Reuters: 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
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is reporting some stellar earnings considering the environment and this appears to be the 6th or 7th beat against estimates. The credit card processing giant posted $0.74 non-GAAP EPS vs. $0.72 EPS estimates from Thomson Reuters. The company also initiated a share buyback of up to $1 billion. As far as 2010, the company sees 11% to 15% revenue growth and is comfortable with 20% earnings growth. There are some metrics still showing growth, but it is obvious that not even the great big Visa is immune to a global recession with a world full of price-sensitive shoppers. The report is also rubbing off a bit on MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE: MA).
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This week was the crest of 2009 third quarter earnings season. We still have a flood of reports next week and picking a mere top ten earnings to watch was very unfair to many key stocks. But the ten earnings we have flagged as the top ten for next week are Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL), Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO), Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME), ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG). We have included Thomson Reuters consensus data for earnings and revenue estimates and added color on each where applicable.
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This morning’s banking reports from Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) might as well be called the Warren Buffett banking reports, or the banking earnings for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A). Berkshire Hathaway’s ownership in Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was over 302 million shares at the end of June 30, which was above the 290+ million shares the quarter before. The Berkshire Hathaway ownership in US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was roughly 69 million, effectively the same as the quarter before after it had been raised in Q1.
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These are this morning’s top day trader and active alert stocks moving on volume. We have provided links through to each stock with more detailed analysis and data at VSInvestor.com:
Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) is running on significantly higher guidance.
Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV) is one of the biggest losers after Symantec is terminating a contract.
Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) is surging over 5% on new solid board member additions to help it transition.
DepoMed, Inc. (NASDAQ: DEPO) is down over 30% after missing some hot flash trial endpoints.
KB Home (NYSE: KBH) is being hit by 5% on an SEC inquiry disclose.
ONYX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONXX) is trading up despite it acquiring a private company.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is set to challenge 52-week highs on an upgrade.
You can join our open email distribution list to get updates each morning on analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.
JON C. OGG
These are the top early-bird analyst upgrades and positive research calls which we have seen from Wall Street early this Monday morning:
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) Started as Overweight at Barclays.
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) Added to Goldman Sachs Top M&A List.
Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) Raised to Hold at Jefferies.
Kroger (NYSE: KR) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Mastercard (NYSE: MA) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
PG&E (NYSE: PCG) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Polaris (NYSE: PII) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Visa (NYSE: V) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
VMware (NYSE: VMW) Raised to Hold at Jefferies.
You can join our open email distribution list to get updates each morning on analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.
JON C. OGG
24/7 Wall St. interviewed Ivan G. Seidenberg, the Chairman and CEO of Verizon (VZ), recently. The conversation covered Verizon’s major plans, the global telecom markets, and the effects of the recession. This is the one in a series of 24/7 Wall St. interview with large company CEOs to examine the future of business and industry as the world economy recovers.
The interview: Read More
Several consulting firms post annual figures for the world’s most valuable brands. The two best known are probably the Interbrand and BrandZ surveys. They are notably different, up until now at least. BrandZ includes a number of large brands from Asia. Interbrand does not.
24/7 Wall St. has put together a list of the most valuable brands of 2009 by looking at valuation calculations from a number of sources. Then a base valuation was taken from the 2008 Interbrand data to fix values for this year and changes from last.
Most methods take into account the future earnings of a brand for its parent company. This is fundamentally a guess particularly during a turbulent period in the global economy. Interbrand’s rule is that a brand most get at least a third of its revenue from outside its country-of-origin. That is arbitrary, particularly as it apply to brands in China.
24/7 Wall St. has made the assumption that the value of most brands have been hurt log-term by the deep recession. Forward earnings estimates for many of the firms on this list show that. Those brands which post value improvements show much more modest increases than they would be in a stable economy.
Looking at the Interbrand list from last year, it is fair to ask why firms like Nissan, Wal-Mart (WMT) and Red Bull are not present.
Because the brands on this list are taken from names on the Interbrand survey, we have not made a calculation about which companies may be new to their list in 2009 or which may drop off.
Public firms which are part of this ranking include (KO)(IBM)(MSFT)(GOOG)(GE)(NOK)(TM)(INTC)(MCD)(DIS)(HPQ)(AXP)(C)(HMC)(ORCL)(AAPL)(SNE)(PEP)(HBC)(NKE)(UPS)(FDX)(SAP)(DELL)(JPM)(GS)(KL)(EBAY)(SI)(F)(AIG)(AMZN)(CAT)(AVP)(RIMM)(GPS)(TIF)(BP)(SBUX)(JNJ)(MAR)(V)
The 100: Read More
Facebook, which has over 200 million users, is becoming nearly as widely available on handsets as it is on PCs. Its members cannot get enough of sharing their experiences and profiles with their Facebook “friends.” Social networking is becoming a larger business by the day. A new comScore study shows that one of every five online display ads runs on one of the social networks. Read More
These are the early morning analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Tuesday morning:
Coinstar (CSTR) Started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Costco (COST) raised to Market Perform at William Blair.
GOL Linhas Areas Inteligentes S.A. (GOL) Raised to Buy at Argus.
Google (GOOG) Raised to Buy at ThinkEquity.
Harman (HAR) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Lowe’s (LOW) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Mastercard (MA) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Time Warner (TWX) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Visa (V) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Warner Chilcott (WCRX) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
JON C. OGG
Short sellers moved out of financial shares in great numbers.
As of August 11, the short interest in Citigroup (C) fell 71% to 343 million shares. Share sold short in GE (GE) fell 15% to 143 million. The short interest in Wells Fargo (WFC) was down by 9% to 99 million. Shares sold short in American Express (AXP) dropped 20% to 36 million. The short interest in Capitol One (COF) dropped 19% to 30 million. Shares sold short in Visa (V) dropped 22% to 15 million. Read More
Unemployment may be improving or getting less bad, but the same is not true for credit and borrowing by consumers if the June trends continue. The consumer credit report for June has just come out, and there was another decline and revision lower for May. Outstanding credit fell by an annualized rate of 4.9% to right at $2.503 trillion. The Federal Reserve data shows that consumers are still holding pat and continue to deleverage their own finances.
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Reuters: Unemployment is causing further stress in the housing market.
Reuters: The Microsoft (MSFT) deal with Yahoo! (YHOO) may have challenges with regulators.
Reuters: Sony (SNE) lost money on weakness in its TV business.
Reuters: The Senate is looking the roles at Goldman Sachs (GS) and Deutsche Bank (DB) may have played in last year’s meltdown in mortgage markets. Read More
Short sellers are will to bet, at least for now, that the worst of the banking earning crisis is over. Short interest in a number of large financial companies fell sharply for the period ending July 15.
Shares sold short in AIG (AIG) fell 91% to 21.9 million. The short interest in Bank of America (BAC) fell 18% to 89.7 million. Shares sold short in Freddie Mac (FRE) dropped 18% to 65.9 million. The short interest in Wells Fargo (WFC) was down 11% to 108 million. Shares sold short in Visa (V) were off 42% to 18.9 million. Read More
Reuters: A survey shows the global stimulus spending lacks direction.
Reuters: The race for “green” cars is still wide open.
Reuters: GM (GM) and Chrysler will face Senate scrutiny are dealer closings.
Reuters: Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) are being left behind by healthy rivals.
Reuters: Obama said it is “make or break” time for healthcare reform. Read More
We had been awaiting a shelf registration statement from Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) for a while now, and now we have gotten that filing this morning. While the company has downplayed the importance of this it may be a rather important development despite few specifics.
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According to Reuters, Bank of America (BAC) shareholders voted to separate the chairman and CEO roles and Ken Lewis was replaced as chairman.
Reuters reports that talks to keep Chrysler out of Chapter 11 are on the rocks.
Reuters reports that the Fed sees the economic downturn easing. Read More
There is a reading of the economy which we used to see only go up and up, and that is the monthly consumer credit. In the month of February, consumers cut their borrowings and this is the fourth reading in the last six months. Consumer credit outstanding fell by an adjusted rate of about 3.5% or $7.5 billion, to $2.564 trillion. We saw Bloomberg estimates of -$3 billion and Dow Jones had run estimates of -$1 billion.
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According to Reuters, HSBC (HBC) has a successful rights offering to raise $18.9 billion.
Reuters reports that a deal for IBM (IBM) to by Sun (JAVA) is near collapse.
Reuters writes that Geithner denies that the Administration CEO pay limits. Read More
Credit card processing fee legislation appears to be coming back. Whether it becomes law is another matter, but merchants are going after credit card processing fees via a fight in Washington D.C. That puts the likes of Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V) and MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) front and center due to roughly an 80% market share. It could also pose a serious risk to a portion of revenue in their business models. It seems that merchants are banding together again to fight the amount of money they have to pay for processing transaction payments on credit cards.
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