Posts for Ticker ‘TROW’

Top Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (ADBE, BCS, STV, FPL, FLR, GME, PCLN, TOL, TSN, TROW)

These are this Wednesday’s top 10 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls:

Adobe Systems NASDAQ: ADBE) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS) Cut to Hold at RBS.
China Digital TV (NYSE: STV) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
FPL Group (NYSE: FPL) Raised to Buy at Citi.
Fluor (NYSE: FLR) Raised to Hold at Citi.
GameStop (NYSE: GME) Removed from Convition Buy List at Goldman Sachs (still Buy rated).
Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week to be notified of key merger news, key analyst calls, top early morning day trader alerts, along with news of IPO’s, key offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 8:11 am in Analyst Calls, Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ADSK, BA, BEAV, EXC, OXPS, RCL, UNH, TROW, WU, AUY)

These are this Monday morning’s top ten Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen with close to 2 hours until the market opens:
Autodesk (ADSK) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Boeing (BA) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
BE Aerospace (BEAV) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
Exelon (EXC) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
OptionsXpress (OXPS) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Royal Caribbean (RCL) Raised to Buy at S&P.
UnitedHealth (UNH) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
T. Rowe Price (TROW) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.
Western Union (WU) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Yamana Gold (AUY) Cut to Sector Perform at CIBC.

Jon C. Ogg
July 27, 2009

Posted on: July 27, 2009 – 6:45 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ALL, AZN, ETFC, FITB, JNPR, QCOM, RF, RYAAY, SEPR, HOT, TKR, TWC, TROW, UA, VE, ZNT)

These are some of the many pre-market downgrades and negative calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Friday morning:
Allstate (ALL) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
AstraZeneca (AZN) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
E*TRADE (ETFC) Cut to Underperform at Raymond James.
Fifth Third (FITB) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Qualcomm (QCOM) Cut to Hold at Societe Generale.
Regions Financial (RF) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Ryanair (RYAAY) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Sepracor (SEPR) Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Starwood Hotels (HOT) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Timken (TKR) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
Time Warner Cable (TWC) Cut to Sell at Collins Stewart.
T. Rowe Price (TROW) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Under Armour (UA) Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Veolia Environnement (VE) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Zenith National Insurance (ZNT) Cut to Market Perform at FBR; Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Jon C. Ogg
January 30, 2009

Posted on: January 30, 2009 – 8:01 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Merging The Mutual Fund Companies: Janus (JNS) And Alliance Bernstein (AB) Will Be Sold

Empire_2Being in the mutual fund and institutional money management business is almost as bad as being in commercial banking. Several companies in the industry have lost half of their assets between redemptions and the falling value of portfolios which have dropped with the market.

If the market continues to fall some of the public companies in the fund business will begin to lose large amounts of money. Their portfolio management, back office, marketing, trading, and administration costs can only be chopped by so much.

Based on their share prices, two fund companies are doing much worse than their peers. Shares in Alliance Bernstein (AB) and Janus (JNS) are trading off almost 70% over the last year.

Read More »

Posted on: January 14, 2009 – 3:02 pm in Financial Stocks, , , , ,

Downgrading Hedgies, Private Equity & Financials (BX, FIG, GLG, IVZ, JNS, OZM, STD, TROW)

Burning_money_picThere is an interesting trend where Barclays has essentially cut its rankings on hedge fund and private equity operators. Here are the calls, plus a call elsewhere on a bank:

  • Blackstone (NYSE: BX) Cut to Underweight at Barclays.
  • Fortress Investment (NYSE: FIG) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
  • GLG Partners (NYSE: GLG) Cut to Equal Weight at    Barclays.
  • INVESCO (NYSE: IVZ) Started as Equal Weight at Barclays.
  • Janus Capital (NYSE: JNS) Started as Underweight at Barclays.
  • Och-Ziff Capital (NYSE: OZM) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
  • Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD) Cut to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
  • T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) Started as Equal Weight at Barclays.

Jon C. Ogg
January 14, 2009

Posted on: January 14, 2009 – 7:50 am in Analyst Calls, Banking, Financial Stocks, Private Equity, , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (STD, XOM, HOC, ICON, TROW, VLO)

These are some the top pre-market analyst downgrades we have seen with more than two hours until the open this Tuesday morning:

  • Banco Santander (STD) Cut to Sell at UBS.
  • Exxon Mobil (XOM) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • Holly (HOC) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Iconix Brand Group (ICON) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • T. Rowe Price (TROW) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
  • Valero Energy (VLO) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
November 3, 2008

Posted on: November 4, 2008 – 7:37 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , ,

Early Bird Analyst Downgrades (DO, ESV, HBC, MORN, PPO, PWAV, RDC, TDW, TROW)

Down_arrow_redThese are some of the early analyst downgrades we are seeing from Wall Street this Friday morning with about two and a half hours until the open:

  • Diamond Offshore (DO) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
  • Ensco (ESV) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
  • HSBC (HBC) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • Morningstar (MORN) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
  • Polypore International (PPO) Cut to Hold at BB&T.
  • Powerwave (PWAV) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
  • Rowan Companies (RDC) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
  • Tidewater (TDW) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
  • T. Rowe Price (TROW) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.

Jon C. Ogg
October 31, 2008

Posted on: October 31, 2008 – 6:00 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (RE, FIG, PRE, SGEN, TROW, AUY, NT, RICK, RDS.A, X)

These are ten of the top analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen this Monday morning with about 2 hours to the the open:

  • Everest Re (RE) to Outperform at Wachovia.
  • Fortress Investment (FIG) Raised to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.
  • PartnerRe (PRE) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
  • Seattle Genetics (SGEN) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
  • T. Rowe Price (TROW) Raised to Outperform at KBW; raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
  • Yamana Gold (AUY) Raised to Outperform at CIBC.
  • Nortel (NT) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Rick’s Cabaret (RICK) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
  • Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
  • US Steel (X) Cut to Sell at UBS.

Jon C. Ogg
October 27, 2008

Posted on: October 27, 2008 – 6:50 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (AOC, BAC, CR, DOV, FSLR, HPT, MMM, MMC, MA, SPWRA, TROW, V, WU)

These are some of the top analyst upgrades we are seeing in early hours of pre-market trading this Tuesday morning:

  • AON Corp. (AOC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs
  • Bank Of America (BAC) Raised to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James
  • Crane Co. (CR) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs
  • Dover Corp. (DOV) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs
  • First Solar (FSLR) Raised to Market Perform at FBR
  • Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia
  • 3M (MMM) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs
  • Marsh & McLennan (MMC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs
  • MasterCard (MA) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan
  • SunPower Corp. (SPWRA) Raised to Market Perform at FBR
  • T. Rowe Price (TROW) Raised to Market Perform at KBW
  • Visa Inc. (V) Raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray
  • Visa (V) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan
  • Western Union (WU) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan

Jon C. Ogg
October 14, 2008

Posted on: October 14, 2008 – 6:55 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Upgrades & Downgrades (AB, ABFS, CNY, DKX, BEN, KMT, ODFL, OTTR, PZN, RJF, JOE, TROW, YRCW)

These are not all of the research calls affecting shares of stock, but these are some we have our eyes on this Monday:

  • Alliance Bernstein (AB) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
  • Arkansas Best (ABFS) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • Con-Way (CNY) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) Started as Overweight at Lehman.
  • Franklin Resources (BEN) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
  • Kennametal (KMT) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Otter Tail (OTTR) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
  • Pzena (PZN) Cut to Underperform at KBW.
  • Raymond James Financial (RJF) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
  • St. Joe (JOE) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
  • T. Rowe Price (TROW) Cut to Underperform at KBW.
  • YRC Worldwide (YRCW) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
September 22, 2008

Posted on: September 22, 2008 – 6:27 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (AKAM, AVP, CPKI, CBG, FDX, GGP, HOLX, JLL, TIN, THQI, TBL, TROW, USNA)

These are the early bird Downgrades and negative calls from analysts we are seeing this Thursday morning:

  • Akamai (AKAM) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
  • Avon (AVP) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
  • CB Richard Ellis (CBG) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • FedEx (FDX) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
  • General Growth Properties (GGP) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
  • Hologic (HOLX) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
  • Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Temple-Inland (TIN) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • THQ (THQI) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Timberland (TBL) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
  • T.Rowe Price (TROW) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
  • USANA (USNA) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.

Jon C. Ogg
July 31, 2008

Posted on: July 31, 2008 – 6:31 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, , , ,

Major March Short Interest Increases (CSCO, LOGI, MCRL, PRXL, PTEN, SPLS, JAVA, TROW, YRCW)

We routinely look over major changes in short interest from period to period.  While the more frequent twice-monthly reporting is conducted by exchanges, it sometimes gives a little insight into the psyche of traders and trends.  The most important issue to look at is in the larger and more active names that have large positions that grew rapidly in percentage terms.

We screened many different names after the short interest data came out last night from NASDAQ, so we looked for a minimum of 5 million shares short and we looked for those names whose short interest grew by more than 30%.  These are not all of the names, but here is a representation of the screen:

Comapny (Ticker)                              MARCH 14     FEB 29       CHANGE
Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)          73,069,889   48,631,811    50.25%
Logitech International (LOGI)           8,017,620    5,464,404     46.72%
Micrel, Incorporated (MCRL)             7,719,618    5,242,192     47.26%
PAREXEL International (PRXL)        6,204,152    3,137,862     97.72%
Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN)         14,068,305    9,336,158    50.69%
Staples, Inc. (SPLS)                          20,708,717   15,097,693   37.16%
Sun Microsystems (JAVA)                23,630,955   17,562,322   34.55%
T. Rowe Price Group (TROW)         15,997,024   11,341,287   41.05%
YRC Worldwide, Inc. (YRCW)          22,782,135   16,007,172   42.32%

Jon C. Ogg
March 27, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: March 27, 2008 – 7:57 am in Short Interest, , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (CPLA, CEPH, DYN, HBC, MS, SGP, SLM, TASR, TROW, VISN)

Below are the top analyst calls that 247WallSt.com is looking at this morning:

  • Capella Education (NASDAQ: CPLA) started as Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Cephalon (NASDAQ: CEPH) raised to Strong Buy at Broadpoint.
  • Dynegy (NYSE: DYN) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  • HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
  • Schering Plough (NYSE: SGP) raised to Buy at UBS.
  • SLM (NYSE: SLM) raised to Outperform at FBR.
  • Taser (NASDAQ: TASR) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) downgraded to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • VisionChina Media (NASDAQ: VISN) started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Jon C. Ogg
February 13, 2008

Posted on: February 13, 2008 – 7:34 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Pre-Market Earnings Gappers (January 29, 2008)

We are right in the thick of earnings season and below is a snapshot of some of the key earnings reports with price changes if available:

  • Air Tran (NYSE: AAI) -$0.02 EPS vs -$0.02 estimate.
  • American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) $0.52 EPS vs $0.50 estimate.
  • American Express (NYSE: AXP) $0.71 EPS vs $0.71 estimate; stock fell 2% after-hours.
  • Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) $1.46 EPS vs $1.37 estimate.
  • Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) $0.90 EPS vs. $0.87 estimate, lowered guidance.
  • Chattem (NASDAQ: CHTT) $0.76 EPS vs $0.65 estimate.
  • Corinthian Colleges (NASDAQ: COCO) $0.11 EPS vs. $0.11 estimate; lending changes and reimbursement changes will lower earnings in second half to make 2008 at lower-end of expectations.
  • Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) posted earnings; maintained dividend; shares up 1.5% pre-market.
  • Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) $0.84 EPS vs $0.80 estimate;
  • Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) $0.90 EPS vs $0.87 estimate.
  • EMC (NYSE: EMC) $0.24 EPS vs $0.22 estimate
  • 3M (NYSE: MMM) $1.19 EPS vs $1.17 estimate; $6.2 Billion vs. $6.12B estimate; reiterated 10% EPS growth for 2008.
  • Accidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) $1.74 EPS vs $1.69 estimate; replaced 116% of its 2007 production.
  • SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) posted non-GAAP EPS of $0.69 vs. $0.64 EPS estimate, but guidance was disappointing; stock down 3%.
  • Sepracor (NASDAQ: SEPR) trading down 7% after restatements.
  • Smurfit Stone (NASDAQ: SSCC) traded up 6% after earnings.
  • T.Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) $0.68 EPS vs $0.63 estimate.
  • Unisys (NYSE: UIS) $0.04 EPS vs $0.12 estimate; although shares up almost 4%.
  • VMware (NYSE: VMW) trading down 20% or more after revenue number was light.
  • Waddell & Reed (NYSE: WDR) $0.42 EPS vs. $0.42 estimate.
  • Zoran (NASDAQ: ZRAN) traded down 22% after beating earnings but lowering guidance.

Jon C. Ogg
January 29, 2008

Posted on: January 29, 2008 – 8:22 am in Earnings, Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Goldman Sachs Lowers Financial Estimates (AB, ABLk, BLK, CLMS, CME, BEN, GBL, IVZ, JNS, NITE, LAB, LM, MKTX, NYX, TROW, PZN, NDAQ, TRAD)

Goldman Sachs has lowered estimates on many financial services players this morning:

  • AllianceBernstein (AB) (buy);
  • AMBAC Financial (ABK) (neutral);
  • Blackrock (BLK) (buy);
  • Calamos Asset Mgmt. (CLMS) (neutral);
  • CME Group (CME) (buy);
  • Franklin Resources (BEN) (neutral);
  • Gamco Investors (GBL) (sell);
  • INVESCO plc (IVZ) (neutral);
  • Janus Capital (JNS) (neutral);
  • Knight Trading (NITE) (buy);
  • Labranche (LAB) (sell);
  • Legg Mason (LM) (neutral);
  • Marketaccess Holdings (MKTX) (neutral);
  • NYSE Euronext (NYX) (neutral);
  • T. Rowe Price (TROW) (neutral);
  • Pzena Investment Mgmt. (PZN) (neutral);
  • The NASDAQ Stock Market (NDAQ) (neutral);
  • TradeStation (TRAD) (neutral)

Jon C. Ogg
January 10, 2008

Posted on: January 10, 2008 – 9:22 am in Analyst Calls, Financial Stocks, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,