced to see the calorie, salt, and fat counts for many of your favorite foods such as Buffalo Wings at Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD). Or what about some of those oversized plates big enough for two or three meals at The Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE)? And what if you tally up the full calories and sodium in Chinese food at PF Chang’s China Bistro Inc. (NASDAQ: PFCB)? Or a Monster Burger at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB). Or what about Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT) chains like Chili’s for the Texas Cheese Fries?
We do not mean to pick on any single chain by naming menu items or chains, because this could affect all big chain owners to the likes of Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC), Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, Inc. (NYSE:WEN), Texas Roadhouse Inc. (NASDAQ: TXRH), Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC), California Pizza Kitchen Inc., (NASDAQ: CPKI), and many more. The news of this had a significant negative impact on most of these stocks today when you consider we had an up market.
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Now that final numbers from 2008 have been filed for most large US companies, 24/7 Wall St. is picking several stocks that are likely to double off of their lows, almost all of which were set over the last two weeks. The time frame for these price increases is between now and the end of 2010, when many experts expect the economy to recover. A number of the credit and financial issues facing the markets will remain for the near-term. It may be well beyond the end of next year before the economy returns to the kind of GDP growth it had in 2006. The other assumption used for picking these companies is a market bottom of 600 on the S&P 500. If the index goes well below that, it is anyone’s guess how soon stocks will recover to the levels where they trade today. Read More
This week 24/7 Wall St. is picking several stocks from major sectors that are likely to double off of their lows we have recently seen. Today, let’s discuss the retail sector. We are also including two food companies that have suffered along with the rest of the retail sector.
Today’s review includes Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF), Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE: M), Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD), Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC), and Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI).
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These are some of the top pre-market downgrades we are seeing this Monday morning with more than two hours to the open:
Jon C. Ogg
October 13, 2008
These are some of the upgrades and positive calls from analysts we have seen affecting shares this Friday morning:
Jon C. Ogg
September 19, 2008
There are surprisingly few analyst calls today, but these are some of the top calls we have seen as downgrades with more than two hours to the market open:
Jon C. Ogg
September 12, 2008
Boeing (BA) Hit by broker downgrade on fears of order cuts from troubled airlines. Down to $69.16 from 52-week high of $107.83.
American Greetings (AM) Happy card company gets beat up on poor earnings. Sells down to $13.93 from 52-week high of $29.10. Have a nice day.
Rockwell International (ROK) Weak guidances sends stock diving. Moves off to $44.89 from 52-week high of $75.60.
Honeywell (HON) Hit by downgrades in defense stocks and Boeing. Sells off to $51.20 from 52-week high of $62.99.
Sonic (SONC) Fast food. Bad earnings. Falls to $14.40 from 52-week high of $26.19.
LCA-Vision (LCAV) Says number of procedures the company does will be down this quarter. Drops like a rock to $4.54 from 52-week high of $50.69.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC) has come out after the close with reduced guidance. The outdoor drive-up burger chain is feeling the pinch from raw materials costs, labor costs, food costs, transport costs, and probably a gas-starved suburban driver client base.
The company sees a 10% decline in Q3 net income to $0.28 EPS versus $0.31 in the prior year. The company noted that Q3 revenues were up 1% to $213.0 million. First Call is expecting $0.31 EPS on $219.95 million.
It also sees a -0.4% decline in system-wide same-store sales resulting primarily from weather-affected sales in March; system-wide same-store sales improved as the quarter progressed and returned to the company’s targeted growth range of 2% to 4% in May. The company did notes that the traffic for the quarter was slightly positive.
The company also had an opening of 41 new drive-ins in Q3, with the relocation or rebuild of 17 existing drive-ins, and the completion of 279 retrofits.
Sonic expects that its Fiscal 2008 EPS will increase in the range of 4% to 6% in fiscal 2008 versus fiscal 2007 earnings per diluted share of $0.96. While that number is adjusted for prior-year debt refinancing charges. That is only out to August 2008 and the First Call estimate is $1.05 EPS.
Sonic shares closed up 1.3% at $16.51 in regular trading, and its shares are down over 3.5% at $15.90 in after-hours. Its 52-week trading range is $15.65 to $26.19.
Jon C. Ogg
June 24, 2008
These are the top analyst calls that 247WallSt.com is focusing on this Monday morning:
Jon C. Ogg
April 7, 2008
Cramer has a new method for predicting takeovers. Four of the fourteen largest buybacks have either been taken over or have agreed to be taken over in the last few months. Cramer thinks the other 10 are great buyback targets as well. Cramer has 3 picks out of these 10. His #1 pick will be after the Lightning Round. He also said that he is only focusing on buyout candidates that he thinks are good all on their own.
Cigna (CI) is on the list but he’s already highlighted it recently. Sonic (SONC) and Cracker Barrel (CBRL) would have been on Cramer’s list except that he thinks they are too vulnerable to consumer spending and too vulnerable to higher gasoline prices.
The #3 pick is United Stationers (USTR-NASDAQ) which has bought back 20% of its outstanding shares. The company should have improving margins and there are only three analysts covering the stock.
The #2 pick is Brinks (BCO-NYSE) that bought back 21% of its stock. He thinks the fundamentals are great on this one. This one is a home security play and a play for securely transporting financial and luxury goods.
What is funny is that since Cramer hates ETF’s so much, he neglected to tell you about PowerShares Buyback Achievers Portfolio (AMEX:PKW). This is an ETF that actively invests in companies who are buying back shares. As far as which of these are good and bad, United Stationers is one that has many competitors that go through periods where they look good and bad. They are ultra-sensitive to economic cycles and business spending. But Brinks on the other hand is one that is solid. The stock is up on its 52-week highs, but here is thing: this company already transports massive amounts of luxury goods that the millionaires and billionaires already use. This one makes sense, and it would have been a perfect play for Berkshire Hathaway earlier if the size was larger than $3 Billion.
Jon C. Ogg
May 7, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in any of the companies he covers.
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