24/7 Wall St. » TRLG

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALTR, AMSC, BIIB, CELG, COH, CSTR, COP, FSLR, GILD, HAIN, MA, RF, TRLG)

Administrator — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:23:06 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street brokerage and research firms this Friday morning.

Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Coach, Inc. (NYSE: COH) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Cut to Neutral at Collins Stewart.
Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) Started as Overweight at Barclays; Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ: HAIN) maintained Outperform and named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $450 at Argus.
Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
True Religion Apparel, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG) Cut to Hold at Brean Murray.

If you enjoyed the top analyst calls, you can sign up in the box below to join our morning email list to receive news directly in your inbox each morning. We include major analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO and M&A news, special situation developments, observations on Warren Buffett and key market gurus, as well as special exclusive feature stories.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: ALTR, AMSC, BIIB, CELG, COH, COP, CSTR, FSLR, GILD, HAIN, MA, RF, TRLG

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALU, CPB, CYH, CS, FRX, GG, INTC, LDK, MSFT, OPEN, PMT, THC, TSO, TRLG)

Administrator — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:32:55 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Thursday morning.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Maintained Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) named Bear of the Day with Neutral rating at Zacks.
Community Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CYH) Started as Hold at Jefferies.
Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) Cut to Sell at SocGen.
Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: FRX) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) Cut to Underweight at HSBC.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) Cut to Neutral at Roth Capital.
LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) Started as Neutral at Roth Capital.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) Cut estimates ahead of earnings season at Credit Suisse.
OpenTable, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.
PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) named as Bull of the Day with Outperform rating at Zacks.
True Religion Apparel Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG) Started as Buy at BB&T.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, dividend trends, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ALU, CPB, CS, CYH, FRX, GG, INTC, LDK, MSFT, OPEN, PMT, THC, TRLG, TSO

Top Active Trader Alert Stocks (INTT, MELI, MPWR, POT, BHP, QCOM, TRLG, URRE, WFMI)

Administrator — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:03:49 +0000

Active traders and day traders have many stocks to choose from this Thursday morning. We are tracking news and moves in shares of inTEST Corp. (NASDAQ: INTT), MercadoLibre Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI), Monolithic Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: MPWR), Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT), BHP Billiton plc (NYSE: BHP), QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), True Religion Apparel Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG), Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: URRE), and Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI).

inTEST Corp. (NASDAQ: INTT) is getting smoked after earnings; shares are down 25.8% at $2.47 on thin volume versus a 52-week range of $0.60 to $4.65.

MercadoLibre Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) is down after the auction and commerce site in Latin American showed revenue of $56 million, short of $62 million consensus; shares are down 4.2% at $61.95 and the 52-week range is $35.50 to $76.81.

Monolithic Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: MPWR) is not so monolithic after weak earnings; shares are down 11.7% at $14.88.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) is unsurprisingly lower now that Canada blocked the BHP Billiton plc (NYSE: BHP) acquisition of the company. Potash Corp. shares are down 4.5% at $138.90, its lowest levels in some time since the merger came up; BHP shares are up 4.5% at $89.94 to new 52-week highs.

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) beat earnings last night and raised its 2011 guidance based on strong smartphone demand. Shares are up 7.7% at $49.21 on more than 1 million pre-market shares.

True Religion Apparel Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG) showed that expensive jeans aren’t immune to the world… it lowered guidance for the full year to $1.78 or lower versus $1.88 EPS consensus. Shares are down 9.1% at $18.30.

Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: URRE) is soaring after entering a letter of intent for exploration with Cameco to explore Texas properties. Shares are up 13.5% at $1.94.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) is continuing to make gains after effectively doubling earnings and raising guidance. Shares are up almost 9% at $44.66, a new 52-week high after the prior range is $24.94 to $43.18.

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

Filed under: Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: BHP, INTT, MELI, MPWR, POT, QCOM, TRLG, URRE, WFMI

The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Stock Market Report 5.24 The Wisdom Of Crowds?

247wallst — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:48:29 +0000

Twitter has, by most estimates, 100 million members, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million Twitter users. It raises the question of whether there is wisdom in crowds.

24/7 Wall St. will look at the Twitter posts at Reuters Biz, WSJ, Financial Times, CNN Money, MarketWatch, CNBC, and 24/7 Wall St. each day to see which stocks are most frequently mentioned. It is clear that in this area of social media these tweet are a sign of which companies the Twitter universe is interested in. These financial sites are followed by a combined 625,000 Twitter users which makes them a sizeable sample of Wall St.’s interests. In some cases, we will publish the actual tweets from the sites.

Among the daily top trending symbols on stock twitter aggregator StockTwits are Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc (NYSE: CMG), Rambus, Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), True Religion Apparel, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG), Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE: FDO), Cliffs Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE: CLF), VMWare, Inc (NYSE: VMW), and Novell Inc (NASDAQ: NOVL).CNN Money: Oil sputters in choppy trading http://bit.ly/do0xs0

Reuters Biz: IBM to buy Sterling Commerce from ATT for $1.4 billion http://link.reuters.com/tej95k

Reuters Biz: Bank of Spain takes control of savings bank CajaSur http://link.reuters.com/vej95k

MarketWatch: Commentary: BP’s Hayward is haywired on spill, er, leak http://bit.ly/dvk6Cn

FT: Berlin prepares for €10bn yearly cuts: The German government is to begin a drastic budget austerity programme next… http://bit.ly/a24x1k

FT: Anger at White House over oil spill role: The Obama administration faces mounting criticism against its handling o… http://bit.ly/b80fRk

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Research Tagged: CLF, CMG, FDO, GOOG, NOVL, RMBS, TRLG, Twitter, VMW

Select Retail Short Squeezes? (PSUN, FINL, TRLG)

247wallst — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:22:50 +0000

Short sellers could be on the run here in several retailers. Each day our software tracks stocks that have high short interest and are either short squeezes or potential short squeezes in a real time.

After the FOMC announcement, several stocks in the retail space are shaping up nicely as potential short squeezes. Noteworthy moves today include Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN) up 4.13%, Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ: FINL) up 3.22% and True Religion Apparel Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG) up 2.00%.

Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN) has 3,356,015 shares in the short interest with a short ratio of 2.62. Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ: FINL) has 2,592,396 shares in the short interest with a short ratio of 3.58

True Religion has 5,413,732 shares short with a short ratio of 8.75. The stock has recently pulled back from $28.90 to $18.84. Estimates are for $1.88 this year and $2.10 for next year which hardly makes this an expensive name.

What are the short sellers thinking?

Geoffrey A. Garbacz, GoodMorningWallSt.com

Posted in Apparel, Retail, Short Interest Tagged: FINL, PSUN, TRLG

True Religion: Raised Guidance A Warning (TRLG)

247wallst — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:23:08 +0000

The great growth mystery of True Religion Apparel Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG) might be coming in too light. After the close of trading, the high-end, or at least high-priced, jean and apparel maker posted earnings of $0.58 EPS on $82.4 million in revenues. While that is still growth in revenues, this is under the Thomson Reuters estimates of $0.59 EPS and $84.62 million in revenues. There is “raised guidance” from the company, but there are issues despite revenues being up almost 4% from a year ago.

The company also raised guidance. Revenues are effectively unchanged in guidance to a range of $295 million to $300 million in revenues, but earnings are now put in a target of $1.82 to $1.86 EPS versus prior guidance of $1.76 to $1.84 EPS. The problem is that Thomson Reuters already has estimates at $303.07 million in revenues and $1.88 EPS.

The problem here is not the growth or lack of growth, particularly if you take just the mid-point of revenue guidance and see that it is roughly 10% revenue growth from 2008. It is that the growth of the past and the valuations reached levels controversial enough and it defied logic (of many anyhow) to the point that the demands from analysts and investors became more and more. And many investors and skeptics wonder how long $100 to $200 (and higher) blue jeans can hold up in the ‘new normal.’

With a 3% gain today to $26.56, this was at the top of a $7.80 to $28.90 52-week trading range. The company also ended the day with a $638 million market cap. This stock briefly hit $30 in 2008 before it began a hard slide down to under $10.00 by the height of the market malaise in March-2009. The most recent short interest data shows some 5.41 million shares short, which is about 24% of the entire float.

Shares are down 10% at $23.70 in the after-hours session.

JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Posted in Apparel, Earnings, Earnings Warning Tagged: TRLG

True Religion, An Earnings Nirvana (TRLG)

247wallst — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:21:21 +0000

True Religion Apparel, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG) juust reported Q2 revenues in a gain of 78.9% year/year of $64.2 million and EPS of $0.39 on net income of $9.3 million. The estimates from First Call were $50.17M in revenues and $0.32 on EPS.

The company said this was another quarter of record breaking growthwith strong sales momentum across each business segment. The high-enddenim maker opened 12 new stores during the quarter to end with 30stores and it now has 34 stores as of today. It is now raising itstarget store count to 39 from 35 by year-end.

The company sees 2008 sales at $242 to $247M and $1.61 to $1.65 EPS, above prior estimates of $220 to $225M in revenue and above prior EPS targets of $1.52 to $1.56.

The economy may be soft, but those who buy $200 to $300 blue jeansdidn’t get the memo. This one closed up 4.5% ahead of earnings at$26.72 and its initial trades in after-hours are up around $28.00. Its52-week trading range is $13,89 to $28.90.

According to NASDAQ data,this has 9.666 million shares listed in the short interest (about 61%of the float). Betting against this fad has remained a hard trade to hold.

Jon C. Ogg
August 6, 2008

Cult Stock Earnings Bonanza (DIVX, VCLK, CROX, HANS, LOCM, RNWK, RICK, TRLG, VG)

247wallst — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:35:20 +0000

While most of the investment community goes out breaking down earnings for major stocks, there is a huge interest in many of the cult stocks reporting earnings. Among the cult stocks we have reporting this week, the following is a list of key stocks reporting: DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX), ValueClick Inc. (NASDAQ: VCLK), CROCS Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX), Hansen Natural Corporation (NASDAQ: HANS), Local.com Corp. (NASDAQ: LOCM), RealNetworks Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK), Rick’s Cabaret International Inc. (NASDAQ: RICK), True Religion Apparel Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG), and Vonage Holdings Corporation (NYSE: VG).

Cult stocks are often fad stocks, but they tend to see explosive volume on news and often have high short interest. Many of these stocks have been covered in our weekly "10 Stocks Under $10" newsletter we send out too. Here is a breakdown of these individually:

Today after market close we’ll get to see the earnings out of DivX,Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX). The estimates for the digital media company fromFirst Call are $0.14 EPS on $25.04 million in revenues. Next quarterestimates are $0.07 EPS on $21.49 million in revenues. Estimates forfiscal Dec-2008 are $0.47 EPS on $98.24 million in revenues. The52-week range is $6.12 to $19.35. Shares are trading at $7.56 inmid-day Monday trading.

DIVX just made our newsletter watch list this weekend as one we’ll update fortomorrow because of a large short interest, huge sell-off, and more.

Tuesday after market close we’ll get to see the earnings out ofValueClick Inc. (NASDAQ: VCLK). The estimates for the onlineadvertising company from First Call are $0.16 EPS on $169.62 million inrevenues. Next quarter estimates are $0.17 EPS on $174.90 million inrevenues. Estimates for fiscal Dec-2008 are $0.79 EPS on $739.00million in revenues. The 52-week range is $16.11 to $36.70. Sharesare trading at $20.73 in mid-day Monday trading.

If there is one advertising name that is of interest to the public now that MSFT-YHOO is off, it’s ValueClick.

Wednesday after market close we’ll get to see the earnings out of CROCSInc. (NASDAQ: CROX). The estimates for the footwear and apparel companyfrom First Call are $0.10 EPS on $196.67 million in revenues. Nextquarter estimates are $0.43 EPS on $252.19 million in revenues.Estimates for fiscal Dec-2008 are $1.60 EPS on $1.00 billion inrevenues. The coverage is very thin and that they are greatly variedfrom estimate to estimate. The 52-week range is $9.53 to $75.21.Shares are trading at $10.16 in mid-day Monday trading.

CROX we recently covered in our "Under $10" letter as one that is adone fad stock. But, money is money. Traders will get all sorts oftrading opportunities to buy on weakness and sell into strength.

Wednesday after market close we’ll get to see the earnings out ofHansen Natural Corporation (NASDAQ: HANS). The estimates for thebeverage distributor from First Call are $0.35 EPS on $220.73 millionin revenues. Next quarter estimates are $0.61 EPS on $337.18 millionin revenues. Estimates for fiscal June-2008 are $2.14 EPS on $1.22billion in revenues. Estimates for fiscal June-2009 are $2.62 EPS on$1.48 billion in revenues. The coverage is thin and that they aregreatly varied from estimate to estimate. The 52-week range is $30.77to $68.40. Shares are trading at $35.17 in mid-day Monday trading.

Isthere a bigger cult stock in the beverage and specialty drink space?

Thursday after market close we’ll get to see the earnings out ofLocal.com Corp. (NASDAQ: LOCM). The estimates for the localized onlinesearch engine from First Call are -$0.20 EPS on $8.20 million inrevenues. Next quarter estimates are -$0.17 EPS on $9.49 million inrevenues. Estimates for fiscal Dec-2008 are -$0.55 EPS on $41.04million in revenues. The coverage is very thin and that they aregreatly varied from estimate to estimate. The 52-week range is $2.77to $13.74. Shares are trading at $5.00 in mid-day Monday trading.

Local.com has been covered successfully on two occasions in the "Under$10" weekly letter for trading opportunities ahead of events. Staytuned here.

Thursday after market close we’ll get to see the earnings out ofRealNetworks Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK). The estimates for thenetwork-delivered digital media product provider from First Call are-$0.03 EPS on $141.57 million in revenues. Next quarter estimates are-$0.02 EPS on $150.27 million in revenues. Estimates for fiscalDec-2008 are -$0.06 EPS on $623.08 million in revenues. The 52-weekrange is $5.07 to $8.76. Shares are trading at $6.52 in mid-day Mondaytrading.

As this one received a huge cash infusion from Microsoft and as it hasmillions of players on desktops, this one is very-cultish.

Thursday after market close we’ll get to see the earnings out of Rick’sCabaret International Inc. (NASDAQ: RICK). The estimates for thepremier operator of adult nightclubs from First Call are $0.28 EPS on$14.82 million in revenues. Next quarter estimates are $0.30 EPS on$15.68 million in revenues. Estimates for fiscal Sept-2008 are $1.17EPS on $58.05 million in revenues. The 52-week range is $7.51 to$29.79. Shares are trading at $19.04 in mid-day Monday trading.

Can you believe we covered this one as the market cap grew past $100million? At one point it was up huge, but shares have come back offlately. Are topless bars recession-proof?

Thursday after market close we’ll get to see the earnings out of TrueReligion Apparel Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG). The estimates for the apparelcompany from First Call are $0.26 EPS on $45.16 million in revenues.The coverage is thin and that they are greatly varied from estimate toestimate. The 52-week range is $13.89 to $23.74. Shares are tradingat $19.45 in mid-day Monday trading.

Huge short interest in a company that makes $150 jeans look cheap, andone that at one point tried to sell itself. Also has the cool jeansimage and wide celebrity use base. Citi recently downgraded it. Does it get more cultish?

Thursday morning we’ll get to see the earnings out of Vonage HoldingsCorporation (NYSE: VG). The estimates for the broadband telephoneservices company from First Call are -$0.07 EPS on $222.30 million inrevenues. Next quarter estimates are -$0.02 on $227.64 million inrevenues. Estimates for fiscal Dec-2008 are -$0.16 EPS on $923.50million in revenues. The coverage is thin and that they are greatlyvaried from estimate to estimate. The 52-week range is $0.89 to$3.77. Shares are trading at $1.85 in mid-day Monday trading.

Vonage has also recently appeared in the "10 Under $10" weekly letter as one to watch asit is testing the water for a financier to see if it can clean up itsbooks.

As a reminder, all earnings dates are subject to change and may have already changed from the last available data. Many cult stocks have very thin analyst coverage, and many cult stocks get no real analyst coverage at all.

Jon C. Ogg
May 5, 2008

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (ANF, ATI, BCS, DTV, LVLT, MFB, RFMD, QLTI, TTWO, TRLG)

247wallst — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:15:10 +0000

These are ten of the top calls we are seeing that could impact shares early this Thursday morning:

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) started as Market Perform at Morgan Keegan.
Allegheny Tech (NYSE: ATI) Cut to Neutral From Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Barclays (NYSE: BCS) cut to Neutral at Collins Stewart.
DIRECTV (NYSE: DTV) downgraded to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) raised to Neutral from Sell at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Maidenform Brands (NYSE: MFB) Cut to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
RF Micro Device (NASDAQ: RFMD) raised to Buy at Jefferies.
QLTI Inc. (NASDAQ: QLTI) raised to Outperform at RBC Capital.
Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) cut to Hold from Buy at Citigroup.
True Religion Apparel (NASDAQ: TRLG) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.

Jon C. Ogg
April 24, 2008

Pre-Market Analyst calls (August 8, 2007)

247wallst — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:34:06 +0000

ACLS raised to Equal Weitght at Lehman.
AEG cut to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
ALXN cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
CSC raised to Hold at Jefferies.
CSCO raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
DKS cut to Hold at Citigroup.
ENN raised to Outperform at Baird.
GNEt started as Buy at Oppenheimer.
GNW raised to Buy at UBS.
HLYS downgraded at JPMorgan, Wachovia, Baird, CIBC.
HS started as Neutral at B of A.
IPGP raised to Overweight at Lehman.
LEAP cut to Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
OVTI raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
PCLN raised to Positive at Susquehanna.
PCS cut to Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
PSPT raised to Outperform at Piper Jaffray.
RDN cut to Hold at Citigroup.
TRLG raised to Outperform at FBR.
WMG raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Jon C. Ogg
August 8, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.