24/7 Wall St. » VRSK

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (BHP, CCL, DLPH, MN, MFRM, MCP, PKD, PCCC, PMT, SHLD, JOE, VRSK)

Administrator — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:27:22 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Wednesday morning. As usual for the week between Christmas and New Years, the volume of analyst calls is light but there may be some great hidden gems during this time.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) Cut to Underperform from an already-cautious Neutral rating and named as the “Bear of the Day” by Zacks Investment Research.
Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) maintained Hold (with Long-Term Buy) but cut estimates at Argus.
Delphi Automotive (NYSE: DLPH) Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Manning & Napier, Inc. (NYSE: MN) Started as Neutral at Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus; Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Mattress Firm Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: MFRM) Started as Buy at UBS.
Molycorp, Inc. (NYSE: MCP) Lowered estimates and target to $39 from J.P. Morgan.
Parker Drilling Company (NYSE: PKD) named as value stock of the day by Zacks Investment Research.
PC Connection, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCCC) named as the aggressive growth stock of the day at Zacks Investment Research.
PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT) Maintained Buy and raised target to $19 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (late Tuesday) after distressed asset purchase.
Sears Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD) Maintained Underperform but cut estimates and cut target to $20.00 at Credit Suisse.
The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) Upgraded to Outperform from Neutral and named as the “Bull of the Day” by Zacks Investment Research.
Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) Maintained as Outperform but target price is only $40.00 (versus $39.95 share price) by Credit Suisse.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: BHP, CCL, DLPH, JOE, MCP, MFRM, MN, PCCC, PKD, PMT, SHLD, VRSK

America’s 10 Highest Paid CEOs (Which Are Worth It?)

Charles B. Stockdale — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:22:17 +0000

Several lists of the highest paid CEOs in America are published each year mostly by the business media and shareholder groups. All are based on proxy statements. Long before the lists are published, the boards of directors of these companies try to justify the compensation packages for shareholders. Investors often are skeptical of these defenses, and they should be. It is rare, but not impossible, to show that a chief executive deserves $50 million, or even $100 million a year.

Read America’s 10 Highest Paid CEOs

Based on the annual CEO Pay Survey 2011 by GMI, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 highest paid CEOs. We then analyzed company performance of the highest paid CEOs to determine which pay packages were worth the investment.

Such a review about management compensation is by its nature subjective and different from a board’s reasoning. A board may take into account the long-term record of a CEO who has held his or her job for several years. The board might set a pay package based on an extraordinary year. The directors also may pay a CEO well just before he or she retires. 24/7 Wall St. has downplayed each of these factors, but has not eliminated them. Our judgment of “fairness” is based on what shareholders received in the year as the CEO’s compensation year. Our primary measurements are revenue growth, earnings growth and stock price change.

This is the 24/7 Wall St. list of the 10 highest paid CEOs for 2010 and an analysis of whether their compensations were worth the payments in terms of shareholder returns. All compensation considerations used to set pay, which include board of director criteria from each company, come from SEC-filed proxies.

Filed under: General, Special Report Tagged: AET, CVS, GBL, GGP, MCK, OCR, RL, TRW, VNO, VRSK

Ten Highest Paid CEOs of 2010 (MCK, OCR, TRW, VRSK, CVS, GGP, RL, VNO, AET, GBL)

Paul Ausick — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:07:59 +0000

When it comes to executive pay, the amounts paid to today’s highest paid CEOs equals the GDP of a small emerging nation. The ten most highly compensated CEOs according to a recent survey by GMI took home about $770 million, more than the GDP of Vanuatu or Samoa, among others.

The GMI survey measures what the firm calls “total realized compensation,” which is further defined as “compensation that has been received by the CEO, rather than any notional estimates, accounting costs, or other uncertainties.” Here’s the list:

CEO	Company	Ticker	Compensation
John Hammergren	McKesson Corp.	MCK	$145,266,971
Joel Gemunder	Omnicare, Inc.	OCR	$98,283,242
John Plant	TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.	TRW	$76,841,646
Frank Coyne	Verisk Analytics, Inc.	VRSK	$69,416,726
Thomas Ryan	CVS Caremark Corp.	CVS	$68,079,823
Adam Metz	General Growth Properties, Inc.	GGP	$66,707,460
Ralph Lauren	Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.	RL	$66,651,515
Michael Fascitelli	Vornado Realty Trust	VNO	$64,402,468
Ronald Williams	Aetna, Inc.	AET	$57,787,786
Mario Gabelli	GAMCO Investors Inc.	GBL	$56,608,736

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Compensation Tagged: AET, CVS, GBL, GGP, MCK, OCR, RL, TRW, VNO, VRSK

Berkshire Hathaway & Buffett’s Stock Holdings ‘L to Z’ (BRK-B, BRK-A, MA, MTB, MCO, PG, SNY, TMK, USB, USG, UPS, VRSK, V, WMT, WPO, WFC)

Administrator — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:08:08 +0000

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B, BRK-A) and Warren Buffett have just released the latest holdings of U.S.-listed equities as of September 30, 2011 and this is the second group of ‘L to Z’ in the public equities. We have included some accompanying notes on each. Keep in mind that Todd Combs is a new portfolio manager and his new positions were given ‘special exemptions’ from being disclosed last quarter.

M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE: MTB) is 5.38+ million shares, UP ONLY A TAD from the 5.363 million last quarter but this one had been cut in prior quarters.
Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was 405,000 shares valued at $128.45 million. The position is the SAME AS last quarter but still almost double from the quarter before.
Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) was 28.4 million; SAME AS last quarter but way down from prior quarters and years.
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) was 76.7 million shares and listed as THE SAME as last quarter but lower than the 96.3 million shares in prior quarters.
Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) was 4.06 million shares; SAME AS before.
Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) was more than 4.2 million, a LARGER POSITION than the 2.82 million shares last quarter.
US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was roughly 69 million shares; SAME AS before.
USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) was 17.072 million shares; SAME AS before.
United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) was 1.429 million shares; SAME AS before.
Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was ALMOST DOUBLE in shares at 4.202 million worth $146.1 million versus the 2,101,125 shares a quarter before when it had been started as a new position.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a NEW POSITION of 2.291 million shares worth $96.44 million.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was just over 39 million shares; SAME AS before after having been raised in 2010.
Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) was over 1.72 million shares; SAME AS before and Buffett kept his word so far about holding the Washington Post shares despite stepping down from its board.
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) over 361 million shares a HIGHER POSITION than the 352+ million last quarter.

PAGE ONE…BUFFETT HOLDINGS ‘A to K’

As noted earlier… today’s holding disclosure has missing data as Berkshire Hathaway was given permission and likely still does not include the full holdings: Confidential information has been omitted from the Form 13F and filed separately with the Commission.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Activist Investor, Buffett, Mutual Funds Tagged: BRK-A, BRK-B, MA, MCO, MTB, PG, SNY, TMK, UPS, USB, USG, V, VRSK, WFC, WMT, WPO

Most Likely Stock Purchases by Warren Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B, BAC, DG, XOM, COP, MA, VRSK, WMT, WFC)

Administrator — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:41:55 +0000

Warren Buffett and his team at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) went out buying stocks in this last quarter according to the firm’s quarterly report. Sadly, no one outside of Buffett, Combs, and a few other people know which positions were added to. 24/7 Wall St. has compiled a list of likely add-on positions and the rationale behind each.

Some positions which we expect ro would just assume are in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG), Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA), Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). Just keep in mind that Berkshire Hathaway is granted “Confidential Treatment” in some positions, so it is possible that many others are present but not known by the public.

The total invested was $23.9 billion in the quarter and that appears to be more than any quarter of the last decade and then some. Almost $7 billion of that was classified as equities. Keep in mind that the $5 billion for BofA and the $9 billion or so for Lubrizol were a part of the total figures.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) was not in the prior holdings one quarter ago, but what we do know is that Buffett came to the rescue with a $5 billion preferred share purchase where Buffett also gets all of those warrants. Technically this will not appear in the mid-November filing that shows Buffett’s September 30, 2011 holdings. It doesn’t matter. This is now one of his larger positions.

Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG) was listed as a new of 1,497,800 shares a quarter ago and our take is that Buffett (actually Todd Combs) will have bought more shares in a recent secondary offering. There is a reason this was one of our own Top Stocks To Own for the Next Decade.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) is one we continue wonder why Team Buffett lightened up on. The team already pledged long ago to wind out if ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and that really never happened. Berkshire’s latest Exxon position was 421,800 shares, which saw the same as before but lower than the 1.276 million shares originally. Buffett cannot easily just put a few billion to work in most companies, but he easily could accomplish that in Exxon.

Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was a recent position and it was almost doubled in the last quarter to some 405,000 shares. With how well this performed and with its toll-keeper business model we would just assume that Team Buffett still likes it and maybe likes it even more.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was another new position and it seemed an odd fit for Team Buffett. That is likely because it was Todd Combs making the call. The position was 2,101,125 shares worth “only” about $72.7 million as of June 30. If they liked it before, maybe they liked it again.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is another retailer that we belive Team Buffett may have warmed to for dividends and for valuation. This position was raised in 2010 but has held steady at just over 39 million shares. If you see that Wal-Mart is barely 1% off of its 52-week high, it sure seems as though some investors might be betting that the old man in Omaha decided that good things were happening in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) has long been Warren Buffett’s favorite bank and he has gradually been adding shares more and more through time. This position was just over 368.6 million shares and it has grown each quarter of late. If Team Buffett was adding big positions, it seems that they might have kept their finger on the “buy button” here even when you consider the BofA $5 billion preferred share and warrant investment.

Berkshire Hathaway’s most current portfolio of equity holdings is available here.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Activist Investor, Banking, Buffett, Compensation, Conglomerates, Retail Tagged: BAC, BRK-A, BRK-B, COP, DG, MA, VRSK, WFC, WMT, XOM

24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Calls of the Week (BAC, BBY, BIIB, BCSI, GOOG, LXK, MMI, NOK, ODP, ORCL, PAAS, RIMM, RVBD, S, SBUX, TEVA, VRSK, V)

Administrator — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 11:45:27 +0000

We won’t bother telling you what hard week this was, but we will tell you that at least some smart-money investors are out looking for bargains right now since stocks have sold off so much and since they can’t make any money in bonds now. We cover about 15 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations each morning that are moving stocks. After going through these and filtering the noise out, we often find some very smart calls and very intuitive calls that offer great upside. Unfortunately we also sometimes find some just awful research calls. These become the Top Analyst Calls of the Week.

This week’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations were seen in shares of the following: Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY); Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB); Blue Coat Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BCSI); Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG); Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE: LXK); Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (NYSE: MMI); Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK); Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP); Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL); Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS); Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM); Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD); Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S); Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX); Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA); Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK); and Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V).

In this week’s calls we have pointed out the summary, the price action, an impact elsewhere, and have added color in on some of the summaries.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) may have been defended a week before by Dick Bove of Rochdale, but the stock slid further to close the week out at $6.97. Investors better hope that Credit Suisse knows something that no one else knows. On Wednesday, after a $7.40 close the day before, Credit Suisse maintained its Buy rating but lowered target to $14.00. This was a downgrade light, but frankly that is a double over the next year “IF” the call is accurate.

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is trying to stabilize now that shares are down another 20% or so from the post-earnings reaction. The valuation is dirt cheap here when you consider its recent guidance, even if a sensible analysis would say that the estimates might need to come in some more. It trades at less than 8-times earnings. S&P Equity Research said “enough is enough” late on Thursday and raised the rating to “Buy” due to dirt cheap valuation and too much of a sell-off.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, The Week Tagged: BAC, BBY, BCSI, BIIB, GOOG, LXK, RIMM, RVBD, S, SBUX, TEVA, V, VRSK

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AER, AYR, BBY, BBT, CMG, CREE, HPQ, JDSU, LDK, LOGI, LULU, RIMM, SHLD, SINA, SU, TSO, VRSK)

Administrator — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:24:27 +0000

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

AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER) Started as Outperform with $16 target at Credit Suisse.
AirCastle LTD (NYSE: AYR) Started as Neutral with $14 target at Credit Suisse.
Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) Raised to BUy at S&P Equity Research (late Thursday).
BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) Started as Hold at Citigroup.
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) Cut to Market Perform at JMP.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) Cut to Neutral at UBS; Cut to Neutral at Baird.
JDS Uniphase Corporation (NASDAQ: JDSU) Maintained Buy but cut target to $17 at Argus.
LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Logitech International (NASDAQ: LOGI) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) Raised to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) Raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.
Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) Maintained Hold at Argus.
Sina Corporation (NASDAQ: SINA) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Suncor Energy INc. (NYSE: SU) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) Raised to Outperform at KBW.

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: Analyst Calls Tagged: AER, AYR, BBT, BBY, CMG, CREE, HPQ, JDSU, LDK, LOGI, LULU, RIMM, SHLD, SINA, SU, TSO, VRSK

Top Ten Active Trader Alerts (BIDU, CDII, DG, HSFT, NLST, PPDI, RIMM, SODA, URBN, VRSK)

Administrator — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:25:36 +0000

We have many stocks on the move this morning, some on earnings and some on other news. The ten key movers and shakers we are tracking are in shares of the following: Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU); China Direct Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDII); Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG); hiSoft Technology International Ltd. (NASDAQ: HSFT); Netlist, Inc. (NASDAQ: NLST); Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc. (NASDAQ: PPDI); Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM); SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA); Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN); and Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK). We have outlined news snippets and shown the trading reactions on each.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is down over 3% and just under $140 after Google’s Moto deal may change up the mobile search landscape in Asia per a WSJ story… A stretch, but it is affecting the stock.

China Direct Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDII) had lost more than half its value from the peak but shares were on the rebound after it turned in a 78% revenue gain to $57.0 million for its 3rd quarter. Shares were up 19% on last look last night and the indications show shares close to $1.05 after closing at $0.964 yesterday.

Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG) is up about 4% around $33.50 in early trading indications. The news is that the dollar-store king was added as a new position by none other than Warren Buffett (full Buffett list here).

hiSoft Technology International Ltd. (NASDAQ: HSFT) has yet to move but shares were up about 8% after closing at $11.52 yesterday when the company reported $0.18 EPS as sales grew to $50.87 million while estimates were $0.17 EPS and $47 million.

Netlist, Inc. (NASDAQ: NLST) is up after earnings last night when it posted revenues were up 72% yearly and up 33% sequentially to $16.0 million based on its cloud sales. Shares were up 15% last night and the indications are up around $1.80 after a $1.56 close.

Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc. (NASDAQ: PPDI) is trading higher on reports that private equity giant Carlyle Group is in talks to acquire the company. Shares are up 3.6% at $32.65 in pre-market trading, challenging the $32.91 52-week high.

Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) is down after an analyst downgrade to SELL from Societe Generale and shares are down 3.2% at $26.25 this morning in early trading.

SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA) is down 9% at $45.66 after Jim Cramer bashed the stock last night on CNBC’s MAD MONEY as he called it ‘No Green Mountain’ and said its growth was broken unless the company was totally sandbagging the guidance.

Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) is facing some large pressure after earnings fell 21% for the quarter. Shares were down about 6% around $28 in earlier indications and now shares are down closer to 10% and down under $27.00 pre-market.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) is up because it was the other new position held by Berkshire Hathaway with close to a 2.1 million share stake. Shares are up 6% at $34.20 in pre-market trading. Full Buffett stock change list here.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: BIDU, CDII, DG, HSFT, NLST, PPDI, RIMM, SODA, URBN, VRSK

Berkshire Hathaway & Buffett’s Stock Holdings ‘M to Z’ (BRK-B, BRK-A, MA, MTB, MCO, PG, SNY, TMK, USB, USG, UPS, VRSK, WMT, WPO, WFC)

Administrator — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:45:31 +0000

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B, BRK-A) and Warren Buffett have just released the latest holdings of U.S.-listed equities as of June 30, 2011 and this is the second group of ‘M to Z’ in the public equities. We have included some accompanying notes on each. Keep in mind that Todd Combs is a new portfolio manager and his new positions were given ‘special exemptions’ from being disclosed last quarter.

Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was 405,000 shares, ALMOST DOUBLE from the 216,000 shares last quarter as a prior new position. Now valued at $122 million.
M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE: MTB) is 5.363 million, SAME AS before but had been cut in prior quarters.
Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) was 28.4 million; SAME AS last quarter but this is down from prior reports as Moody’s is slowly getting cut.
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) was 76.7 million shares; SAME AS last quarter but lower than the 96.3 million shares in prior quarters.
Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) was 4.06 million shares; SAME AS before.
Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) was 2.82 million shares; SAME AS before.
US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was roughly 69 million shares; SAME AS before.
USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) was 17.072 million shares; SAME AS before.
United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) was 1.429 million shares; SAME AS before.
Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was 2,101,125 shares, a NEW POSITION listed as $72.7 million as of June 30.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was just over 39 million shares; SAME AS before after having been raised in 2010.
Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) was over 1.72 million shares; SAME AS before and Buffett kept his word so far about holding the Washington Post shares despite stepping down from its board.
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was over 368.6 million; this one GREW AGAIN from the 358.9 million shares at March 31, 2011; was listed as over 342 Million shares one quarter earlier and over 336.4 million two quarters before that.

PAGE ONE…BUFFETT HOLDINGS ‘A to L’

As noted earlier… today’s holding disclosure has missing data as Berkshire Hathaway was given permission and likely still does not include the full holdings: Confidential information has been omitted from the Form 13F and filed separately with the Commission.

Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) was not listed but that is because it was acquired by Berkshire.

You are invited to join our free daily email distribution list to hear more news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private placements.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Activist Investor, Buffett, Conglomerates Tagged: BRK-A, BRK-B, MA, MCO, MTB, PG, SNY, TMK, UPS, USB, USG, VRSK, WFC, WMT, WPO

Verisk Analysts, Lackluster Initiations (VRSK)

247wallst — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:45:32 +0000

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) is seeing some very cautious or at least unexciting analyst initiations now that its quiet period has ended. This post-IPO has at least held its value, which is more than many other post-IPOs can claim. The risk management suite of actuarial data came public in early-October in a $1.9 billion IPO after it sold 85.25 million shares at $22.00 per share.

It turns out that many felt it was a fully priced deal. Yet the stock popped above the pricing and has never gone back close to it. Since the deal opened, it has traded in a trading range of $26.10 to $30.00. The problem is that today’s slate of analyst initiations has failed to give investors any solid endorsement nor any solid hope of a real growth of shares.

BofA Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley were the lead underwriters. J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo Securities were senior co-managers, and William Blair, Fox-Pitt Kelton, and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods were all acting co-managers.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch started it as “Neutral”
Wells Fargo started coverage as “Market Perform”
KBW has started the rating as Market Perform
Fox-Pitt Kelton started the rating as “In-Line”

The good news is that today’s share price is only down 0.4% at $28.77. But that is also on a day where the broad market is up about 1.5% and when most shares are higher.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls, Brokerage Firms, Financial Stocks, Software Tagged: VRSK