Posts for Ticker ‘UPS’

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Holdings P-Z Q3-2009 (BRK-A, BRK-B, PG, RSG, SNY, STI, TMK, TRV, USB, USG, UNH, UNP, UPS, WMT, WPO, WFC, WLP, WSC, WBC)

This is the list of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) public US equity holdings as of September 30, 2009.  As noted in the “A to F” and “G to O” lists, there have been changes since the cut off date and those have been noted where applicable. Here are Warren Buffett’s holdings and accompanying notes for the group ‘P to Z.’

  • Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 96.3 million, the same as before.
  • Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) 3.625 million shares; NEW POSITION following Bill Gates.
  • Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) 3.079 million shares; DOWN FROM 3.2+ the quarter before.
  • Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) roughly 2.82 million, same as before.
  • Travellers Cos (NYSE: TRV) 27,336; NEW POSITION but small.
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) roughly 69 million; Same as quarter before.
  • USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, same as before.
  • United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) 3.4 million shares; DOWN from 4.5 million last quarter and down from over 6 million in Q1.
  • Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 9.55 million shares, same as quarter before but this does not matter as Buffett is dumping his non-BNSF rail holdings.
  • United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) 37.8 million; WAY UP from the 19.9+ million shares last quarter.
  • Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
  • Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) 313.3 million shares; ABOVE THE PRIOR 302+ million last quarter and above the 290+ million in Q1.
  • Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 3.394 million; DOWN SLIGHTLY from the 3.5 million last quarter and from the 4.7773 million in Q1.
  • Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) IS GONE after being 2.7 million shares last quarter.

BUFETT HOLDINGS ‘A to F’

BUFFETT HOLDINGS ‘G to O’

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JON C. OGG

Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 5:11 pm in Activist Investor, Buffett, Conglomerates, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/11/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NY Times, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were acquited.

Reuters:   Zucker, NBCU’s current CEO, will head the company when Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) buys a majority of the company from GE (NYSE:GE).

Reuters:  Dodd’s super-bank regulator fights a uphil battle in Congress.

Reuters:   Fed officials see an uneven recovery. Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 4:09 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 10/28/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   The Nielsen survey shows consumer confidence up in the US for the first time since 2007.

Reuters:   Obama’s financial reforms are advancing in Congress.

Reuters:   The pay czar said his authority should not be expanded.

Reuters:   Obama’s “too big to fail” bill would curb bailouts. Read More »

Posted on: October 28, 2009 – 3:59 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 100 Hardest Working Brands In The World

hersheyThere are a number of ways to rank brand values. One of the most important is the level at which a brand contributes to the market value of a public company.

24/7 Wall St. asked Corebrand, the brand research and consulting firm, to look at the top 100 brands based their contribution to market capitalizaton. Using this method, the hardest working brand was Hershey (NYSE:HSY), followed  by Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG)

Corebrand described the process briefly to 24/7 Wall. St.

24/7 Wall St.: Corebard often refers to the brands on this list as the”hardest working brands”. How did you come to that description?

Corebrand: There are a lot of people measuring and examining the “strongest brands” or the “most valuable brands”.  Our opinion is that examining one without the other is somewhat meaningless.  How “strong” a brand is nice to know but not very relevant unless you understand how that strength benefits business.  Similarly, “value” is little more than a measure of corporate size unless you understand the drivers of that value and how to influence it. By examining the strength of the brand and it’s contribution to total market value, we can help companies and their leadership manage that strength and value over time.

24/7 Wall St.: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a brand value be a very large percentage of market cap in the present and as an indication of a company’s future performance?

Corebrand: The brand will need to be in balance with the rest of the company’s assets.  A company should strive to have it’s brand strong enough to fend off competitors or changing market conditions but not so strong that it becomes overly dependent on the brand as a single driver of value.  If a company can achieve and maintain its appropriate maximum strength without becoming over-dependent, it will see greater returns in bull markets and retain greater value in bear markets.

The list: Read More »

Posted on: October 20, 2009 – 5:06 pm in Research, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades (BSX, DWA, ETFC, FSLR, LVS, MSFT, MOS, POT, UPS, UA)

These are the top 10 analyst calls for upgrades and downgrades seen early this Monday morning from Wall Street research firms:
Boston Scientific (BSX) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
DreamWorks Animation (DWA) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
E*TRADE Financial (ETFC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
First Solar (FSLR) Cut to Sell at Soleil.
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Raised to Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Microsoft (MSFT) Raised to Buy at Auriga.
Mosaic (MOS) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
UPS (UPS) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Under Armour (UA) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: September 14, 2009 – 8:18 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 9/14/2009

newspaperReuters:   Obama is trying to push Wall St. reform.

Reuters:   German aid for Opel will go in part to Russia for operations there.

Reuters:   A global poll shows support for stimulus packages.

Reuters:   J&J (JNJ) is in talks to cut its $1.5 billion Elan investment. Read More »

Posted on: September 14, 2009 – 4:01 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Transports Seeing Mixed Show on FedEx Guidance Hike (FDX, UPS, UNP, CSX, YRCW, NSC, KSU, BNI, JBHT, CNW, LSTR)

FedEx Logo PicWe just noticed over at our volume spike alert service that FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) was already challenging 150% of its average volume and was triple volume what it normally has traded by this time of the morning. This was really ramping up rival United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) with a 4% gain, and was taking up lesser players in the space as well.  But interestingly enough, this is not doing anything to boost the trading volume in railroad stocks. Railroad giants like Union Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) and CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) are even lower on the day.  YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) is up significantly, and most truckers are up in sympathy.
Read More »

Posted on: September 11, 2009 – 11:33 am in Consumer Goods, Trading Alert, Transports, , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (COF, EBAY, GS, JBLU, LTM, MA, SNDK, UPS, WYNN)

There are still many upgrades coming considering the light and shortened week.  These are this Wednesday’s top early bird analyst upgrades and positive research calls that we have seen:

Capital One (COF) Raised to Buy at Citi.
eBay (EBAY) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Goldman Sachs (GS) Raised to Outperform at JMP Securities.
Jetblue (JBLU) Raised to Buy at Argus.
Life Time Fitness (LTM) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Mastercard (MA) Raised to Hold at Citi.
SanDisk (SNDK) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
UPS (UPS) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) Raised to ‘Perform’ at Oppenheimer.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: September 9, 2009 – 8:18 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

US Postal Service To Offer 30,000 Workers Buyouts

uncle samThe US Postal Service may be able to drive up the national rate of unemployment all on its own. The USPS will offer 30,000 workers buyouts. It has 650,000 workers, so that number is not as significant as it may seem at first.

The Postal Service expects to lose $7 billion this fiscal year. It believes that the buyouts could save $500 million, which is not nearly enough to solve its financial problems. According to The Wall Street Journal, workers who leave before January 1 would get a $10,000 payment at that point and another $5,000 later next year. Read More »

Posted on: August 25, 2009 – 5:18 pm in Internet, ,

Media Digest 8/20/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   UBS (UBS) shares may fall when the Swiss government sells out.

Reuters:   The US deficit estimate was trimmed to $1.59 trillion.

Reuters:   A homeowner sued Wells Fargo (WFC) over a credit line.

Reuters:   AIG (AIG) was sued by policyholders over the Madoff fraud. Read More »

Posted on: August 20, 2009 – 3:55 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Q2-2009 Holdings P to Z (BRK-A, PG, SNY, STI, TMK, USB, USG, UNH, UNP, UPS, WBC, WMT, WPO, WFC, WLP, WSC)

Buffett ImageBerkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) has released its public stock holdings for Q2-2009 as of June 30, 2009.  Buffett did make some portfolio changes that have been seen here from the end of Q1 and we have broken these down into 3 groups of ‘A to F’ and  ‘G to O’ and ‘P to Z’ so these are easier to see on one page.  Here are Warren Buffett’s holdings and accompanying notes for the group ‘P to Z.’

  • Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 96.3 million, same as before.
  • Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, looks same as before.
  • Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) more than 3.2 million shares, same as before.
  • Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) roughly 2.82 million, same as before.
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) roughly 69 million is same as before after it had been raised in Q1.
  • USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, same as before.
  • United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) 4.5 million; down from over 6 million.
  • Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 9.55 million shares, same as Q1 after growing the Q1 over Q4 position.
  • United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
  • WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) 2.7 million shares, same as before.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) over 19.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
  • Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) over 302 million; ABOVE the 290+ million shares the quarter before.
  • Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 3.5 million; DOWN from the 4.7773 million shares in Q1.
  • Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

BUFETT HOLDINGS ‘A to F’

BUFFETT HOLDINGS ‘G to O’
JON C. OGG
AUGUST 14, 2009

Posted on: August 14, 2009 – 5:22 pm in Buffett, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Post Office May Close 700 Locations

uncle samThe writing has been on the wall for years. The Postal Service is slowly going out of business. The fax was the first piece of technology that cut into the need to mail letters and documents. FedEx (FDX) and UPS (UPS) took a lot of the agency’s shipping business away.

The final and most lethal damage was done by the internet. Broadband connections allow people and business to send e-mail, data, and huge documents from point-to-point around the world instantaneouslyfor nearly no cost. Read More »

Posted on: August 4, 2009 – 5:43 am in Regulation, ,

Media Digest 7/24/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT. Bloomberg

newspaperReuters: Microsoft’s (MSFT) results and forecast were weak.

Reuters:   CIT (CIT) may sell its aviation finance business.

Reuters:   Fatigue at the Fed is leading to questions about its expanded role.

Reuters:   Twitter will pitch add-on tools to businesses.

Reuters:   Vodafone (VOD) stuck to its full-year forecast.

Reuters:   Amex (AXP) and Capital One (COP) had large cars losses. Read More »

Posted on: July 24, 2009 – 2:54 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Q1-2009 Holdings P to Z (BRK-A, PG, SNY, STI, TMK, USB, USG, UNH, UNP, UPS, WBC, WMT, WPO, WFC, WLP, WSC)

Buffett ImageWarren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) holdings for the first quarter of 2009 are now out for the cut off date here of March 31, 2009.  There are some changes from the end of Q4 here in banking and here is the list of stocks alphabetically ‘P to Z.’

  • Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 96.3 million, same as before.
  • Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, looks same as before.
  • Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) more than 3.2 million shares, same as before.
  • Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) roughly 2.82 million, same as before.
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) roughly 69 million; ABOVE last quarter’s 67.6 million.
  • USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, same as before.
  • United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) 4.5 million; down from over 6 million.
  • Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 9.55 million shares, above our 8.9 million noted before.
  • United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
  • WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) 2.7 million shares, same as before.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) over 19.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
  • Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) over 302 million; ABOVE the 290+ million shares the quarter before.
  • Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 4.7773 million shares, same as before.
  • Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “A to F”
Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “G to O”

Jon C. Ogg
May 15, 2009

Posted on: May 15, 2009 – 4:02 pm in Activist Investor, Banking, Buffett, Buffett Holdings, Conglomerates, Insider Activity, Mutual Funds, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 4/24/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaper23According to Reuters, tech giants reported reasonable earnings for last quarter because of cost cutting and a resilience in a bad economy.

Reuters reports that Chrysler is still working on a deal with Fiat but is also preparing to file Chapter 11.

Reuters writes that the US pressured Bank of America (BAC) to close the Merrill deal.

Reuters writes that the G7 is touting economic hope but taking heat for its rescue of banks.

Reuters reports that Obama called for credit card reform. Read More »

Posted on: April 24, 2009 – 3:00 am in Earnings, Press Digest, , , , , , , , ,

Is UPS Foreshadowing For Amazon.com Earnings? (UPS, AMZN)

amzn-logo1United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is trading off after the company reported poor earnings this morning.  There is an interesting angle here that could reflect on Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) ahead of its earnings reporter after today’s close.  Almost everyone uses Amazon.com at some point now, but which shipping package do you just about always see when you buy through the Amazon.com retail network?  UPS, of course.  Amazon’s digital operations can be a real wild card today, but the possible correlations are just too hard to miss.
Read More »

Posted on: April 23, 2009 – 9:39 am in Earnings, Internet, Retail, Transports, ,

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Disclose Holdings S to Z (BRK-A, SNY, STI, TMK, USB, USG, UNP, UPS, WBC, WMT, WPO, WFC, WLP, WSC)

buffett_image5The final list of Warren Buffett’s year-end stock holdings from Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) are out and we broke them down alphabetically with this being the “S to Z” stock list.  The cut off here is December 31, 2008 and we have added in some color for how this compares to last quarter’s report:

  • Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) more than 3.2 million shares, same as before.
  • Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) looks roughly the same at 2.82 million.
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) about 67.6 million shares, down from over 72.9 million last quarter.
  • USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, looks same as last quarter.
  • Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 8.9 million shares, same as before.
  • United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
  • WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) 2.7 million shares, same as before.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) over 19.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
  • Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) roughly 290.4 million shares, looks same as before.
  • Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 4.7773 million shares, same as before.
  • Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

BUFFETT HOLDINGS “A to G”
BUFFETT HOLDINGS “H to R”

Jon C. Ogg
February 17, 2009

Posted on: February 17, 2009 – 5:48 pm in Activist Investor, Buffett, Buffett Holdings, Conglomerates, Financial Stocks, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (EE, LRY, NEM, RSYS, RVBD, RYAAY, STAR, UPS)

Money_stack_picThese are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street this Wednesday morning:

  • El Paso Electric (EE) Raised to Hold at Jefferies.
  • Liberty Property (LRY) Raised to Hold at Citigroup.
  • Newmont Mining (NEM) Raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Radisys (RSYS) Raised to Buy at Cantor Fotzgerald.
  • Riverbed Tech (RVBD) Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan.
  • Ryanair (RYAAY) Raised to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  • Starent (STAR) Started as Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald.
  • UPS (UPS) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.

Jon C. Ogg
February 4, 2009

Posted on: February 4, 2009 – 8:00 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (AFFX, APD, ACAS, AMLN, AMAT, AINV, CTXS, DRYS, XOM, IRBT, LRCX, NFLX, NSR, NHY, NYX, BTU, UPS)

Burning_money_picThese are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and cautious calls we are seeing this Thursday morning:

  • Affymetrix (AFFX) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • Air Products (APD) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • American Capital (ACAS) Cut to Underperform at KBW.
  • Amylin Pharma (AMLN) Cut to Sell at Canaccord.
  • Applied Materials (AMAT) Started as Sell with $8 target at Auriga.
  • Apollo Investment (AINV) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
  • Citrix Systems (CTXS) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • DryShips (DRYS) Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
  • Exxon Mobil (XOM) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • iRobot (IRBT) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Lam Research (LRCX) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
  • Netflix (NFLX) Started as Sell at Maxim Group.
  • Neustar (NSR) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Norsk Hydro (NHY) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
  • NYSE Euronext (NYX) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • Peabody Energy (BTU) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
  • United Parcel Service (UPS) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Jon C. Ogg
January 29, 2009

Posted on: January 29, 2009 – 7:57 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Layoff Kings: The Companies That Cut The Most In 2008 (C)(HPQ)(T)(GM)(BAC)(SBUX)(WFC)(DOW)(JAVA)(JPM)(AMR)(MRK)

UnemplyPeople who get to the end of 2008 and are still at work can be thankful. The unemployment rate will probably be over 7%. That does not count the people no longer looking for work. Add them in and the figure is probably over 12%.

The business headlines have been filled with reports of layoffs nearly every day in the last half of the year. A lot of these have come at big, profitable companies, which says something about what they expect in 2009. Obviously, many of the largest cuts came at firms such as Citigroup, which are struggling to stay afloat, or firms such as Bear Stearns which simply disappeared.

Here is the 24/7 Wall St. 2008 report on the twenty largest layoffs by company. If a firm cut more than once during the year, those numbers have been combined for an annual total. We extend special thanks to Challenger, Gray & Christmas for its help.

Read More »

Posted on: December 20, 2008 – 8:54 pm in Labor & Unions, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,