24/7 Wall St. » UIS

Mid-day Movers (AMZN, WHR, AOL, JDAS, UIS)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:03:11 +0000

Among the major movers at around noon today are Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN, Whirlpool Corp. (NYSE: WHR), AOL Inc. (NASDAQ: AOL), JDA Software Group Inc. (NASDAQ: JDA), and Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS).

Shares of Amazon are down more than -9% in just before noon today on a weak quarterly earnings report last night. Nearly 13 million shares have been traded so far today, compared with a 3-month daily average of about 6 million shares traded. We have more coverage here.

A big winner this morning has been Whirlpool, which is up nearly 16% solid earnings and a strong outlook. More than 5.5 million shares have traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of around 1.9 million.

AOL is up more than 14% following a quarterly earnings report that missed estimates, but showed a jump in ad sales. More than 3.2 million shares have traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of about 1.4 million.

JDA Software is down nearly -18% on following a fairly week quarterly report and continuing investor wariness over an SEC investigation of the company’s accounting practices. Nearly 2.2 million shares have traded by mid-day, compared with a daily average of about 320,000.

Unisys shares are down nearly -11% on a weaker-than-expected quarterly report. More than 2.1 million shares have already traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of about 720,000 shares.

Minutes before noon ET, the DJIA is up 1.09% at about 12,771, the Nasdaq is up 1.19% at around 2,847, and the S&P 500 is up 1.09% at about 1,327.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire Tagged: AMZN, AOL, JDAS, UIS, WHR

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALL, AMZN, BX, CTL, CB, DRI, FSL, GEOI, GOOG, JDSU, LNKD, BTU, PEG, DGX, TLB, TRV, UIS, UNH, URBN, WSH)

Administrator — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:25:40 +0000

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

Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Started as Hold with $225.00 price target “due to low margins through 2012″ at Canaccord Genuity.
The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) Raised to Buy with $20.00 price target at Argus.
CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.
Chubb Corporation (NYSE: CB) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) Cut to Hold from Buy at Argus.
Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (NYSE: FSL) Reinstated as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
GeoResources, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOI) Started as Buy with $43 price target “on a concentrated Eagle Ford/Bakken exposure” by Canaccord Genuity.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was initiated with a ‘Buy’ rating and $725.00 price target “on robust growth and great value” by Canaccord Genuity.
JDS Uniphase Corporation (NASDAQ: JDSU) Started in new coverage as Buy with a $14.75 price target at Jefferies.
LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) Started as Buy with $85 price target as “growth trumps valuation” by Canaccord Genuity.
Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE: BTU) Downgraded to Neutral from Buy with $43 price target by Goldman Sachs.
Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (NYSE: PEG) Downgraded to Neutral from Buy with $33 price target at Goldman Sachs.
Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) Started as Hold with $51 target at Auriga.
The Talbots, Inc. (NYSE: TLB) maintained Neutral with $3.00 fair value by Janney Capital Markets.
Travelers Cos. Inc. (NYSE: TRV) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) added to the US Focus List at Credit Suisse.
Urban Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) Maintained Neutral with $23.00 price target at Janney Capital Markets.
Willis Group Holdings, PLC (NYSE: WSH) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ALL, AMZN, BTU, BX, CB, CTL, DGX, DRI, FSL, GEOI, GOOG, JDSU, LNKD, PEG, TLB, TRV, UIS, UNH, URBN, WSH

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AET, AIXG, CTSH, FFIV, GDOT, HFC, ITW, IBM, LXK, MWV, NTAP, OPTR, ORCL, PIR, TYC, UA, UIS, V, VMW, GWW)

Administrator — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:18:37 +0000

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

Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) Reiterated Buy with $51 target at Argus.
Aixtron SE (NASDAQ: AIXG) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ: CTSH) Removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
HollyFrontier Corporation (NYSE: HFC) Reiterated Buy as Value at Zacks.
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.
International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE: LXK) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
MeadWestvaco Corporation (NYSE: MWV) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OPTR) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) Raised to Top Pick at FBR.
Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE: PIR) Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
W.W. Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.

You are invited to 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: Annual Report Tagged: AET, AIXG, CTSH, FFIV, GDOT, GWW, HFC, IBM, ITW, LXK, MWV, NTAP, OPTR, ORCL, PIR, TYC, UA, UIS, V, VMW

Unisys’ Futile Reverse Stock Split Approval (UIS)

247wallst — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:21:04 +0000

Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) must not have learned the valuable lesson that many other troubled technology firms have learned about reverse stock splits. This morning came the announcement that the company’s board of directors has approved a 1 for 10 reverse stock split of the company’s common stock, and this is the formality as it follows a shareholder approval of a reverse split with a ratio of one between 1 for 5 and 1 for 20. The good news is that this hasn’t hurt shares this morning. The bad news is that these reverse splits generally do not work.

The number of authorized shares will be slashed from 720 million to 72 million. Unisys also noted that no fractional shares will be issued in conjunction with this reverse stock split, as those holders will receive a cash payment in lieu of a fractional share.

What makes this approval odd is that the reverse split is just not needed any longer. When this reverse split was approved it was because the old $1.00-rule had previously been violated per NYSE credentials. But now shares have recovered on their own to $2.79 and the 52-week trading range is $0.28 to $3.17. In short, its shares have no recovered an effective tenfold from their absolute lows. That is almost unheard of even if the major indexes have recovered 50% to 60% since those absolute lows.

The risk here is that Unisys is just going to give the short sellers a chance to get back in. If short sellers like selling one type of stock, it is troubled technology players who try the trick of seeing what happens when they take their shares from $2.00 to $20.00.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 6, 2009

Posted in Stock Splits, Technology Companies Tagged: UIS

Unisys Corporation Files To Raise Cash (UIS)

247wallst — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:57:47 +0000

Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) has filed to sell up to $660 million in a mixed securities shelf. The securities listed are any combination of debt securities, common stock, preferred Stock, warrants, and stock purchase contracts. This is an interesting filing and there are ramifications here above and beyond normal filings.

The amount of securities actually results in aggregate gross proceedsof up to $1,100,000,000.00, consisting of $440,000,000 of unsoldsecurities that had previously been registered and the $660,000,000 ofadditional securities registered today.

The company listed the use of funds from the net proceeds as forgeneral corporate purposes, to reduce or refinance indebtedness and tomake acquisitions or engage in other business opportunities.

Where this gets interesting is that Unisys has a market cap of $224million. Shares are also down at $0.61 and its 52-week trading rangeis $0.38 to $5.24. We have listed Unisys a while back as a turnaroundwhich had not turned, and the economy has not helped out at all. Willa financing package or some large acquisition and/or the thought of areverse merger improve the company’s fortunes?

The company is still well under the 30-day $1.00 rule at NYSE as todaylooks to mark the fourteenth day. But the company is at risk ofgetting that dreaded NYSE listing requirements if its share price doesnot pick up.

Jon C. Ogg
November 26, 2008

Posted in Secondary Offering, Technology Companies Tagged: UIS

The 52-Week Low Club (GNW)(UIS)(SRZ)(GGP)(KOOL)(DPTR)

247wallst — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:49:38 +0000

Genworth (GNW) DIvidend cut. Drops to $2.55 from 52-week high of $28.21.

Unisys (UIS) No news but falls over 30% to $.79 from 52-week high of $7.90.

Sunrise Assisted Living (SRZ) Large quarterly loss. Falls to $1.82 from 52-week high of $34.87.

General Growth (GGP) Analayst downgrade still hurting. Falls to $1.91 from 52-week high of $51.24.

THERMOGENESIS (KOOL) Product recall and quarterly loss. Falls to $.44 from 52-week high of $2.25.

Delta Petroleum (DPTR) Offer to buy company falls through. Stock off to $3.89 from 52-week high of $28.37.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in HI/LOW Tagged: DPTR, GGP, GNW, KOOL, SRZ, UIS

Unisys Looking For New Turnaround CEO (UIS)

247wallst — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:45:21 +0000

Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS) is going to be back in the same boat it was in before its current management tried to turn this ship around. CEO Joe McGrath, who joined in 2005, is stepping down by the end of the year. He will maintain running many day-to- day operations while a replacement is sought.

The company said that the board of directors and Mr.McGrath both agreed that a change in leadership would best enableUnisys to move forward on accelerating execution of the company’sstrategy. Unfortunately, its turnaround never fully turned.

Shares closed at $3.15 yesterday and the 52-week trading range is $2.85to $7.90. In the first half of 2007 this stock had reached $9.00 onhopes that the turnaround was afoot. The company might be able toblame the economy and IT-outsourcing, but it can’t really blame a weakconsumer nor the credit crunch.

Whilegetting rid of a manager who didn’t turn the ship can be good, it meansthe turnaround hasn’t worked and the ship has no captain in choppyseas.

Jon C. Ogg
September 23, 2008

Posted in Management Change, Technology Companies Tagged: UIS

H-P Confirms EDS Talks, Who’s Next? (EDS, HPQ, ACN, CSC, ACS, PER, UIS, ACXM, BE)

247wallst — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:17:43 +0000

As traders look to the news covering whether or not Electronic Data Systems Corporation (NYSE: EDS), there was a release from Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) that confirmed the two companies were engaged in merger talks but there were no assurances that a deal could be reached. As a result, there are many other tech and IT-sourcing companies to look at that other players may take an interest in. Keep in mind that many of these large tech companies do not want to be involved in being acquired and some of the companies will have stronger takeover provisions. Everyone of these companies are different, yet all are in overlapping areas. Here is a handful of names that could fall under that sort of tie-up if the deal comes to pass:

Accenture Ltd. (NYSE: ACN), although maybe too large;
CA, Inc. (NYSE: CA);
Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC);
Affiliated Computer Services, (NYSE: ACS);
Perot Systems Corp. (NYSE: PER);
Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS);
Acxiom Corp. (NASDAQ: ACXM);
Bearingpoint, Inc. (NYSE: BE)…..

If we took the mid-point of the pricing at $12.5 Billion we would have a rough share price of $25.00 per share on EDS. At that rough price, you would have a company that analysts expect to be priced at 18.2 times DEC-2008 earnings and 0.55-times revenue estimates.

Any such deal for EDS would likely have to come in the form of a friendly buyout. This company doesn’t protect itself as hard as other companies, but Capital IQ does note the following tools the company has:

Removal of directors only for cause;
Board can change size of members;
Advanced Notice for director nominations;
Move by 50% of shareholders to remove directors;
Board Indemnification;
Blank Check Preferred Stock.

EDS is seemingly involved in more aspects of IT outsourcing and consulting than it isn’t. Because of the rate that IT-workers come and go inside the Indian IT-outsourcing companies and because of laws restricting total foreign ownership in India, we did not include the public Indian-IT operations in this report

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about other mergers, IPO’s, spin-offs, secondary offerings, and other special situations.

Jon C. Ogg
May 12, 2008

MMI Pushes Another (UIS, BCO)

247wallst — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:07:03 +0000

Shares of Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS) are trading up 8% today after capitulating to activist investor MMI Investments, LLP, which is one of the largest shareholders of Unisys. Unisys has delayed its annual meeting to July 24 to allow it more time to "explore certain portfolio rationalization and other actions that may enhance shareholder value" with its investment banker Bear Stearns.

If this sounds familiar at 247WallSt.com, it is because this was listed as one of "turnarounds that hasn’t turned around" recently. In the we noted: "When you backdate the news and look at the history of the company you’d think that the turn may have already started. But shares are barely above 52-week lows and are barely off of multi-year lows too."

MMI was one of the reasons we named Brinks (NYSE: BCO) to our Special Situations newsletter, and is also part of the reason we have not wanted to close out that position to lock in would-be profits. You can look at their last proxy filing to see how involved MMI can get.

MMI sent a shareholder letter in early January to urge its review of alternatives, and part of that encouragement included its government services business. We are not actually under the belief that a mega-premium buyout is in the cards for Unisys. We are not overly encouraged by an already-leveraged balance sheet that is too heavy in goodwill and intangible assets. But we do believe that the company can continue to make cuts as needed and can streamline certain operations that are not contributing to the bottom line. The company is still underperforming compared to analyst estimates, but it has at least come back to ‘quarterly profitability’ and that is at least a start.

Those of you who trade turnarounds will want to keep this one on your watch lists. It may be a long slow road, but it looks like the car is at least out of the shop even if it isn’t on the road yet.

Jon C. Ogg
February 19, 2008

Pre-Market Earnings Gappers (January 29, 2008)

247wallst — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:22:52 +0000

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