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Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (EAC, EQT, HNT, SOV, WFMI, XTO)

247wallst — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:45:01 +0000

These are some of the early upgrades we are seeing on Wall Street this Thursday morning:

Encore Acquisition (EAC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Equitable Resources (EQT) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Health Net (HNT) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Whole Foods (WFMI) Raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.
XTO Energy (XTO) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
November 6, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: EAC, EQT, HNT, SOV, WFMI, XTO

Wells Fargo Sneaks Into Wachovia, Steals It From Citi (WFC, WB, C, SOV, NCC, FITB)

247wallst — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:12:40 +0000

Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) is now in play as Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) has come out with an alternative merger deal in a stock for stock merger offer for all of Wachovia including all banking operations. Wells Fargo has reached an agreement to acquire all of Wachovia Corporation and all its businesses and obligations, including its preferred equity and indebtedness, and all its banking deposits.

The ratio offered is 0.1991 shares of Wells Fargo stock. This is an alternative merger from the Citigroup (NYSE: C) government assisted buyout. Wells Fargo will record Wachovia’s credit-impaired assets at fair value. Wells Fargo claims it needs no financial assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Wells Fargo will also issue $20 billion in new securities to shore up its liquidity as well.

What is interesting here is that this may actually be a game changer for the banking sector. It has two paths that could come from it. First, the FDIC hasn’t keyed in on this. We do not know if the FDIC will step in yet to say the original Citi deal has already been reached or if either part will make a lawsuit out of this. Second, this could put other troubled banks into play. Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV), National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC), and Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) are all trading higher on this in hopes that Citi or others will step in now and snatch them up. This might even mean there is something left for the common shareholders there too.

Wachovia closed at $3.91 yesterday and shares are up above $6.00 in early trading reaction to this announcement. Citigroup is trading down about 6% in early trading on this. You snooze, you lose.

Jon C. Ogg
October 3, 2008

Posted in Banking, Mergers and Buy Outs Tagged: C, FITB, NCC, SOV, WB, WFC

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ANR, NILE, ENER, IFX, LH, NVS, SOV, TSCO, WY, YGE)

247wallst — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:37:41 +0000

These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Monday morning in pre-market trading:

Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE) started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Energy Conversion (NASDAQ: ENER) started as Equal Weight at Lehman Brothers.
Infineon (NYSE: IFX) cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Laboratory Corp. (NYSE: LH) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Novartis (NYSE: NVS) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Sovereign Banc (NYSE: SOV) raised to Outperform at KBW.
Tractor Supply (NASDAQ: TSCO) raised to Buy at UBS.
Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Jon C. Ogg
June 2, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (BRL, BE, EDS, HPQ, IRM, MHP, MCO, RSH, SNH, SNN, SOV)

247wallst — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:40:21 +0000

These are not the only analyst calls this morning, but these are some of the impact calls we are seeing this Tuesday morning:

Barr Pharma (NYSE: BRL) raised to Outperform from Neutral at Cowen & Co.
Bearingpoint (NYSE: BE) Cut to Hold from Buy at Citigroup
Electronic Data Systems (NYSE: EDS) Cut to Sell from Hold at Citigroup; cut to Market Perform at FBR.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) was removed from the Goldman Sachs Conviction Buy List, although its BUY rating was maintained.
Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) and Moody’s (NYSE: MCO) both started as Buy in new coverage at Jefferies.
RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) raised to Market Perform at RBC.
Senior Housing Properties (NYSE: SNH) Cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.
Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN) Cut to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.

Jon C. Ogg
May 13, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ABT, AEIS, AMSC, CREE, DRS, FORM, RAIL, NVS, PNSN, SOV)

247wallst — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:37:44 +0000

These are ten of the impact analyst calls we are seeing this Friday morning:

Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) started as Buy at UBS.
Advanced Energy (NASDAQ: AEIS) Raised To Overweight By JP Morgan.
American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC) Cut to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
Cree (NASDAQ: CREE) started as Hold Lazard Capital.
DRS Tech (NYSE: DRS) cut to Neutral at UBS; cut to market perform at FBR.
FormFactor (NASDAQ: FORM) Raised To Overweight From Neutral By JP Morgan.
FreightCar America (NASDAQ: RAIL) Raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Penson Worldwide (NASDAQ: PNSN) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV) Raised To Market Perform at KBW.

Jon C. Ogg
May 9, 2008

Jon Ogg produces and edits the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247WallSt.com.

The 52-Week Low Club (SOV)(SCSS)(SBUX)(TSFG)

247wallst — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:52:28 +0000

Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) Moody’s cuts rating. Drops to $6.48 from 52-week high of $24.71.

Select Comfort (SCSS) Quarter short of expectation. Down to $2.45 from 52-week high of $19.03.

Taser (TASR) Misses estimates for quarter. Sells off to $7.30 from 52-week high of $19.36.

Starbucks (SBUX) What a mess. Misses every number imaginable. Drops to $15.39 from 52-week high of $32.30.

South Financial Group (TSFG) Posts a first quarter loss. Off to $6.02 from 52-week high of $24.79.

Douglas A. McIntyre

SPAC IPO FILING: Sidhu Special Purpose Capital Corp. (SOV)

247wallst — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:40:20 +0000

After today’s close, we have yet another special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that has filed to come public. Sidhu Special Purpose Capital Corp. filed for an initial public offering for $150 million in units. Each unit will consist of one share of common stock and one warrant with a $7.00 strike price. Sidhu will list on AMEX, although no ticker was designated. Bear Stearns is listed as the sole underwriter.

WNH Holdings, LLC, is the sponsor company, and that is controlled by its chairman and chief executive officer, Jay S. Sidhu, who served as chief executive officer of Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: SOV) from 1989 to 2006.

While the company claims it will not be focused only in one sector, it will initially focus its efforts on identifying, performing due diligence on, and effecting a business combination with one or more businesses which operate in the depository institutions sector and other businesses which operate in the broader financial services industry. The pool here looks rather large to choose from, as the filing noted that there are more than 6,100 privately held banks and thrifts in the U.S. and almost 1,400 publicly traded banks and thrifts.

Jon C. Ogg
March 3, 2008

Home & Lending Stocks Continue To Implode (FNM, FRE, C, WM, SOV, HD, LEN, CTX)

247wallst — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:27:22 +0000

After reviewing the 52-week lows today, it was almost the same old trend we have been seeing day in and day out…. Lenders… Banks… Homes… and Consumer…What is obvious is that the FOMC can continue to cut rates, but the consumer is stretched and the lenders don’t want to loan more funds. Hell, the borrowers might not even want to borrow either.

Freddie Mac (FRE) is hitting this list today and that is actually a low back to 2004. Fannie Mae has not hit the implode list, even after sending out payment from a class action last night. These might not all be at 52-week lows now, but lending stocks that hot new 52-week lows today are:

Lenders: (BKUNA) Bankunited Financial….habitual; (C) Citigroup; (CFR) Cullen Frost Bankers;
(CMA) Comerica; (FAF) First American; Indymac (IMB); (RF) Regions Financial; (SNV) Synovus Financial; (SOV) Sovereign; (VLY) Valley National Bancorp; (WM) Washington Mutual; (ZION) Zions Bancorp

Loan insurers: (PMI) PMI Group… not a lender, but the mortgage insurer we all hate; (RDN) Radian… financial enhancements to mortgage lenders; (TGIC) Triad Guaranty, same business as PMI.

Builders & Housing-related: Beacon Roofing (BECN), Brookfield Homes (BHS), Builders Firstsource (BLDR), Building Materials (BLG), Centex (CTX), Home Depot (HD), Lennar (LEN), Masco (MAS), M D C Holdings (MDC), Move (MOVE), Meritage Homes (MTH), Palm Harbor (PHHM)….

The earnings out of financial stocks are of course an issue, but interestingly enough yesterday Fox Business News had an exclusive interview with Warren Buffett. His comments were not any great hope that the worst has been seen in housing, and that those stocks still were not yet cheap. Take a look at Buffett’s comments that he gave exclusively to Fox Business News:

“I didn’t buy a share. I look at them. I look attheir debt, their equities. I look at everything. I’m waiting untilthey’re under priced. That’s what I look for with any security. And,I don’t think they’re undervalued. Starting 30 minutes, ending 18months ago – that year – we probably had more home builders offer toBerkshire where the managements wanted to see the business that I’veever seen in any industry. A significant percentage of thepublicly-owned home builders, when their stock was flying high andtheir management was talking bullishly, were trying to sell theircompanies. Apparently they knew what was going on or likely to go on.Though, I don’t think they saw it coming as extensively as it did.”

Jon C. Ogg
October 19, 2007

Earlybird Analyst Calls (July 30, 2007)

247wallst — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:36:32 +0000

AHM cut to Sector Perform at RBC; cut to Underperform at JMP Securities.
BEBE cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
BEE raised to Buy at UBS.
CHRT cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
CNSL raised to Hold at Citigroup.
DHR raised to overweight at JPMorgan.
DRH raised to Buy at UBS.
EDE raised to Buy at Jefferies.
ESLR raised to Neutral at B of A.
HK raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
IR raised to Buy at Citigroup; downgraded to Neutral at Baird.
KNX raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
KOF raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
MEE cut to Underperform at FBR.
MGM raised to Overweight at Lehman.
MSA raised to Outperform at Baird.
MOT raised to MKt Perform at JMP Securities.
NSC raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
OEH raised to Buy at UBS.
PFGC raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
PLCE cut to Neutral at Susquehanna.
SEPR raised to Buy at B of A.
SOV raised to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
SWX raised to Buy at UBS.

Jon C. Ogg
July 30, 2007