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The Strongest Stock Charts In The S&P 500 (AZO, CCI, CMG, FMC, GPS, PPG, RHT, TSS, V, WFM)

Administrator — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:54:42 +0000

24/7 Wall St. has partnered with The Chart Lab to bring regular reviews of the strongest and weakest stock charts in the S&P 500 Index. This weekend’s review is tracking the strongest stock charts as the following: AutoZone Inc. (AZO); Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI); Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG); FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC); Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS); PPG Industries Inc. (NYSE: PPG); Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT); Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE: TSS); Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V); and Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM).

The biggest questions to ask are 1) what makes these stock charts strong? and 2) what does it mean going forward? ChartLabPro.com’s algorithms use a quantitative approach that aim to forecast patterns by identifying consistent investment themes. The methodology uses over 200 indicators and scores them to locate trends in their early stages constantly running scenarios to locate inefficiencies and trends in stocks. Only four of the ten strongest stock charts were in the top ten strongest charts last week.

The current chart shows the year-to-date gains, prices for support and resistance on each stock, as well as an indication of just how strong each 5-rating or “strong buy” on a short-term trend. The strongest stock charts are never based solely on year-to-date performance but on more recent patterns. This aims to put the longer-term trends into a better short-term picture for the more active traders out there. The top 10 names on average are up 25.78% year-to-date and up 1.57% month-to-date. Compares that to the S&P 500 Index with gains of 8.2% year-to-date and a loss of -2.74% month-to-date.

You can click on the chart included here to open and expand it to a larger resolution for easier viewing.

The results here generate visual and contextual results for technical trading analysis and trading opportunities based upon custom criteria for investors. You can try the Chartlabpro.com for 30 days using promo code Chartp2p8i.

You can also see the five strongest and five weakest technology sector stock charts from the S&P 500 Index here as of Friday.

Filed under: Charts, Index, Technical Analysis, Trading Alert Tagged: AZO, CCI, CMG, FMC, GPS, PPG, RHT, TSS, V, WFM

What Visa Really Gets With CyberSource (V, CYBS, EBAY, AXP, MA, DFS, GPN, TSS, PAY)

Administrator — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:58:55 +0000

There is an interesting merger this morning in the credit card processing industry. Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is acquiring CyberSource Corporation (NASDAQ: CYBS) for $26 per share in a deal valued at almost $2 billion. While not a cheap with a price tag of 6-times revenues, it is important to see why Visa is making this deal and what it will get out of it with the CyberSource and Authorize.net brands. Visa is buying a firm that helps in payment processing, payment security, and fraud management…. one that also gives it a sliver of business that is going to Visa’s competitors.

The Authorize.net solution does also accept MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diners, and even eChecks. CyberSource also deals with PayPal and BillMeLater. So while the company may be referring credit card and transaction processing for outside transaction processors like eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) for PayPal and BillMeLater, American Express Company (NYSE: AXP), Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA), and Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), it will now start getting a tiny cut of that business as long as it goes through that merchant network under the brands and services being bought.

CyberSource says it plays a role in processing about 25% of all the “ecommerce dollars transacted in the United States” and it is a safe bet that Visa will be getting a small cut from business that would have gone away otherwise. The company serves almost 300,000 merchants through its CyberSource and Authorize.Net brands.

What Visa will get is cutting out one step in using Visa debit, prepaid and credit products for purchases made online. CyberSource is predominantly in the U.S., so Visa can accelerate that business model globally. Visa will get to integrate one more layer of fraud detection, something that ALL banks and credit card processors need to be far better about. Visa will also be gaining an operation in secure payment data hosting solutions.

The deal is not expected to be accretive to earnings on the surface. It is listed as being dilutive in 2010 and also slightly dilutive in 2011. That is because CyberSource is a high-beta name with high multiples against earnings and revenues. What is not said is that this is a double-dip for Visa, and that allows it to get a small piece of the pie as a gatekeeper that would otherwise be going elsewhere. The price is going to be up for debate, but this is a smart acquisition.

CyberSource shares are up almost 32% at $25.62 and this represents highs not seen in a decade. The notion that this was a $50, $60, and $70 stock in 1999 won’t have much importance today.

We do not want to draw too much cause and effect here for secondary or tertiary mergers which could come from this consolidation. The other companies which could come into focus at least from this deal are Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) with a $3.7 billion market cap and Total System Services, Inc. (NYSE: TSS) with a $3.25 billion market cap. In a stretch, one could even argue that companies similar to VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PAY) for at-site merchant locations, but again we do not want to try to look for too much cause and effect here.

Visa shares are hardly down on the deal with a drop of 0.25% at $93.84, its market cap is around $70 billion. With close to $6 billion in cash and longer-term securities on hand, this deal is still very affordable for Visa.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Financial Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs Tagged: AXP, CYBS, DFS, EBAY, GPN, MA, PAY, TSS, V

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (APKT, FITB, GNTX, NYM, PLD, ROK, TSS, VRAD)

247wallst — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:01:22 +0000

These are not all of the downgrades, butthese are some of the standout calls early this Tuesday morning:

Acme Packet (APKT) Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Gentex (GNTX) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Nymagic (NYM) Cut to Underperform at KBW.
ProLogis (PLD) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
Rockwell Automation (ROK) Started as Sell at Societe Generale.
Total System Services (TSS) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Virtual Radiologic (VRAD) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.

Jon C. Ogg
September 30, 2008

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: APKT, FITB, GNTX, NYM, PLD, ROK, TSS, VRAD

Early-Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (DKS, IDXX, MA, WIT, ACS, ADP, CHT, FMCN, NT, PTI, TSS)

247wallst — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:32:45 +0000

These are some of the upgrades and downgrades we are seeing from Wall Street this Tuesday morning:

Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
IDEXX Laboratories (IDXX) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
Mastercard (MA) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Wipro (WIT) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd. (CHT) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Focus Media (FMCN) kept as Buy but Target cut to $59 from $80 at Citigroup.
Nortel (NT) Started as Sector Perform at CIBC.
Patni Computer Systems (PTI) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Total System Services (TSS) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
August 19, 2008

Total Systems Services Finally Its Own Company (TSS, SNV)

247wallst — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:02:44 +0000

Total Systems Services, Inc. (NYSE:TSS), also called TSYS, is finally getting the completion of its spin-off of majority outside ownership so that it will be its own company. Synovus (NYSE: SNV) has announced the distribution ratio for the previously-announced spin-off of the shares of TSYS common stock currently owned by Synovus.

On December 31, 2007, Synovus will distribute 0.484 of a share of TSYS common stock for each share of Synovus common stock outstanding with a record date of 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on December 18, 2007. Instead of receiving fractional shares for amounts of less than one TSYS share, Synovus shareholders will receive cash.

Synovus currently owns 80.6% of TSYS. The distribution of the 159,630,980 TSYS shares owned by Synovus will be made to Synovus shareholders on December 31, 2007 and will be done on a tax-free status to Synovus and its shareholders.

Synovus Financial closed at $24.10 yesterday and its 52-week trading range is $21.91 to $33.82. TSYS shares closed at $26.72 yesterday and its 52-week trading range is $25.48 to $35.05.

You can join our own open email distribution list to hear about spin-offs, break-ups, merger-arb spreads, reorganizations, restructurings, and other key special situations.

Jon C. Ogg
December 19, 2007

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

Big List of Private Equity Targets in Financial Services

247wallst — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:32:00 +0000

There is a recent boutique research report from earlier in the week showing a list of potential private equity targets from a specialty brokerage firm that I was very positive on from even before its IPO: Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW). The truth is that this company is probably only behind Goldman Sachs (GS) as far as its knowledge of what is going on in the North American financial services sector, and the argument is that KBW is considered the number one firm as far as independent coverage of the financial services sector. It is too bad the company did not get this out at the end of last year to include many other names that have been gobbled up, but it really feels as though every firm is ‘cramming for finals’ in the M&A world with the private equity superstars.

PROCESSING: Fidelity National Information Services (FIS); FairIsaac (FIC); ChoicePoint (CPS). On a side note, Total SystemsSolutions (TSS) is Jim Cramer’s pick in the sub-sector. RATINGS: Moody’s (MCO). INSURANCE BROKERS (P&C): Marsh and McClennan (MMC), AON Corp. (AOC). INSURANCE: AFLAC (AFL), Conseco (CNO), and American Safety (ASI). MONEY MANAGEMENT: Legg Mason (LM), Janus Capital (JNS), Waddell & Reed (WDR), Federated Investors (FII), National Financial (NFP). LOANS, STUDENT LOAN: Nelnet (NNI).

We have our own list of targets in this financial services sector for our newsletter subscribers. Some of these companies make sense, and there are many others elsewhere in overlapping segments in financial services that may actually make more sense.

Jon C. Ogg
May 31, 2007

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

Cramer’s Got 2 More Financial Service Buyout Picks (TSS, ADP, ADS, BSG, FDC, SNV)

247wallst — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:53:21 +0000

Cramer came on MAD MONEY saying he thinks that Total Systems Services (TSS-NYSE) is one that can be taken over next in a sector and $40.00 would be a fair price based on Alliance Data prices. Synovis (SNV) is the parent and Third point is now being an activist investor. The earnings growth of 18% is reason enough to own this. The only issue he has in the sector is that Automatic Data Processing (ADP) might be acquired first. Alliance Data Services (ADS) was just acquired, First Data (FDC) is going private, and even Bisys Group (BSG) got gobbled up. We’ll see, but investors need to keep in mind that some of the premiums in this sector have been pidly. ADS was nearly a 20% stock jump, but BSG was a horrible low-premium buyout.

Jon C. Ogg
May 21, 2007

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