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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (BHP, DF, ENER, HEV, VTIV, JCP, LVLT, PRI, TSN, VISN)

Administrator — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:03:11 +0000

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

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Dean Foods Co. (NYSE: DF) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER) Raised to Neutral at Macquarie.
Ener1, Inc. (NASDAQ: HEV) Raised to Neutral at Janney.
inVentiv Health (NASDAQ: VTIV) Cut to Hold/$26 Target at Auriga.
J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) Raised to Buy (late Monday) at D.A. Davidson.
Primerica, Inc. (NYSE: PRI) Started as Neutral at KBW; Started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Visionchina Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: VISN) Raised to Hold with $3.50 Target at Auriga.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BHP, DF, ENER, HEV, JCP, LVLT, PRI, TSN, VISN, VTIV

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

247wallst — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:51:48 +0000

Ideation 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).

Shareholders representing 82.9% of the outstanding shares approved the business combination in a vote. Fewer than 0.4% of the represented shares elected to convert their shares to cash. Ideation will change its name to SearchMedia Holdings Limited and its common stock, units and warrants will continue to trade on the NYSE Amex under the ticker symbols IDI, IDI.U, and IDI.WS, respectively.

SearchMedia operates a multi-platform outdoor billboard and in-elevator advertising networks in China. Its current network consists of over 1,500 high-impact billboards with over 500,000 square feet of surface display area and one of China’s largest networks of in-elevator advertisement panels consisting of over 170,000 frames in 57 cities throughout China.

The transaction is expected to close on or about October 30, 2009, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of all closing conditions. We are seeing a sell-the-news reaction although only by 1.4% to $8.52. Ideation’s, or SearchMedia’s, 52-week trading range is $6.70 to $8.73.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 27, 2009

Posted in Business Services, China, Media Tagged: AMCN, FMCN, IDI, VISN

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

247wallst — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:23:47 +0000

Ideation 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.

As of a June 30 date, Ideation said its trust account held about $78.8 million (including deferred underwriting fees of US$2.7 million) from the IPO proceeds raised in November 2007 and it noted that its per share liquidation value of the trust was about $7.8815. The size of the merger per a presentation is $174 million and is listed as 44% of the fully diluted combined entity interest. The ultimate value of the transaction is dependent upon how much GAAP income the company produces.

We wanted to get some outside views on this besides the firm that started coverage today. According to our friends over at SPACupdate.com, “Ideation is one of three blank checks trading above its redemption value, and for good cause. Its deal, yet another where a SPAC will succeed buying a Chinese asset, has great predecessors in terms of its ability to generate value. TM Entertainment & Media, a China-focused SPAC that just brought public an advertising company, has kept its head above water post-deal announcement, something that SPACs have had difficulty doing for the last 18 months.”

Today is active, but the real interest started last week from the ROTH China investor conference. As you will see, the volume was much larger then:

DATE VOLUME… Close
OCT. 16: 339,300.. $8.01
OCT. 15: 425,800.. $7.95
OCT. 14: 983,500.. $7.95

Our own take is that part of the excitement is the Chinese market and the recovery prospects there. This strategy may have seemed full of nothing but risk early in 2009. But now that the global recovery has begun, China is perhaps on the front-line of recovery compared to the United States where many feel we are the slowest to recover.

SPACupdate.com also spoke of other Chinese deals and noted, “There are other China-focused SPACs that have performed outstandingly well after bringing companies public: Spring Creek Acquisition Co.’s merger resulted in its stock exploding over time, to about $32 per share. Pantheon China; ChinaGrowth North and ChinaGrowth South; these are all SPACs that directed capital at Asia and successfully found value-generating targets. China Opportunity Acquisition Co., led by Harry Edelson is yet another. We would not be surprised to see future SPACs emerging either from the TSX, or, still, domestically, that look to capitalize on M&A opportunities in China.”

The Roth presentation is here for a full background piece and for terms of the deal. The date to watch now is for Ideation’s Special Meeting of Stockholders, which will be held on October 27, 2009 at 8:30 am Eastern Time at the offices of Akerman Senterfitt in Miami, Florida. There is no such thing as a done deal after everything we have seen over the last year, but investors are betting on the future value of this merger ahead of any formal closing.

Jon C. Ogg
October 19, 2009

Posted in Activist Investor, Business Services, China, Entertainment, Media, Private Equity Tagged: AMCN, CCO, FMCN, IDI, LAMR, VISN

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

247wallst — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:03:59 +0000

These 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 in Analyst Calls Tagged: AAUK, EBAY, HNZ, ITG, MDRX, NVO, PCU, SCR, SI, SOLR, STP, VISN

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

247wallst — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:38:35 +0000

It 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 in Analyst Calls Tagged: ACM, AXYS, CTAS, CVD, EPG, GILD, PPDI, VISN, VTIV

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

247wallst — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:31:02 +0000

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

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

247wallst — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:34:49 +0000

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