Posts for Ticker ‘VISN’

Ideation Cleared for China Advertising Activities (IDI, FMCN, VISN, AMCN)

Money ImageIdeation Acquisition Corp. (AMEX: IDI) has been freed up to become SearchMedia, as expected.  The special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, issued a release noting that its shareholders approved all of the company’s proposals related to the acquisition of SearchMedia International Ltd.  As we have noted, investors and traders were using Ideation as a cheap backdoor play into the aspect of advertising in China, very similar to Focus Media Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ: FMCN), the larger pure-play Chinese advertising stock, and to the smaller players there called VisionChina Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VISN) and AirMedia Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AMCN).
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Posted on: October 27, 2009 – 9:51 am in Business Services, China, Media, , , ,

The Back-Door Play on Advertising in China (IDI, FMCN, VISN, AMCN, LAMR, CCO)

china mapIdeation Acquisition Corp. (AMEX: IDI) gave us a volume spike alert over at VSInvestor.com, and it is very unusual to see a special purpose acquisition company suddenly have exponential trading volume. The company has a pending merger vote and it gave an investor presentation just last week at the ROTH China Conference.  Today’s interest is after Ladenburg Thalmann picked up new analyst coverage with a “BUY” rating ahead of a pending merger vote with SearchMedia, an outdoor billboard and in-elevator advertiser in China.

Investors are starting to treat this SPAC as a pre-merger entrance into the Chinese advertising market.  This in a sense gives small-cap investors a chance to buy into what they will hope can become the next Focus Media Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ: FMCN), the larger pure-play Chinese advertising stock with a $1.88 billion market cap… Or even the other player called VisionChina Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VISN) with a $716 million value today after a 3% gain, or the AirMedia Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AMCN) with a $554 million market cap after an 8% gain today.  It will be a stretch to compare this smaller player to Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CCO) or to Lamar Advertising Co. (NASDAQ: LAMR), but those are the clear leaders in America for U.S. investors.
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Posted on: October 19, 2009 – 1:23 pm in Activist Investor, Business Services, China, Entertainment, Media, Private Equity, , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (MDRX, AAUK, EBAY, HNZ, SOLR, ITG, NVO, SI, SCR, PCU, STP, VISN)

Burning_money_pic_3These are most of the general analyst calls we have seen with downgrades or negative implications this Wednesday morning in the early pre-market trading hours:

  • Allscripts-Misys (NASDAQ: MDRX) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
  • Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
  • eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) Started as Sell at Collins Stewart.
  • HJ Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
  • GT Solar (NASDAQ: SOLR) Started as Buy at Kaufman Brothers.
  • Investment Tech (NYSE: ITG) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • Novo-Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
  • Siemens (NYSE: SI) Cut to Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  • Simcere Pharmaceutical Group. (NYSE: SCR) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Southern Copper (NYSE: PCU) Cut to Sell at UBS.
  • Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) Cut to Underperform at FBR.
  • VisionChina Media (NASDAQ: VISN) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.

There were also many financial downgrades and some downgrades specific to the oil patch this morning as well.  As you can see by the few upgrades noted earlier, the pace of downgrades is still greatly exceeding upgrades.

Jon C. Ogg
January 14, 2009

Posted on: January 14, 2009 – 8:03 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ACM, AXYS, CTAS, CVD, GILD, PPDI, VISN, EPG, VTIV)

Money_stack_picIt is getting pretty thin in major analyst coverage as firms are encouraged to go easy on major year-end calls barring anything unexpected.  These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and new coverage calls we have seen this Tuesday morning:

  • AECOM (ACM) Started as Outperform at Baird.
  • Axsys Technologies (AXYS) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
  • Cintas (CTAS) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • Covance (CVD) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • Gilead (GILD) Started as Buy at Stanford Group.
  • PPD Inc. (PPDI) STarted as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • VisionChina Media (VISN) Strated as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • Environmental Power Corp. (EPG) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
  • inVentiv Health (VTIV) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.

Jon C. Ogg
December 23, 2008

Posted on: December 23, 2008 – 7:38 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AGO, BRCM, CMI, IBM, JCP, MBI, MF, MOT, NOV, VISN)

These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Monday morning in the early pre-market trading hours:
Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE: AGO) started as Buy at UBS.
Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) started as Neutral at Robert W. Baird.
Cummins (NYSE: CMI) Raised to Buy from Sell at UBS.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) raised to Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
JC Penney (NYSE: JCP) raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
MBIA (NYSE: MBI) Started as Neutral at UBS.
MF Global (NYSE: MF) Cut To Mkt Perform at KBW.
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
Natl Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) raised to Market Perform at RBC Capital Markets.
VisionChina Media (NASDAQ: VISN) raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Jon C. Ogg
June 23, 2008

Posted on: June 23, 2008 – 6:31 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (CPLA, CEPH, DYN, HBC, MS, SGP, SLM, TASR, TROW, VISN)

Below are the top analyst calls that 247WallSt.com is looking at this morning:

  • Capella Education (NASDAQ: CPLA) started as Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Cephalon (NASDAQ: CEPH) raised to Strong Buy at Broadpoint.
  • Dynegy (NYSE: DYN) raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  • HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
  • Schering Plough (NYSE: SGP) raised to Buy at UBS.
  • SLM (NYSE: SLM) raised to Outperform at FBR.
  • Taser (NASDAQ: TASR) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) downgraded to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  • VisionChina Media (NASDAQ: VISN) started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Jon C. Ogg
February 13, 2008

Posted on: February 13, 2008 – 7:34 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,