Marathon Petroleum was spun out of Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) in late July. Since then, the stock has been quite volatile, but is now back to about where it was at the time of the spin-off. Shares recently traded at $37.41 and its market cap is $12.94 billion. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $29.32 to $47.17.  The current value is trading at a price-to-book ratio of about 1.44 to 1. Its forward price earnings multiple is 4.86. The company currently pays a dividend yield of 2.2% to investors.  Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $51.92, implying roughly 39% upside to the most recent price.

Valero has gotten a boost from its entry into the ethanol market and could be a buyer for the two refineries that Sunoco plans to shed by next July. Valero’s shares recently traded at $23.55 and its market cap is $12.75 billion. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $16.43-$30.98.  The current value is trading at a price-to-book ratio of about 0.80 to 1. Its forward price earnings multiple is 5.39. The company currently pays a dividend yield of 0.90% to investors. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $30.06, implying roughly 28% upside to the most recent price.

Murphy Oil, unlike the other refiners, still owns some exploration and production assets that help keep its value up. Murphy’s stock recently traded at $51.98 and its market cap is $10.18 billion. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $47.24-$77.41.  The current value is trading at a price-to-book ratio of about 1.15 to 1. Its forward price earnings multiple is 7.39. The company currently pays a dividend yield of 2.09% to investors. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $75.00, implying roughly 44% upside to the most recent price.

HollyFrontier was formed from a merger of Holly Corp. and Frontier Oil in June of this year. Since then the stock has moved generally upward. HollyFrontier shares recently traded at $37.74 and its market cap is $7.79 billion. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $13.34-$38.90. The current value is trading at a price-to-book ratio of 4.13. Its forward price earnings multiple is 6.12. The company currently pays a dividend of 0.94% to investors. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $41.00, implying roughly 10% to the most recent price.

Sunoco announced yesterday that it would be selling or closing its remaining refining assets. Once that happens, Sunoco will own gas stations and majority positions in two other recent spin-offs in logistics and petroleum coke production. Sunoco’s shares recently traded at $38.79 and its market cap is $4.75 billion. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $27.76-$46.57. The current value is trading at a price-to-book ratio of 1.68. Its forward price earnings multiple is 19.70. The company currently pays a dividend of 1.53% to investors. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $44.20, implying roughly 14% to the most recent price.

Tesoro has announced that it plans to add nearly 300 retail outlets to its existing 1,200. The company expects a 12% boost to its business with these additions. Tesoro shares recently traded at $25.02 and its market cap is $3.46 billion. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $12.03-$28.74.  The current value is trading at a price-to-book ratio of about 0.97 to 1. Its forward price earnings multiple is 6.35. The company currently pays no dividend to investors. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $27.79, implying roughly 11% upside to the most recent price.

Western Refining is the smallest of the seven companies we’ve looked at here. Most of its sales are in low population states in the US southwest. Western’s shares recently traded at $17.95 and its market cap is $1.62 billion. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $4.70-$21.75.  The current value is trading at a price-to-book ratio of about 2.00 to 1. Its forward price earnings multiple is 5.85. The company currently pays no dividend to investors. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $20.63, implying roughly 15% upside to the most recent price.

The substantial upside for Murphy reflects the company’s E&P asset holdings. Owning at least some of the refining feedstock helps Murphy smooth out the higher prices for crude oil and its access to domestic crude rather than imported, more expensive crude also works in its favor. Marathon Petroleum and Valero also have substantial upside, but in their cases they are vulnerable to a closing of the differential between WTI and Brent crudes. Murphy is an overall better choice.

Paul Ausick

Obama may propose a $300 billion employment package with tax cuts and new expenditures to train workers. (Reuters)

Pressure increases on Italy to show austerity measures in its budget. (Reuters)

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) restructures and fires two top executives. (Reuters)

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) says the F-35 is vital to U.S. defense. (Reuters)

Groupon delays its IPO as government may probe disclosure of sensitive matters. (Reuters)

AT&T (NYSE: T) could lower its bid for T-Mobile if the government forces it to sell assets. (Reuters)

New York prosecutors increase scrutiny of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). (Reuters)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) shareholders press for a major management change. (Reuters)

S&P met with large bond holders before its downgrade of U.S. debt. (WSJ)

Strategic Business Insights’ MacroMonitor says many Americans can no longer afford to retire. (WSJ)

Saab files for bankruptcy. (WSJ)

The Bank of Japan to keep rates near zero. (WSJ)

Switzerland puts limits on how high the franc could rise compared to the euro. (WSJ)

The U.S. manufacturing sector improved last month. (WSJ)

Congress likely to approve a significant change of patent laws. (WSJ)

Sunoco (NYSE: SUN) to leave the refinery business. (WSJ)

The use of Avastin in patients covered by medical insurance could have saved the U.S. billions. (WSJ)

International Paper (NYSE: IP) buys Temple Inland for $3.48 billion. (WSJ)

The SEC to examine whether ETFs increase market volatility. (WSJ)

Foreign-exchange trading volumes are near record levels. (WSJ)

Worries about whether some banks will make it through the EU debt crisis have made it harder for them to raise money. (NYT)

The White House to float a plan to help the USPS. (NYT)

Carlyle files a $100 million IPO. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sunoco, Inc. (NYSE: SUN) has decided that now is the time for it, too, to shed its refining operations. The company wants to sell two refineries on the east coast with a combined capacity of 505,000 barrels/day of throughput. Sunoco will take an impairment charge of up to $2.2 billion in its third quarter and has warned that the costs of closing the plants could rise by another $500 million.

That’s if Sunoco can’t find a buyer for the refiners.  If no buyer steps up, Sunoco will close the refineries in July 2012. The company said it could record a pre-tax gain of about $2 billion if it sells or closes the refineries. It’s not an idle exercise to wonder if there are any buyers left.

Here’s a review of recent refining changes. Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) spun off its refining to a new company, Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC). ConocoPhillips Corp. (NYSE: COP) has announced that it will spin-off its refining operations this year. Valero Corp. (NYSE: VLO) acquired a refinery in the UK from Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) and just last week bought a refinery in Louisiana from Murphy Oil Corp. (NYSE: MUR).

The logical buyer, Valero, has spent about $2.625 billion so far this year on refining acquisitions. The company reported about $4 billion in cash and $6.8 billion in long-term debt in its last quarterly earnings. It could conceivably pony up the money for the Sunoco refineries. Marathon, with a market cap of more than $12 billion, holds about $1.6 billion in cash and long-term debt of about $3.2 billion. No other refiner is a likely prospect.

It looks like Sunoco may have waited too long to put its refineries on the market. The company has another problem as well. According to the company’s most recent 10-K, the east coast refineries get their feedstocks from foreign sources, primarily Nigeria. Just 13% of the company’s feedstocks are domestically sourced.

That means that Sunoco, or a potential buyer, will be paying Brent crude prices, currently about $15/barrel more than US WTI crude. Other US refiners with access to WTI crude are able to turn that $15/barrel differential into profits. The Sunoco refineries can’t do that. That’s not a selling point.

Still, Sunoco’s announcement has boosted the share price by nearly 4% just before noon today, to $37.50, in a 52-week range of $26.93-$46.98.

Paul Ausick

SunCoke has a 45-year history of producing metallurgical coke and is the largest independent producer of coke in the Americas.  Metallurgical coke is a principal raw material in steelmaking. The company owns and operates four U.S.-based  metallurgical cokemaking facilities and one facility in Brazil, but it is also constructing a fifth U.S. facility that is expected to go on-line late this year.

SunCoke has managed to grow as its revenues grew from $458 million in 2006 to $1.3 billion in 2010, while earnings grew from under $37 million in 2006 to $139 million in 2010.  For the quarter ending March 31, 2011 SunCoke reported that earnings fell 70% to $11.8 million from a year earlier on increased expenses.

Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs are the joint book-running managers for the offering, and these underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional 1,740,000 shares to cover over-allotments.

The implied valuation of SunCoke is close to $1.1 billion, which compares to about $5.1 billion in market capitalization for Sunoco itself.

While this is certainly different from a Web 2.0 version of IPOs with low floats, when company’s unlock value in this fashion it does leave a large overhang for shareholders as the parent company can always sell more shares down the road if large appreciation is seen.

JON C. OGG

With a 45-year history of producing metallurgical coke, SunCoke estimates it is the largest independent producer of coke in the Americas.  Metallurgical coke is a principal raw material in steelmaking. SunCoke owns and operates four metallurgical cokemaking facilities in the United States and one facility in Brazil. The company is currently constructing a fifth U.S. facility where it expects to commence operations in the fourth quarter of 2011. Upon its completion, the company expects to increase its U.S. production capacity to 4.2 million tons of coke per year and its world-wide capacity to 5.9 million tons per year.  The company also owns and operates coal mining operations in Virginia and West Virginia producing 1.2 million tons of metallurgical coal per year.

SunCoke revenues grew from $458 million in 2006 to $1.3 billion in 2010.  Its bottom line expanded from less than $37 million for 2006 to $139 million in 2010.  For the quarter ending March 31, 2011 SunCoke reported that earnings fell 70% to $11.8 million from a year earlier on increased expenses.

SunCoke currently operates four metallurgical coke plants in the U.S. and Brazil, with a fifth U.S. plant slated for completion this year. Those facilities produce over 5 million tons of coke each year, an energy source that is used by steelmakers that utilize blast furnaces.  Prior to the IPO, Sunoco and SunCoke will enter into an agreement that will provide the framework for the separation of the businesses. The agreement will include the separation and distribution of some assets, liabilities and shared contracts.  For the three months ended March 31, SunCoke reported that its earnings fell 70% to $11.8 million from a year earlier as expenses rose sharply.

The S-1 lists Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs as joint book-running managers and Barclays, Citigroup and Wells Fargo as senior co-managers.  The S-1 also lists the following firms as additional co-managers: Deutsche Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, Mizuho Securities, PNC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, UBS Securities, Samuel A. Ramirez & Company, The Williams Capital Group.

The full amended S-1 filing is here.

JIM BERDOU

Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) Reiterated Buy with $79 target at Argus.
Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVNR) Reiterated Buy with $6 target at Canaccord Genuity.
Cascade Corporation (NASDAQ: CASC) maintained strong buy as value at Zacks.
Diageo plc (NYSE: DEO) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT) Added to Focus List at Credit Suisse.
Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: IART) Reiterated Buy and $61 target at Canaccord Genuity.
LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan; Started as Buy at BofA/ML.
McKesson Corporation (NYSE: MCK) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) Cut to Underperform at BMO.
OmniVision Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OVTI) Raised to Buy at Canaccord Genuity.
Sunoco, Inc. (NYSE: SUN) maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC) Reiterated Hold at Argus.

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JON C. OGG

The company claims to be the largest independent producer of high-quality metallurgical coke in the Americas with more than 45 years of coke production experience. Metallurgical coke is a principal raw material in the integrated steel-making process.  Its three primary customers are ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT), United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X), and AK Steel Corporation (NYSE: AKS).  Most contracts are under longer term take-or-pay agreements and the company noted that its coke sales agreements are an average of nine more years in duration.

Financial terms were not listed at all other than that the firm plans to sell up to $100 million in common stock.  That figure can change at any time between now and its IPO date. Credit Suisse was listed as the lead manager in the offering.

It has owns and operates four metallurgical cokemaking facilities in the United States and it has designed and operates one cokemaking facility in Brazil under licensing and operating agreements of a customer.  The company is also currently constructing a fifth facility in the United States that is expected to be completed in the second half of 2011. After its completion, the company sees its total cokemaking capacity to increase to approximately 4.2 million tons of coke per year in the United States. Its facility in Brazil has cokemaking capacity of approximately 1.7 million tons of coke per year, and the company has a preferred stock investment in the project company that owns the Brazil facility. SunCoke owns and operates coal mining operations in Virginia and West Virginia that have sold an average of approximately 1.2 million tons of metallurgical coal per year over the past three years.

For the year ended December 31, 2010, SunCoke’s total revenues and Adjusted EBITDA were approximately $1.3 billion and $227.3 million, respectively.

 JON C. OGG

ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB) Raised to Buy at Stern Agee.
Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) Maintained Underperform with $56 target at BofA/ML.
Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) Raised to Buy at S&P Equity Research (likely late-Tuesday call).
GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. (NYSE: GOL) Cut to Hold at Argus.
Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) Reiterated Buy and $53 target at BofA/ML.
Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN) Reiterated Sell at Argus.
SuperValu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) Raised to Buy at Hapoalim.
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
TIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) Maintained as Underperform at BofA/ML.
Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) Maintained Neutral but target raised to $26 from $17 at Credit Suisse.
UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (NYSE: UNH) Reiterated Outperform and target raised to to $48 at Credit Suisse.
Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: YGE) Started as Neutral with $12 target at Credit Suisse.
YRC Worldwide. Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) Maintained Underperform at Credit Suisse.

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

The list of corporations for 2010 is major and includes companies such as American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG), Prudential plc (NYSE: PUK), AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS), BP plc (NYSE: BP), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ: GENZ), HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC), Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT), McDermott International Inc. (NYSE: MDR), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Questar Corporation (NYSE: STR), Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) (NASDAQ: VZ), Frontier Communications Corporation (NYSE: FTR), and Vishay Intertechnology Inc. (NYSE: VSH).

This comes to about 15 deals in the spin-off and disposition category that is part of special situation and value investing.  This is also key for dividend investors.  We have outlined the units up for grabs or pending in each company.  We have also tried to look for relative value comparisons and financial comparisons on each where applicable and when possible.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) lost out on its $35.5 billion sale of the its main Asian unit and crown jewel, AIA Group.  If you read reports, it looks as though the secondary bidders behind Prudential plc (NYSE: PUK) were lower than what AIG would accept.  The company has toyed with  spinning assets off, and that looks to be one of the biggest issues today.  If AIG was getting a cash sale of $35.5 billion, who knows where this would come of it was parceled off in an IPO.  It could get a few strong minority shareholders and secure many more today for that growing unit.  What the price tag will be, that is another question and one that is dependent upon the DJIA and the world markets.  The company has little choice to spin the company off and CEO Benmosche is at the point that he’d probably like to offer some proof to taxpayers that he’s ready to start paying back that huge debt owed.  This is not the first sale or divestiture inside AIG, and it won’t be the last.

AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) may be an unlikely spin-off company considering that the industry is consolidating.  The parent of American Airlines said recently that it may revive plans to jettison its regional air-carrier arm of American Eagle.  This is partly in response to criticism over its long-term strategy.  The company has gone as far as putting one of its more senior and well-respected executives in charge of American Eagle.  AMR tried this before and the two companies were not solid enough.  It is also a safe bet that the two may be more intertwined than they would believe just on the surface.  After going through the spin-off candidates out there, this is one to watch.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is not going to be a game-changer, but it is expected to bring in around $4 billion by selling off its stake in Brazilian bank preferred shares and common stock in Itau Unibanco Holding SA.  This is part of the company’s effort to raise additional capital by June 30 and helps BofA meet a capital requirement to lift its common equity level by about $3 billion, via asset sales and holdings sales, as part of a regulatory agreement from when it paid back $45 billion for its bailout.

Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS) has a spin-off or sale coming, maybe.  Barclays Private Equity is expected to be spun out of the bank as soon as this summer.  That will allow its management to raise between €1.5 billion and €2 billion for their next fund, something that is going to be hard to do under the coming financial regulatory changes coming in the U.K. and in the U.S.  Talks have been ongoing and it seems that a management buyout is the likely end game.

BP plc (NYSE: BP) is in the pending-pending category.  Telling you about the Gulf of Mexico woes is not even needed, but the talk over the weekend is that now BP may look to raise as much as $50 billion.  This would be from bank loans, bond sales, and even from asset sales.  BP solar would be one of the world’s largest independent solar companies, and you know that employees now at this unit aren’t feeling as proud of their name as they were about 60 days ago.  BP has toiled with consolidating before, and BP solar is one of the operations some feel could make the grade.  It is still too soon to know if even could get anything sold off.  It is not as if there are not creative enough of attorneys in the United States that know how to try to enjoin assets even after a disposition of those assets.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is probably not a huge shock that it is on the list of spin-offs and unit divestitures.  Recent reports put GE as shopping around its Latin American bank and credit card business called BAC-Credomatic GECF.  Reuters noted that the proposed sale is part of a plan already outlined in April aimed at trimming down financial services as a percentage of the company.  Reuters also sourced about $1.5 billion as a price tag in today’s markets versus about $500 million paid for the near-half stake in BAC-Credomatic in 2005 before then raising the stake to 75%.  Is this one a done deal for sure?  Probably not.  The $170 billion market cap makes this one of a gesture of goodwill on the surface.

Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ:GENZ) used to have tracking stocks for the Genzyme Biosurgery and Genzyme Molecular Oncology units, and it ended that by acquiring the units in 2003.  But the new recent shareholder value plan shows Genzyme is now considering strategic options for its Genetic testing, Diagnostic products, and for its pharmaceutical intermediates operations.  The company said the consideration involves a sale, a spin-off or even a management buyout. The company said that it has already selected some possible partners for the units and that it has even received some initial inquiries.  The company also contacted Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse for assistance.  With a $14 billion market cap, and a $2 billion share buyback plan ($1 billion just accelerated now), this could greatly change the focus of Genzyme in a more narrow manner.

HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) has announced that it was in talks in recent weeks to sell off its private equity fund management businesses in England, Hong Kong, the United States, Canada and elsewhere. This sale appears to be similar to Barclays as being management buyouts.  After looking around for figures, the private-equity businesses under consideration have close to $8.8 billion in funds under management, but the kicker is that about 20% of the assets are HSBC’s.  Predicting a sale price here at this juncture may be far too soon, but there is now way it could be sold for under 1% of assets under management and probably not more than 10% of assets under management.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) has already begun to brace for different forms of military spending in the future.  The company has begun to reshape its portfolio to  drive its longer-term performance.  Up for grabs are most of the Enterprise Integration Group and also Pacific Architects and Engineers, which are both under its Information Systems & Global Services operations today.  EIG provides independent systems engineering and integration products and services and the PAE unit is in mission readiness, global infrastructure support, and in disaster relief activities; the two units are said to comprise only about 3% total revenue and less than 3% of operating profits.  With close to a $30 billion market cap, straight-line accounting would put this being close to $1 billion on the market at current prices.

McDermott International Inc. (NYSE: MDR) has been given a tax-free spin-off status under IRS ruling for its Babcock & Wilcox Company, its power generations systems unit and government operations.  McDermott and B&W are continuing to work to satisfy all the conditions to the spin-off transaction, including obtaining applicable governmental approvals, and the company expects the spin-off to be completed in the third quarter of this calendar.  The engineering and construction company said in May that spin-off costs ended up taking a bite out of earnings, but a 21% revenue decline worked its magic too.  The company is also set to spin out the J. Ray McDermott S.A. unit into another independent and publicly traded company.  Due to sector issues and due to a $5.6 billion market cap, McDermott is probably not one to ignore.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has restructured literally for almost the entire time I have covered equities.  The mobile communications technology giant is about to be much different after its cell phone spin-off comes.  Unfortunately, that is not expected until 2011.  As disappointment as lingered here forever, it is probably safe to assume that Hello-Moto could always yell “Do-Over!” and change its mind.  Motorola recruited Sanjay Jha in 2008 as the turnaround man by making him co-CEO and the head of mobile phone and cable set-top box operations.  If this sounds familiar, it should.  The first spin-off (or sale) was expected in 2008 but things in the markets caused that spin-off to get delayed.

Questar Corporation (NYSE: STR) recently announced that its board of directors approved and set the record and distribution dates for its tax-free spin-off of its natural gas and oil exploration and production and midstream field services businesses to shareholders on June 30, 2010 to Questar shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 18, 2010. Questar’s shareholders will receive one share of QEP common stock for each share of Questar common stock held as of the record date, and this includes fractional shares. With an $8.7 billion market cap, the Questar deal is oe to watch.  In the spin-off are:

• QEP Energy Company, formerly Questar Exploration and Production, a diversified natural gas and oil-exploration, development and production company;
• QEP Field Services Company, formerly Questar Gas Management, a midstream field services company that gathers and processes natural gas in the Rocky Mountain region and northwest Louisiana;
• and QEP Marketing Company, formerly Questar Energy Trading, which markets natural gas and oil on behalf of QEP Energy Company and others and operates a natural gas storage facility in western Wyoming.

Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN) is going to separate its coke business to unlock shareholder value. The company also said it anticipates its refining segment to report a profit for the quarter ending June 30, so things at the core business may be improving.  With the woes of refining margins seen at competitors like Valero, a focus here may not be such a surprise.  The $4 billion market cap might not be changed drastically here, but a recent upgrade to “Overweight” by Barclays with a $45 per share price target make it less surprising that Sunoco is close to 52-week highs while refining stocks are generally lower.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) (NASDAQ: VZ) has established a record date of June 7, 2010 for the proposed spin-off of shares of subsidiary New Communications Holdings Inc. to Verizon stock holders.  This spin-off and the merger of New Communications with Frontier Communications Corporation (NYSE: FTR) is expected to occur on July 1, 2010, at last look and is subject to closing conditions in the merger agreement(s) among Verizon, Frontier and New Communications.  Immediately after the completion of the merger, Verizon holders will own between about 66% and 71% of the shares of Frontier common stock; and Frontier’s common holders will collectively own 29% to 34% before accounting for the elimination of fractional shares.  Verizon common holders will not be required to pay for any shares of Frontier common stock that they receive and will also retain all of their shares of Verizon common stock.  Verizon has spun-off Idearc and the biggest change that could ever come down the road is that Vodafone plc (NYSE: VOD) relationship over Verizon Wireless.

Vishay Intertechnology Inc. (NYSE: VSH) has six major business lines: Automotive, Computer, Consumer, Industrial, Medical, and Telecom.  Last week the company said it has set tentative spin-off dates for Vishay Precision Group Inc., its measurements and foil resistor business, of July 6, 2010.  This is subject to satisfaction of all conditions and will give stockholders one share of the new company for every 14 of Vishay Intertechnology shares owned.  Vishay Precision shares will trade under the stock ticker “VPG” on the NYSE.  As it stands today it seems that Vishay has over 22,000 employees, and Vishay has a market cap of only $1.64 billion as of Friday.

Asset sales, spin-offs, divestitures, distributions and more are all part of corporate strategies.  This also becomes the “special situation” category of investing.  If units can enhance shareholder value more by being sold or by being put on their own, hen that is the job of management to decide.  But these also are brought up often after pressure from activist shareholders.  These also often create many more shareholder opportunities in either the old parent company or in the spin-co.  Stay tuned.

JON C. OGG

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Started as Buy at Janney (late yesterday).
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Started as Market Perform at Thomas Weisel.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) Cut to Hold at Bofa/Merrill Lynch; Cut to Underweight at Barclays.
CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) Raised to Overweight at HSBC.
Comverge, Inc. (NASDAQ: COMV) Started as Buy at Needham.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) Started as Neutral at Janney (late yesterday).
DIRECTV (NYSE: DTV) Cut To Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) Cut to Underperform at Macquarie.
General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) Started as Overweight at HSBC.
Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) Started as Buy at Janney (late yesterday).
Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN) Raised to Market Perform at BMO Capital.
Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
STEC Inc. (NASDAQ: STEC) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

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

Sponsor: 3 Recovery Stocks to Own Now – Get the names of the best cheap stocks to rebuild your wealth in 2010 and beyond.