Posts for Ticker ‘TRI’

US Healthcare System Wastes $800 Billion A Year

bearThe Administration may not need to push a healthcare reform bill though Congress. It might be better off creating laws that would wring excess out of the current system. It would avoid risking hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayers money and would yield enough capital to help give insurance to the uninsured.

New data compiled by the healthcare analytics group at Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) found that the “U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year.” Read More »

Posted on: October 26, 2009 – 5:38 am in Regulation, Research,

Ten Canadian Companies With Management Compensation Issues

welchThe Corporate Library’s latest annual review of corporate governance  at TSX 60 companies in Canada turned up eleven which present high or very high concerns with regard to CEO compensation:

Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE:KGC)
EnCana Corporation  (NYSE:ECA)
TransCanada Corporation  (NYSE:TRP)
Canadian National Railway Company  (NYSE:CNI)
BCE Inc.   (NYSE:BCI)
Royal Bank of Canada   (NYSE:RY)
Thomson Reuters Corporation  (NYSE:TRI)
Husky Energy Inc.  
Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation  
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc.   (NYSE:POT)
Rogers Communications Inc.  (NYSE:RCI)

US companies aren’t the only ones with pay issues.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 23, 2009 – 6:32 am in Compensation, , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest (10/15/2009) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is having trouble justifying its huge bonuses.

Reuters:   Bruce Wasserstein, M&A giant and head of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ), died.

Reuters:   Congress will probe compensation at AIG (NYSE:AIG).

Reuters:   US foreclosures fell for a second month but stayed high. Read More »

Posted on: October 15, 2009 – 4:04 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/7/2009) (NOK)(AAPL)(JPM)(GE)(WYNN)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Updated 2:44 Dell Inc. (NYSE: DELL) will launch a branded Android smartphone thru AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and possibly other carriers next year.  Source today is from WSJ, but ask this… How many phone and consumer electronics announcements have been rumored on Dell?

Updated 1.36 PM EST:  Pimco left the bondholders steering committee at CIT (NYSE:CIT) last month  (CNBC)

Updated 12.45 PM:  Polycom (NSADAQ:PLCM) could be taken over by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) or Dell (NASDAQ:DELL). Interdigital (NASDAQ: IDCC) could be bought by Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and ValueClick (NASDAQ:VCLK) could be taken over by any one of a number of companies.  (Barron’s)

Updated 12.41 PM:   GM head of American sales leaves amid talk that car company CFO may be next  (CNNMoney)

Update 10.50 AM EST:  Congress may pass a bill which will require that public companies split the roles of chairman and CEO.  (MarketWatch)

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) may be involved in the bidding for McGraw-Hill’s (NYSE:MHP) BusinessWeek working jointly with Zelnick Media. Strauss Zelnick is on the boards of Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI) and Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO)  (PaidContent).

Citigroup (NYSE:C) may sell it Philbro unit which is paying its chief $100 million  this year.  (CNBC)

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has narrowed its list of CEOs to two people  (WSJ).

Foxconn has a deal to make 300,000 to 400,000 Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) tablet PCs to ship in Q1  (DigiTimes)

Collins Stewart believes that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) are on the lookout for acquisitions. (The Deal).

Share sales by Steve Wynn, head of Wynn (NASDAQ:WYNN), and his COO may be” a canary in the coal mine to other investors to take some profits on the gains in this sector since the March lows.” That would include MGM (NYSE:MGM) and Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS)  (TheStreet.com)

Private equity firms Bain Capital and THL Partners are asking banks that supported their buy-out of Clear Channel Communications to help restructure the firm’s debt. Those banks include Citigroup (NYSE:C), Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS), Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS).  (NYPost)

News Corp (NYSE:NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch is in Japan and South Korea and may be discussing partnerships to build a rival product to the Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle.  (Reuters)

Vivendi will discuss selling its 20% stake in GE’s (NYSE:GE) NBCU at its October 19 board meeting to allow a transaction with Comcast (NADSAQ:CMCSA) which would involve the cable company getting control of media firm.  (BusinessWeek)

JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) executive  Heidi Miller could be in the running for the CEO job at Bank of America. (The Big Money)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 7, 2009 – 9:22 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (CROX, FTE, MMC, PCS, WTR, LEAP, NVO, RRGB, TI, TRI)

Everyone is on hold for jobs data, but there are still pre-market research calls.  These are the top ten analyst calls we saw for upgrades and downgrades this Friday morning:

Crocs (CROX) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
France Telecom (FTE) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Marsh & McLennan (MMC) Raised to Buy at UBS.
MetroPCS (PCS) Raised to Hold at Auriga.
Aqua America (WTR) Cut to Neutral at HSBC.
Leap Wireless (LEAP) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel; Cut to Hold at Soleil.
Novo Nordisk (NVO) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs; Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan; Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Red Robin Gourmet (RRGB) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Telecom Italia (TI) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Thomson Reuters (TRI) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: August 7, 2009 – 8:00 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ARG, T, GOOG, HOV, MELI, SSL, STO, TSM, TRI, WSM)

These are the top ten analyst calls for research upgrades, downgrades, and initiations which we have seen from Wall Street early this Monday morning:
Airgas (ARG) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
AT&T (T) Removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs, but maintained Buy rating with 32% upside.
Google (GOOG) Cut to Hold from Buy at Benchmark.
Hovnanian (HOV) Cut to Underperform at Wachovia.
MercadoLibre (MELI) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna.
Sassol (SSL) Started as Neutral at UBS.
StatoilHydro (STO) Cut to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
Taiwan Semi (TSM) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Thomson Reuters (TRI) Raised to Outperform at Scotia.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM) Raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.

JON C. OGG
June 8, 2009

Posted on: June 8, 2009 – 6:53 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Earlybird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AEP, CME, FNFG, KFT, LSTR, RGLD, SD, SBUX, TRI)

We still have well over two-hours until the opening bell this Thursday morning.  So far we have seen many select upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street analysts.  Here is what we have seen so far:

American Electric (NYSE: AEP) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
CME Group Inc. (NYSE: CME) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
First Niagara Financial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Landstar System Inc. (NASDAQ: LSTR) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) Raised to Sector Perform at CIBC.
SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE: SD) started as Buy at SunTrust Robinson.
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg

Posted on: April 16, 2009 – 6:14 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ABB, BCS, CPO, CYNO, FFIV, GG, HMA, HBC, MBT, NWS, TRI, VIA, VIP)

Burning_money_picThese are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades we have seen early this Friday morning:

  • ABB (ABB) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Barclays (BCS) Cut to Sell at RBS.
  • Corn Products (CPO) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
  • Cynosure (CYNO) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • F5 Networks (FFIV) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Goldcorp (GG) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Health Management (HMA) Cut to underweight at Barclays.
  • HSBC (HBC) Cut to Sell at RBS.
  • Mobile TeleSystems (MBT) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
  • News Corp. (NWS) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Thomson Reuters (TRI) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Viacom (VIA) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Vimpelcom (VIP) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Jon C. Ogg
January 16, 2009

Posted on: January 16, 2009 – 7:53 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Downgrades (AMSF, SQM, TRI, TSCO, WOOF, VOLVY)

There were not as many analysts calls today, and you will see that the upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street analysts are just not as robust as some might have expected.  Here are this Wednesday’s early bird downgrades:

  • Amerisafe (NASDAQ: AMSF) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Sociedad Quimica (NYSE: SQM) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) Cut To Sector Perform By Scotia
  • Tractor Supply (NASDAQ: TSCO) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • VCA Antech (NASDAQ: WOOF) Cut to Market Perform at Morgan Keegan.
  • Volvo (NASDAQ: VOLVY) Cut to Sell at UBS.

Jon C. Ogg
January 7, 2009

Posted on: January 7, 2009 – 7:44 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , ,

Stock Buybacks This Week (TROW, TECD, TRI, CTS)

This week was pretty light in the week of share repurchase announcements, and most of these were mere add-on buybacks to existing plans.  Here are some of the plan additions announced this week:

  • T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) added 15 million shares of stock to its existing buyback plan, close to 6% of its outstanding stock.
  • Tech Data (NASDAQ: TECD) announced $100 million for share buybacks, in addition to its existing plan.  Its market cap is almost $2 Billion, so about 5% of its outstanding stock.
  • One interesting buyback came from Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI), which added $500 million to its buybacks.  While this is technically an add-on plan, it is after the Reuters and Thomson merger.
  • A small announcement came from CTS Corp. (NYSE: CTS), which announced it would repurchase up to 1 million shares of common stock.  That is only about $11 million in today’s dollars and its market cap is $365 million.

It seems that share buybacks are getting less and less on the new buyback plans, but that may be dual-imposed function.  The first and obvious cause for the lack of new share buybacks is that this was the most in-vogue announcement that a company could make in 2006 and 2007 with each year seeing massive amounts of cash used to return stock and return capital to shareholders.  The more pressing issue however may be the obvious in that companies may realize they need to start hording cash for what lies ahead.

Some traders prefer share buybacks and some do not.  To 247WallSt.com they make plenty of sense if the buyback is used as a stabilizing factor in volatile times.  But when companies keep buying back stock if there shares are under no pressure we frequently think they are trying to juice their internal EPS growth or that they can’t find many good alternatives for growth.  Obviously that isn’t always the case.

Jon C. Ogg
June 6, 2008

Posted on: June 6, 2008 – 10:58 am in Stock Buybacks, , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (BVF, CERN, GIGM, IRBT, MHS, MDP, SII, STLD, STI, TRI)

These are not all of the analyst calls, but these are ten of the calls affecting shares this Wednesday morning:

  • Biovail (NYSE: BVF) cut to Sector Perform at CIBC.
  • Cerner (NASDAQ: CERN) raised to Buy at Jefferies.
  • GigaMedia (NASDAQ: GIGM) started as Nuy at Brean Murray.
  • iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT) raised to Buy at Kaufman.
  • Medco Health (NYSE: MHS) raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
  • Meredith (NYSE: MDP) cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Smith International (NYSE: SII) raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; also cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ: STLD) cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) raised to Market Perform at KBW.
  • Triad Hospitals (NYSE: TRI) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
April 23, 2008

Posted on: April 23, 2008 – 6:49 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,