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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AIG, RATE, CMA, CEO, CREE, DECK, FSLR, INTC, IBM, SAP, TROW, TTM, UAL)

Administrator — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:13:23 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls this Wednesday.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.

Bankrate, Inc. (NYSE: RATE) Started as Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.

CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) Raised to Hold at Jefferies.

Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) Cut to Hold at ThinkEquity.

Deckers Outdoor Corporation (NASDAQ: DECK) Raised to Neutral at Stern Agee.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Raised to Hold at Cantor Fitzgerald; Cut to Sell at Wunderlich; Maintained as Buy but cut target $40 from $50 at Argus.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) Maintained Outperform with $35 target and raised 2013 estimates at Credit Suisse.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) Cut to Neutral at Macquarie; Raised estimates but maintained as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) Reiterated Buy with $84 target at Argus.

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ: TROW) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Tata Motors Ltd. (NYSE: TTM) maintained as the most undervalued stock on the price-to-book versus return on equity valuation model at Credit Suisse.

United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox. We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AIG, CEO, CMA, CREE, DECK, FSLR, IBM, INTC, RATE, SAP, TROW, TTM, UAL

Facebook Full IPO Filing Details (FB, MS, GS, MSFT, TROW, ZNGA, GSVC, IPG)

Administrator — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:29:12 +0000

Facebook, Inc. has now filed its paperwork with the SEC which will allow the social networking giant to conduct an initial public offering. It should be no real surprise that financial terms were not disclosed. The filing is for an offering of up to a whopping $5 billion in common stock and that figure may change before the actual IPO. The offering appears to include shares from the company and shares from selling holders. Facebook is the top spot in the 24/7 Wall St. Top 17 IPOs of 2012.

While Facebook has said that it is choosing the “FB” stock ticker, it did not specify whether or not the NYSE or NASDAQ would get the listing. Keep in mind that Mark Zuckerberg is where the buck stops if you evaluate the share structure.

Be advised that there is a dual-class of stock with A shares and B shares. Each share of Class A common stock is entitled to one vote per share. Each share of Class B common stock is entitled to ten votes per share and is convertible at any time into one share of Class A common stock.

The underwriting group is as follows: lead book-runners are Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, and Goldman Sachs; co-managers are BofA/Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, and Allen & Company.

BASIC STATS:

845 million monthly active users,
2.7 billion likes and comments per day,
250 million photos uploaded per day,
and 100 billion friendships.
The company also has 483 million daily active users.
It also had roughly 3200 employees as of December 31.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is listed as a competitor and it is an owner, while Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is not an owner and is listed as a key competitor. Twitter is competitor. As a reminder, GSV Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: GSVC) is an owner of stock as well. Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG) still owns a small stake as well.

We are now finally getting to see at least some of the preliminary figures from Facebook to use for financial analysis:

2009 revenues $777M, $122M net income for shareholders;
2010 revenues $1.974B, $372M net income for shareholders;
2011 revenues $3.711B, $668M net income for shareholders.
The company’s cash and marketable securities at the end of 2011 was $3.908 billion.

Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) accounted for about 12% of 2011 total revenues for Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg owns 28.4% of the total voting power, but he has a proxy over insider shares that gives him 56.9% of the total voting power. Other big holders are James Breyer at 11.4% and Peter A. Thiel at 2.5%. Large Class B share holders (1 million or more shares) are Sheryl Sandberg, David Ebersman, Mike Schroepfer. Theodore Ullyor, Marc Andreesson…

T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW) owns over 6 million class A shares and affiliates of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) own over 65.9 million Class A shares.

As of December 31, 2011 there were outstanding:

117,097,143 shares of our Class A common stock held by approximately 110 stockholders;
1,758,902,390 shares of our Class B common stock held by approximately 1,070 stockholders;
258,539,434 shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options;
378,772,184 shares subject to outstanding restricted stock units (RSUs).

RISK FACTORS AS FOLLOWS:

“If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users decrease their level of engagement with Facebook, our revenue, financial results, and business may be significantly harmed;”
“We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising. The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with Facebook, could seriously harm our business;”
“Growth in use of Facebook through our mobile products, where we do not currently display ads, as a substitute for use on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results;”
“Facebook user growth and engagement on mobile devices depend upon effective operation with mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control;”
“We may not be successful in our efforts to grow and further monetize the Facebook Platform;”
“Our business is highly competitive, and competition presents an ongoing threat to the success of our business;”
“Improper access to or disclosure of our users’ information could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business;”
“Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and other matters. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could harm our business;”
“Our CEO has control over key decision making as a result of his control of a majority of our voting stock;”
“The loss of Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl K. Sandberg, or other key personnel could harm our business;”
“We anticipate that we will expend substantial funds in connection with tax withholding and remittance obligations related to the initial settlement of our restricted stock units (RSUs) approximately six months following our initial public offering;”
“The market price of our Class A common stock may be volatile or may decline, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price;”
“Substantial blocks of our total outstanding shares may be sold into the market as “lock-up” periods end, as further described in “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.” If there are substantial sales of shares of our common stock, the price of our Class A common stock could decline.”

Again, the Top 17 IPOs to Watch in 2012 is here.

JON C. OGG

The full S-1 SEC FILING is here. PS… The traffic to the SEC.gov website was severely limited for almost an hour due to excessive traffic flooding the site due to readers wanting to read the Facebook S-1.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Accounting, Activist Investor, Analyst Calls, Banking, Compensation, Corporate Governance, Editor's Picks, Insider Activity, Internet, IPOs, Mergers and Buy Outs, Private Equity Tagged: FB, GS, GSVC, IPG, MS, MSFT, TROW, ZNGA

Daily Dividend: Value & Yield in Asset Managers (BLK, FII, BEN, LM, TROW, IVZ, EV)

Administrator — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:01:57 +0000

It’s the Daily Dividend at 11:00 AM. We often look for value, growth, and dividends in financial stocks. Banks have been elusive on the dividend front until just the last couple of days, although we did give a list of banks which did not kill their dividends and already had a payout to shareholders ahead of time. After looking through a “value” report from Zacks Investment Research this morning, we could not help but notice how BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) stood out against its money management peers.

While the report highlighted the relative value of BlackRock, the boosted dividend payment of late, and a relatively cheap P/E ratio for forward estimates (14.8), what stood out the most was that it seems very likely to 24/7 Wall St. that the competing asset management firms will begin offering higher payouts via dividend hikes. Not all will catch up to BlackRock in yield with its 2.9% payout, but it still looks as though the rise in assets under management and the recovery of the stock market in the last two years will cause its rivals to follow suit.

Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) also stood out in the pack of asset management firms. Its dividend is close to 3.7%. At $26.32, it trades at about 14.5-times the forward Thomson Reuters estimate of $1.81 EPS for fiscal Dec-2011. With the exception of a higher payout in quarter a year ago, the dividend has been static at $0.24 per quarter back to 2008.

Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN) has a 0.8% dividend yield. At $118.25, it trades at 14.2-times Thomson’s Reuters estimates of $8.32 EPS for fiscal 2011. This one hiked its dividend back in December’s payout to $0.25 from $0.22 per quarter.

Legg Mason Inc. (NYSE: LM) has a 0.7% dividend yield. At $34.64, it trades at about 16.7-times the Thomson Reuters estimate of $2.07 for its March-2012 fiscal year-end. It raised its dividend two quarters ago to $0.06 from $0.04 per quarter.

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW) has a 1.9% dividend yield. At $63.15 it trades at 19.5-times the Dec-2011 fiscal estimate from Thomson Reuters. The new 1.9% yield is also reflective of a dividend hike last quarter that went to $0.31 from $0.27 per quarter.

Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ) has a 1.7% dividend yield. At $25.51, it trades at about 14-times the Thomson Reuters estimate of $1.81 EPS for fiscal Dec-2011. Invesco’s dividend has been static at $0.11 per quarter for a year now.

Eaton Vance Corp. (NYSE: EV) has a 2.4% dividend yield. At $31.25, it trades at about 17.8-times the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $1.75 EPS for fiscal October-2011. Eaton Vance raised its dividend to $0.18 from $0.16 just two quarters ago.

There were also higher payouts elsewhere that were irregular and we stuck with companies that have predictable yields rather than fluctuating dividend yields.

If the current landscape remains relatively close today, it seems obvious that higher dividend payments are coming down the road from more asset management firms. Most of these firms do not need massive growth capital and many have low dividend payout ratios and therefore high dividend coverage ratios.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Dividend, Financial Stocks, Shareholder Issues Tagged: BEN, BLK, EV, FII, IVZ, LM, TROW

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AAPL, AMGN, OFC, EXPE, KEM, MOS, POT, SVU, TROW, UHS, WFMI, WYNN, ALTR, ATML, NVDA, SNDK, TXN)

Administrator — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:08:51 +0000

After about two weeks of being quiet and dark, Wall Street research departments are back after the holidays. These are some of this Tuesday’s key analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Added to Short-Term Buy List with $410 target at Deutsche Bank.
Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) Raised to Neutral at BofA/ML.
Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC) Started as Neutral and $36 target at BofA/ML.
Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) Reiterated Buy but lowered estimates at BofA/ML.
KEMET Corporation (NYSE: KEM) Started as Buy and $19 target at BofA/ML.
Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) Cut to Neutral at Gleacher & Co.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) Started as Outperform and $190 target at Boenning & Scattergood.
SuperValu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Universal Health Services, Inc. (NYSE: UHS) Raised to Buy and $51 target at BofA/ML.
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Raised to Hold at KeyBanc.

Goldman Sachs is raising targets on several key chip/semiconductor stocks, although many n this excerpt of a larger sector call are catch-up calls and under the current price of the stock:
Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) raised to $32.00 from $26.00;
Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) raised to $10.00 from $7.25;
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) raised to $13.00 from $11.00;
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) raised to $43.00 from $36.00;
Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) raised to $38.00 from $34.00.

In case you were out last week, the top five analyst calls full summary is available here (AMZN, APC, AAPL, GOOG, VVTV).

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: Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, ALTR, AMGN, ATML, EXPE, KEM, MOS, NVDA, OFC, POT, SNDK, SVU, TROW, TXN, UHS, WFMI, WYNN

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AAPL, BBY, A, BBT, BRCM, COH, FSLR, GPS, HBAN, JBHT, JCI, KR, LULU, SWY, STI, TIF, TROW, WFMI)

Administrator — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:22:03 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s key analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls. This morning we have two key updates from late yesterday afternoon, followed by our normal morning calls.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Maintained Outperform but removed from “Best Idea List” at Morgan Stanley (late-Tuesday call).

Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) Raised to Buy at Standpoint Research on weakness; Cut to Hold at S&P Equity Research (BOTH calls are from late-Tuesday). This morning Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) was Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) Cut to Neutral at Janney.
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) Reiterated Buy and $55 target.
Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Raised to Hold at Needham; Reiterated Buy with $167 target at Auriga.
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) Started as Neutral at BofA/ML.
JB Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE: JCI) Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
The Kroger Company (NYSE: KR) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) Cut to Sell at Janney.
Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW) Added to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) Started as Buy with $55 target at BofA/ML; Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: A, AAPL, BBT, BBY, BRCM, COH, FSLR, GPS, HBAN, JBHT, JCI, KR, LULU, STI, SWY, TIF, TROW, WFMI

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (BZH, BP, CIEN, GLW, EXPE, FFIV, BEN, JNS, JNPR, PMCS, PCLN, SPWRA, TROW)

Administrator — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:38:10 +0000

These are some of this Thursday’s top analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street firms:

Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH) Raised to Buy at UBS.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) Reiterated Buy at Citigroup.
Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) Started as Underweight at JPMorgan.
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) Started as Neutral at JPMorgan.
Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) Started as Buy at FBR.
F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Janus Capital Group Inc. (NYSE: JNS) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan; Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
PMC-Sierra Inc. (NASDAQ: PMCS) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN) Started as Market Perform at FBR.
SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWRA) Raised to Hold at Hapoalim.
T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BEN, BP, BZH, CIEN, EXPE, FFIV, GLW, JNPR, JNS, PCLN, PMCS, SPWRA, TROW

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AKAM, BCS, ED, EE, FII, ISRG, LGF, POR, PII, TROW, HD)

Administrator — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:27:00 +0000

These are some of this Monday’s top analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research notes:

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS) Maintained Buy but cut target and estimates at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
El Paso Electric Co. (NYSE: EE) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) Cut to Hold at Brean Murray.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF) Cut to Market Perform at BMO Capital.
Portland General Electric (NYSE: POR) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Polaris Industries, Inc. (NYSE: PII) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NYSE: TROW) Raised to Outperform at FBR.

The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) Raised target to $45 and raised estimates at Citigroup.

JON C. OGG

Sponsor: 26 Cheap Stocks to Sell – Cheap stocks have been on a tear recently, but nine out of ten stocks are circling the drain!

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AKAM, BCS, ED, EE, FII, HD, ISRG, LGF, PII, POR, TROW

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AAP, AGN, CL, GLW, EMC, GS, PALM, LUV, S, TROW)

Administrator — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:30:48 +0000

These are the top ten analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls this Monday morning:

Advance Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) Cut to Neutral at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) Raised to Outperform at RBC Capital.
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) Started as Buy at Brean Murray.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) Removed from Top Picks List at FBR.
Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) Cut to Underperform at Morgan Keegan.
Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AAP, AGN, CL, EMC, GLW, GS, LUV, PALM, S, TROW

The Unusual Suspects (AA, BAC, GE, GOOG, INTC, JPM, ACN, BSX, CTIC, CLNE, LULU, PALM, TROW, LCC, PLND, CEDC)

Administrator — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:07:01 +0000

This weekend’s roster of the Unusual Suspects is back to earnings, although there are many other key stocks to watch out for this coming week. We did see a very brief hit of 11,000 in the DJIA in the final ten minutes of trading Friday. The cast of characters in the Unusual Suspects for earnings this coming week includes Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM). The other more Unusual Suspects with news and events to watch the week ahead are Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN), Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX), Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC), Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE), Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU), Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM), T.Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW), and US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE: LCC). We will also alert traders to watch Market Vectors Poland ETF (NYSE: PLND) and Central European Distribution Corporation (NASDAQ: CEDC) based on the Polish presidential plane crash that killed Poland’s president and many political elite of Poland.

On earnings previews, we only gave the DJIA components and one other as Google, to save space and time. We have included Thomson Reuters estimates and we have given color on the valuation and other metrics. On the non-earnings stocks, we have given previews for what lies ahead on many of the straggling issues that will go into next week and on upcoming events along with relevant recent actions in each where applicable.

Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) is not our normal rumor mill stock, and may be more gossip than stock fanfare. The company is rumored to be about to endorse Tiger Woods again after withdrawing its sponsorship deal after the Tiger Woods scandal (or folly) broke. Shares were up 2.2% Friday on this at $42.83 and the 52-week range is $26.33 to $43.89. An unusual suspect, for sure.

Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) kicks earnings season off on Monday and Thomson Reuters estimates are $0.11 EPS on $5.19 billion in revenue; versus a loss of -$0.59 EPS a year ago. If it gives guidance, the estimates are $0.24 EPS for next quarter and $0.77 EPS for fiscal 2010; so it trades around 18-times forward earnings and its 52-week range is $8.10 to $17.60. There seems to be a neutral bias here, meaning it would seem to rise with good news or fall with bad news more than other quarters.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is giving earnings Friday with estimates of $0.09 EPS this last quarter and $0.17 EPS next quarter. At $18.55, the 52-week range is $7.00 to $19.10 and we expect to see upside to credit metrics and perhaps a blowout quarter as the only thing that will keep the bulls from taking at least some profits here. Simply meeting estimates and being conservative in stance probably won’t make a rally here.

Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) is the turnaround which has never been able to turn around. Many reports were out on Friday that it may sell two of its units (neurovascular business and pain management division, per the rumors) to raise cash and to hone in on its portfolio of medical devices. It has a costly heart defibrillator recall, has a failed buyout of Guidant it wishes it never did, and will have up to $2.7 billion in coming-due payments in 2011. Shares actually closed down marginally at $6.97 versus a 52-week trading range of $6.31 to $11.77. We’ll be looking for analyst support or criticism on Monday.

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is trying to keep its relevance. It is forging ahead with pixantrone for relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and possibly other indications. It adjourned its special meeting and scheduled a weekend conference call for a company update after it raised money after a disappointing FDA action in recent trading days. Stay tuned, a very unusual suspect indeed.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) was panned in Barron’s over the weekend despite this being one of the favorite go-to stocks in the world of viable alternative energy. This is T. Boone Pickens’ compressed natural gas play for the use of natural gas as a fuel for trucks rather than gasoline. The article praises the company but said the valuations leave no real upside for investors.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) reports Friday morning and estimates are $0.16 EPS and $37.08 billion in revenues. Estimates next quarter are $0.25 EPS and $38.8 billion in revenue. Its earnings estimates are $1.02 EPS in 2010 and then $1.24 EPS in 2011, That being said, Immelt and friends likely need to beat estimates and raise guidance. If not, then this is not any longer a cheap stock. We noted that Morningstar gave a $25 fair value target recently over the long haul, and we still believe GE will start lifting its dividend either this quarter or this year rather than its 2011 target.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is expected to report $6.57 EPS and $4.93 billion on Thursday, showing over 25% earnings and over 21% revenue growth. The 52-week range is $364.16 to $629.51; and it trades at 20-times 2010 expected earnings and less than 18-times 2011 earnings expectations. With CPMs being very weak in many publisher and site sectors in February and with it having under 70% of search (barely) in March for the first time since June-2008, we’ll be keeping an eye on this one to see if it can blow out its earnings as some analysts are expecting.

Filed under: Airlines, Banking, Calendar, Dividend, Earnings, Economy, Trading Alert Tagged: AA, ACN, BAC, BSX, CEDC, CLNE, CTIC, GE, GOOG, INTC, JPM, LCC, LULU, PALM, PLND, TROW

Today’s Best Market Rumors (3/15/2010)

247wallst — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:27:02 +0000

Updated throughout the day.

AIG (AIG) will hold back $21 million from employee bonuses (CNBC)

Google (GOOG) will shut its Google.cn site in China (various)

Arrow Energy will reject a $3 billion takeover bid from Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina (PTR). (Australian Financial Review)

T Rowe Price (TROW) is in talks to buy a stake in Chinese financial firm Citic. (Reuters)

Barclays Capital is considering the partnership model used by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch years ago (FT)

Neuberger Berman will list a distressed debt fund on the London exchange. (FT)

Bank of America (BAC) will seek government approval to expand its operations in China (WSJ)

Blockbuster (BBI) is trying to find buyers for its stores in Europe (The Times)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Rumors Tagged: AIG, BAC, BBI, GOOG, PTR, RDS, TROW