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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMZN, ASH, BAC, C, CAT, DB, XOM, MWW, NEM, STX, SXC, WBSN, VRTX)

Administrator — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:18:09 +0000

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

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Maintained Neutral but cut target to $190 at Credit Suisse; Maintained Outperform but lowered estimates at Baird; Lowered target to $225 at Jefferies.
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (NASDAQ: AMCC) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) named as the Value Stock of the Day at Zack.
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) named as Bear of the Day with under current price objective target by Zacks.
Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Caterpillar, Inc. (NYSE: CAT) named as Bull of the Day with way above-consensus price target at Zacks.
Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) Cut to Hold at Argus.
Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
SunCoke Energy Inc. (NYSE: SXC) Reinstated as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Websense Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX) Reiterated Outperform and raised target at $42 at Credit Suisse.

If you enjoyed the top analyst calls, you can sign up in the box below to join our morning email list to receive news directly in your inbox each morning. We include major analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO and M&A news, special situation developments, observations on Warren Buffett and key market gurus, as well as special exclusive feature stories.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: AMZN, ASH, BAC, C, CAT, DB, MWW, NEM, STX, SXC, VRTX, WBSN, XOM

Facebook/LinkedIn IPOs: Is the Value of Social Networking on the Decline? (LNKD, WBSN)

Administrator — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:51:09 +0000

There are a couple of issues affecting social networking values today, although they certainly are not in the breaking news categories. Nonetheless, these are critical ongoing issues and the valuation of social media is being brought into question. Massachusetts Financial Services Company appears to have significantly slashed its stake in LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD). An SEC filing shows that MFS now has an aggregate outstanding share count of 331,990 shares or 3.7% of the total interest, down from 925,560 shares at the last filing date with a prior interest of just over 10%.

This filing comes on the same day that Jefferies initiated coverage of LinkedIn with a mere “Hold” rating with an $81.00 price target.

What you have to ask, or re-ask, is this: Did Mark Zuckerberg miss his chance for an IPO? We asked this before, and now the WSJ has an article that is not really breaking news but discusses “Facebook Shares Losing Some Sizzle” based upon prior share sale prices of late.

Facebook has recently gone through privacy changes yet again, somewhat annoyingly to some of the less-positive Facebookers. It was also recently announced that Facebook will have Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) police its links to keep users from clicking on links that go to malware, spyware and other infecting sites.

Facebook is still extremely valuable, but the direction is now backing off that key $100 billion that Mark Zuckerberg seems to be after. With the value of internet ads back on the decline, we have to wonder just how valuable this can be. All ships get pulled out to sea during low tides.

LinkedIn shares are down 0.5% at $75.18 today when the NASDAQ itself is up 2.5%.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Insider Activity, Internet, Media Tagged: LNKD, WBSN

M&A Watch: Evaluating Websense, Strategic Versus Financial (WBSN, LWSN, NOVL, INTC, DELL, HPQ)

Administrator — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:01:18 +0000

Websense Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN) finds itself in a mixed position as it reportedly is exploring its merger possibilities. Shares originally popped up almost 10% to $22.37 when we first covered this on March 16 on reports that it was exploring a sale (or other alternatives) with the help of Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners.

Websense is a phenomenal company. Its web, data, and email filtering technology undoubtedly saves companies endless dollars and endless technology headaches and endless wasted hours from filtering out websites, content, and data that are deemed inappropriate or which are deemed to be infiltrating that could harm a user’s computer.

What is interesting is that both Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) and Lawson Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWSN) are larger and both are involved in pending mergers. Websense is arguably the most impressive of these three companies without considering its sub-$1 billion market cap today. Though Websense seems expensive, it may be very cheap to the right buyer . Lawson is far from cheap and Novell went almost nowhere in more than a decade, and we admit that the conservative stance may not be reflected by a true technology buyer.

The sale was initially touted as a $1 billion possibility and we would note that Websense ended 2010 with some $77.6 million in cash and with $67 million in direct long-term debt. We also cannot help but notice more than 60% of the company’s assets are classified as “goodwill and intangible assets” and Yahoo! actually classifies the net tangible assets as being -$281.86 million even if its total equity is listed as $131.66 million.

The world of data security has consolidated and it is possibly the recent McAfee acquisition by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) which has gotten data security companies back on the M&A radar.

Filed under: Business Services, Internet, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Software, Technology Companies Tagged: DELL, HPQ, INTC, LWSN, NOVL, WBSN

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AGCO, BP, COF, CRZO, CRDN, FSLR, GPN, MOTR, NDAQ, OAS, RSYS, WBSN)

Administrator — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:24:39 +0000

These are some of this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades seen from Wall Street research calls:

AGCO Corp. (NASDAQ: AGCO) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) Raised Target (in U.K.) by Goldman Sachs; Raised to Outperform at Macquarie.
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) Started as Perform at Oppenheimer.
Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) Raised to Outperform at BMO.
Ceradyne Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDN) Raised to Buy at Needham.
First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Maintained Buy but Raised Target to $173 at Auriga.
Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) Cut to Neutral at Janney Montgomery; Cut to Market Perform at Barrington Research.
Motricity, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOTR) Started as Buy at Needham.
NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: OAS) Started as Buy at Canaccord; Started as Buy at UBS.
RadiSys Corporation (NASDAQ: RSYS) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
WebSense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.

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JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: AGCO, BP, COF, CRDN, CRZO, FSLR, GPN, MOTR, NDAQ, OAS, RSYS, WBSN

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ERTS, GME, LAMR, MON, NBG, SWIR, SNWL, TWX, VZ, WBSN)

247wallst — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:27:51 +0000

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

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) Cut to Hold at Needham.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ: LAMR) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs… a little too late.
Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ: SWIR) Raised to Outperform at RBC.
Sonicwall Inc. (NASDAQ: SNWL) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Started as Hold at Needham.
Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) Raised to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

You are invited to join our free daily email distribution list to hear about top analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPOs and secondary offerings, ongoing day trader and options trader alerts, stock and market rumors, Buffett and guru investor news, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
FEBRUARY 9, 2010

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ERTS, GME, LAMR, MON, NBG, SNWL, SWIR, TWX, VZ, WBSN

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (MS, GS, JPM, NLY, BCS, BKC, CLNE, KO, CL, DB, PCS, TJX, WBSN)

247wallst — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:25:09 +0000

These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from early Wall Street research calls. There were several banking and broker-on-broker cuts: Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) have all seen their earnings estimates cut at Citigroup.

Annaly Mortgage (NYSE: NLY) Cut to Underweight at Piper Jaffray.
Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Burger King (NYSE: BKC) Started as Buy at Janney Montgomery Scott.
Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE) Cut to Market Perform at Northland.
Coca Cola Company (NYSE: KO) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) Raised to Buy at UBS.
MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) Cut to Sell at Soleil.
TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TJX) Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

I would like to personally invite you to join our free daily email distribution list from 24/7 Wall St. to hear about ongoing day trader and options trader alerts, analyst upgrades and downgrades, stock and market rumors, Buffett and guru investor news, M&A and IPOs, and more.

JON C. OGG
JANUARY 8, 2010

Posted in Analyst Calls, Brokerage Firms Tagged: BCS, BKC, CL, CLNE, DB, GS, JPM, KO, MS, NLY, PCS, TJX, WBSN

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (ADBE, BBT, BA, CLWR, FITB, ITRI, NFLX, NVAX, TTM, WBSN)

247wallst — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:05:25 +0000

These are this Tuesday morning’s top 10 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls:

Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) Started as Market Outperform at JMP Securities.
BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) Started as Underweight at HSBC.
Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) Raised to Neutral at UBS.
Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) Started as Equal Weight at Barclays.
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) Started as Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) Started as Buy at Lazard.

You can join our open email distribution list to receive daily emails with analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, market rumors, merger activity, IPOs and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and guru activity and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: ADBE, BA, BBT, CLWR, FITB, ITRI, NFLX, NVAX, TTM, WBSN

Top Technology Analyst Calls (BBND, CSC, ELX, GRMN, QCOM, STX, WBSN, WDC)

247wallst — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:41:26 +0000

We have seen several influential analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiation calls in the technology sector from Wall Street early this Wednesday morning. These are the key tech calls we have seen with about two hours until the open:

BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC) Started as Sell at Citigroup.
Emulex (NYSE: ELX) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) Started as Outperform at FBR.
Seagate Tech (NASDAQ: STX) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls, Technology Companies Tagged: BBND, CSC, ELX, GRMN, QCOM, STX, WBSN, WDC

The 52-Week Low Club (TXT)(EK)(DOW)(BDK)(WBSN)

247wallst — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:52:25 +0000

Textron (TXT) Weak earnings outlook. Drops to $8.83 from 52-week high of $65.52.

Eastman Kodak (EK) Poor earnings and layoffs. Down to $5.01 from 52-week high of $20.91.

Black & Decker (BDK) Cuts jobs. Cuts outlooks. Sells off to $31.02 from 52-week high of $74.24.

Dow Chemical Company (DOW) More concerns about finances and Rohm & Haas (ROH) buyout.

Websense (WBSN) Poor fourth quarter results. Dips to $11.38 from 52-week high of $24.60.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in HI/LOW Tagged: BDK, DOW, EK, TXT, WBSN

Websense Still Targets Growth (WBSN)

247wallst — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:32:01 +0000

Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN) has posted earnings. The results from the web filtering and data security player are initially being viewed as a disappointment, but the company is actually offering guidance for 2009 and even out to 2010.

The company posted earnings of $0.31 non-GAAP EPS, but a net loss of-$0.27 EPS after GAAP items. Revenues were $79.3 million. First Callhad estimates pegged at $0.29 non-GAAP EPS and $84.25 million inrevenues. It does expect the trend of modest sequential revenuedeclines to continue for the first half, but what is interesting isthat the company believes it will start to see revenue growth in thesecond half of the year.

For fiscal 2009 it has the following targets: Billings in a range of$365 to $375 million, with 75% to 80% coming from renewals. It seesnon-GAAP revenues in a range of $342 to $350 million, with non-GAAPmargins at 25% to 28%. It is even giving guidance on earnings, withnon-GAAP earnings at $1.20 to $1.30 EPS. Billings guidance for 2009assumes an average contract duration in the 20 to 22 month range.Websense sees GAAP cash flow from operations for 2009 to exceed $80million, up from the level of $67.4 million in 2008. Non-GAAP guidancefor fiscal year 2009 revenue and earnings includes approximately $16.1million in subscription revenue from SurfControl.

But the company is offering full forward goals to 2010 as well.Websense believes that it has the potential to generate earnings growthto $1.50 EPS on a non-GAAP basis. Be advised that this is a highlysubjective target. It assumes that 2009 billings will come withinguidance and then assumes that expenses grow in a range of 6% to 7% in2009 and 2010.

First Call targets for 2009 are $1.39 EPS and $353.88 million.

Shares closed up over 4% today at $13.95, but shares are indicatedlower in after-hours trading. It seems that there are probably somedoubters about the return of growth in an environment where major techcompanies won’t even offer any guidance at all. Shares have alreadycome down by almost half as the 52-week trading range is $12.01 to$24.60.

Jon C. Ogg
January 27, 2009

Posted in Earnings, Software Tagged: WBSN