24/7 Wall St. » TAL

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.

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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 (BHI, BEAM, BA, CSCO, ECL, FXCM, GPS, GE, HPQ, IBM, IBKR, ITT, KMP, PAA, TAL, TER)

Administrator — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:31:47 +0000

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

Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.
Beam Inc. (NYSE: BEAM) Started as Hold at Argus.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) Started as Buy at IS Group.
Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
FXCM Inc. (NYSE: FXCM) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Started as Overweight at Barclays.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) Started as Buy at ISI Group.
International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) Started as Outperform at Macquarie.
Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ: IBKR) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
ITT Corporation (NYSE: ITT) Started as Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP) Started as Neutral at JPMorgan.
Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE: PAA) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
TAL International Group, Inc. (NYSE: TAL) named Value stock of the day at Zacks.
Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE: TER) lowered target to $12 as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BA, BEAM, BHI, CSCO, ECL, FXCM, GE, GPS, HPQ, IBKR, IBM, ITT, KMP, PAA, TAL, TER

Value Investor Hunt: Finding Value in Shipping Containers (TAL, TGH, BOX)

Administrator — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:14:22 +0000

Now that the stock market is not hitting new highs each day, investors are looking for value stocks. They might be looking for value inside sectors either with companies trading at the lowest earnings multiples, or maybe they are just looking for the best quality in those which have sold off the most. Our value screen today comes to TAL International Group, Inc. (NYSE: TAL) against some peers in the shipping sector on the heels of two positive analyst notes that are coinciding with each other.

If the indications are anywhere close to accurate, TAL International is a value stock that should be worth a look in the transport segment of leasing intermodal containers and chassis. Keefe Bruyette & Woods raised its rating to Outperform with a $41 target based upon its current pricing and discount. More importantly, or in more detail, comes an internal research audio-video report from a Thomson Reuters analyst calling TAL International a Stellar Small Cap.

One comparison is to Textainer Group Holdings Limited (NYSE: TGH) but TAL International has a better dividend after looking at the two as it pays 6% in yield versus not quite 4% at Textainer. Another relative play is in the much smaller company called SeaCube Container Leasing Ltd. (NYSE: BOX), but even with some more attractive multiples SeaCube slightly lags with a 5.4% dividend yield.

Mike Tarsala sees TAL International as having solid business and pricing power with about 98% of its containers in use. He calls it a $35 stock with about 29% upside to $45 if it meets earnings targets this year.

After these two calls coincided in TAL, we wanted to see what else was driving the stock (up or down)…

TAL International was just given a #3 Hold rating at Zacks. Just a week ago came an initiation of TAL International by Wells Fargo with a target range of $42 to $45 per share. In late-April came word that R.W. Baird cut the rating to Neutral with a $40 target. In the last few days the company also closed on a $235 million note offering, which was rated as “A” by credit rating. It also got its earnings out of the way at the end of April.

At $32.95 its 52-week trading range is $20.43 to $38.45 and its market cap is about $1.05 billion. TAL International has consensus Thomson Reuters estimates of $3.41 EPS for 2011 and $3.70 EPS in 2012 and that gives forward earnings multiples of 10-times expected 2011 earnings and 9-times expected 2012 earnings.

A consensus price target from Thomson Reuters measures the external anaysts out there and that price target objective is $42.67. If the consensus is right, then the upside for TAL International is almost 30% for investors today.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: ADR, Analyst Calls, Transports, Value Investing Tagged: BOX, TAL, TGH

Another Look At The Fate Of The US Retail Industry

247wallst — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:26:18 +0000

AlixPartners, a turnaround firm, said at the beginning of the year that 10% to 26% of retailers were in financial distress and were in danger of filing for Chapter 11. It is worth considering how the researchers came up with that number, given that there are tens of thousands of retailers and hundreds of thousands of stores in America. Why wasn’t the number 9% or 27%? The answer is that the forecast is virtually useless, something like counting the number of poisonous snakes in an “Indian Jones” movie.

The only way to see what will happen in the retail industry in the next several quarters is to watch it like a hawk today. The first impression that many people get is that the retail business is OK because Wal-Mart is doing so well. But, Wal-Mart is the exception to the rule. Sam Walton’s company continues do well because its tremendous buying power, distribution, and brand allows it to attract customers who get relatively high quality products for very little money. Its success removes a great deal of the foot traffic from the rest of the industry.

For a more realistic view of how stores are fairing under the withering decrease in demand caused by the recession, Ann Taylor (ANN) is a good example for analysis. In the fourth quarter, its sales dropped 20% to $483 million. It will close 163 of its stores. That is from a total of 935. The company’s stock now trades at $2.82, down from a 52-week high of $29.23. Most of that collapse occurred over the last six months.

Ann Taylor does not sell expensive clothes and accessories and it does not sell cheap ones. That puts it right in the center of the drop-off in middle class buying power. Firms including Liz Claiborne (LIZ) and Talbot’s (TAL) are in about the same spot. Ann Taylor is probably much better off than genuinely failing retailers including Bon-Ton (BONT) and Gap (GPS). Ann Taylor, of course, is not Wal-Mart which will most likely stay in a world all its own for the duration of the downturn.

In the meantime, Ann Taylor will close nearly 20% of its stores. The company has 5,500 workers. A lot of those people will lose their jobs. Closing 20% of the Ann Taylor stores is probably about right. This forecast is as accurate as any available because it is based on real trends in the retail industry.

If large retailers close 20% or so of their stores, most of them will avoid becoming distressed or candidates for Chapter 11. The AjixPartner’s estimate was too high and did not take into account the rate at which the industry could cut off limbs to save the body.

Is the fate of retailers likely to be better than some of the most pessimistic forecasts? Yes. But, for this to happen big retail operations will have to do the hard thing and lots of people will lose their jobs.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in Retail Tagged: ANN, BONT, GPS, LIZ, TAL, WMT

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AIG, BBW, CPST, LNG, CMC, DLTR, IMCL, PSUN, TDSC, TAL)

247wallst — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:31:24 +0000

These are ten of the top analyst calls we are seeing this Monday morning:

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Build-A-Bear Workshop (NYSE: BBW) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Capstone Turbine (NASDAQ: CPST) Started as Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Cheniere Energy (AMEX: LNG) Cut to Hold from Buy at Citigroup.
Commercial Metals (NYSE: CMC) Started as Buy at UBS.
Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) Raised to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
ImClone Systems (NASDAQ: IMCL) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN) Cut to Sell from Buy at Citigroup.
3D Systems (NASDAQ: TDSC) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Piper Jaffray.
TAL International (NYSE: TAL) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse; but Raised to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.

Jon C. Ogg
May 12, 2008