Alcatel-Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) reiterated Underperform with 0.66 euro price target (versus 0.80 local price, not ADR) at BofA/ML.

Ctrip.com International Ltd. (NASDAQ: CTRP) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE: D) raised to Buy at Argus.

Fleetmatics Group Limited (NYSE: FLTX) started as Buy at BofA/ML and started as Overweight at Barclays.

Integrated Device Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: IDTI) cut to Neutral at Wedbush.

Nanometrics Inc. (NASDAQ: NANO) raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. (NASDAQ: ODFL) started as Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) cut to Neutral at Baird.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) reiterated Buy with $7.50 target at Argus.

UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) added to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) reiterated Buy with $39 target at BofA/ML.

The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) reiterated Outperform with $58 target by Credit Suisse due to Lucasfilm/Star Wars buyout.

Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU) cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

Here were some of the top analyst calls made while the markets were closed Monday and Tuesday:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was covered by Stern Agee and by Credit Suisse after Tim Cook reshuffled management in firings. FULL DETAILS

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) cut to Sell at CRT Capital.

Armour Residential REIT (NYSE: ARR) started as Outperform with $7.50 target at Credit Suisse.

Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC) raised to Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) was added to the US 1 Focus List at BofA/ML.

LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) started as Buy at Needham, started as Buy at Deutsche Bank, started as Buy at Goldman Sachs and started as Buy at Canaccord Genuity.

MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE: LAD) was named as Value Stock of the Day at Zacks on Tuesday, and United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) was named value stock of the day at Zacks on Monday.

Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) was named Bull of the Day at Zacks on Monday, while Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) was named as Bull of the Day at Zacks on Tuesday.

Credit Suisse showed which insurance companies had the most and least exposure to hurricane damages against their fourth-quarter earnings from this storm.

Also, here were the changes for November in the Argus Model Portfolio.

JON C. OGG

Buckeye Partners L.P. (NYSE: BPL) cut to Neutral and named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Integrated Device Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: IDTI) maintained Buy but cut target to $6.50 at Canaccord Genuity.

Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE: LAD) named as Value Stock of the Day at Zacks.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) maintained Outperform but named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Palomar Medical Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PMTI) maintained Buy with $13.50 target.

The calls from Monday were as follows:

Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) cut to Sell at CRT Capital.

Armour Residential REIT (NYSE: ARR) started as Outperform with $7.50 target at Credit Suisse.

Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC) raised to Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) added to US 1 Focus List at BofA/ML; Covidien PLC (NYSE: COV) and HMS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: HMSY) were being removed from the BofA/ML Focus 1 List.

JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) maintained Underperform and named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Javelin Mortgage Investment Corp. (NYSE: JMI) started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) started as Buy at Needham, started as Buy at Deutsche Bank and started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Luxfer Holdings PLC (NYSE: LXFR) started as Outperform with $13 target at Credit Suisse.

MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.

United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) named value stock of the day at Zacks.

Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE: YZC) cut to Underweight at HSBC.

HTC is not U.S.-traded on liquid markets but this hit a multiyear low and it was downgraded by both Macquarie and Daiwa in overseas coverage.

JON C. OGG

The U.S. dollar index rose slightly today, now up 0.21% at 80.239. The GSCI commodity index is up fractionally at 638.97, with commodities prices mostly lower again today. WTI crude oil closed down 0.9% in electronic trading today, at $85.54 a barrel. Brent crude trades down 0.13% at $109.41 a barrel. Natural gas is up 2.2% today at about $3.47 per thousand cubic feet. Gold closed at $1,708.70 an ounce, down 0.2% for the day.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) raised to ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse; Corporate Office Properties (NYSE: OFC) raised to ‘outperform’ at BMO Capital Markets; LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) started as ‘buy’ at Needham , Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs; JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) maintained as ‘underperform’ and named ‘Bear of the Day’ at Zacks; and United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) named ‘value stock of the day’ at Zacks.

There were several earnings reports today although, of course, there was no impact on share prices: Petroleo Brasileiro SA, aka Petrobras, (NYSE: PBR), Burger King Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: BKW) (more coverage here), Harris Corp. (NYSE: HRS), Loews Corp. (NYSE: L), Lufkin Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: LUFK), New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (NYSE: EDU), PG&E Corp. (NYSE: PCG), Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH), Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC), and FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC).

Some firms that had been scheduled to report results this week have postponed their announcements due to the weather. We have a roundup of those we know about here. Others still scheduled to report earnings tomorrow include Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN), Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM), Avis Budget Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR), Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP), BP plc (NYSE: BP), Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE: JCI) JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU), Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), and Yandex NV (NASDAQ: YNDX).

Major stories from today include:

Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) is acquiring smaller rival OPNET Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OPNT) for $43 a share in cash and stock, or about $1 billion. More coverage here.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) today eliminated about 325 jobs at its PayPal subsidiary. More coverage here.

Clean Harbors Inc. (NYSE: CLH) will acquire oil recycler Safety-Kleen in an all-cash deal worth $1.25 billion. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. U.S. bond and equities markets are closed due to the weather tomorrow. New York Fed President William Dudley has cancelled a scheduled speech, but Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota is scheduled to give a speech Tuesday evening in Duluth. We have noted the following event on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:45 a.m. – ICSC-Goldman store sales
• 8:55 a.m. – Redbook
• 9:00 a.m. – S&P Case-Shiller house price index

Paul Ausick

Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Armour Residential REIT (NYSE: ARR) started as Outperform with $7.50 target at Credit Suisse.

Corporate Office Properties (NYSE: OFC) raised to Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) added to US 1 Focus List at BofA/ML; Covidien PLC (NYSE: COV) and HMS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: HMSY) were being removed from the BofA/ML Focus 1 List.

JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) maintained Underperform and named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Javelin Mortgage Investment Corp. (NYSE: JMI) started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) started as Buy at Needham; started as Buy at Deutsche Bank; started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Luxfer Holdings PLC (NYSE: LXFR) started as Outperform with $13 target at Credit Suisse.

United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) named value stock of the day at Zacks.

Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE: YZC) cut to Underweight at HSBC.

HTC is not U.S.-traded on liquid markets but this hit a multiyear low and it was downgraded by both Macquarie and Daiwa in overseas coverage.

JON C. OGG

Where the story gets cautious is in the April to June forecast, where Wipro now expects a 1% revenue decline, which was given a caveat that revenues might grow by 1% or so on an “at-best” guess. The company is reiterating what Infosys said in that its clients are cautious in a volatile environment. There is also the aspect that outsourcing of jobs is now less popular than it was as this is an election year in the United States. The woes in Europe are also a key issue. Today’s news is likely to be a blow to the turnaround efforts made by the company after restructuring its software outsourcing efforts over the past year.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. gave a stronger forecast earlier this week, but the love is not being shared. Infosys Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFY) already set the tone and Wipro is following Infosys rather than Tata.

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s IT Index fell over 8% after the Infosys report and gained almost 5% after the Tata report, but today’s news from Wipro took out another 2% on the index as IT shares fell in India. Wipro shares were down almost 8% in local trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

We have yet to see local trading in New York for Wipro’s ADRs but these closed at $10.33 on Tuesday and the 52-week trading range is $8.63 to $14.65.

Another name to watch in this sector is Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSH) with a $22 billion or so market cap. It offers IT consulting and outsourcing and is based in Teaneck, N.J., but it could be considered as the “American-Indian Indian outsourcing outfit.” Cognizant is set to report earnings on May 7, 2012, and at $72.39 as of Tuesday’s close it has traded in a range of $53.54 to $83.48 over the past 52-week period.

Maybe the woes in India are actually working in favor of International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM), although its services backlog was down slightly to $139 billion at the end of the first quarter.

JON C. OGG

For the quarter which just ended, Infosys profit rose about 27% to $449 million on an adjusted basis and the results were more or less in-line with estimates in India.  The company also ended the quarter with about $4.1 billion in cash on a converted basis.

Some hope may be on the way as better clarity comes into play in the next couple of months, but the news is clearly being taken as a negative with slower growth rates coming. Some of the issues around the company’s weak forecast are the outsourcing of jobs argument in America ahead of the election, a slow environment in Europe, and a slowing global growth story.  Close to 75% of Infosys’ business is derived from the U.S. and Europe.

The stock is paying a steep price for having a disappointment today as shares are indicated down 14% at $48.88 after closing at $56.77 on Thursday.  The 52-week trading range is $46.12 to $68.52.  Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) is lower as well with an indicated drop of about 2.6% to $10.49.

JON C. OGG

Infosys and competitor Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) are two of India’s largest business outsources. The two companies compete with IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH), and Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN).

Business and government spending in the US and elsewhere is expected to grow as companies invest in new equipment and outsourcing for their IT needs. Even Europe is expected to grow if very slowly.

Those estimates, though, may seem to fly in the face of reality. But Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, and India’s largest outsourcer, privately-held Tata Consultancy Services, could reduce a company’s IT costs significantly by replacing highly paid fired workers with lower paid, outsourced workers.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), an Infosys client, plans to fire more than thousand employees to meet its cost reduction goals of $1.45 billion. That’s bad news for the terminated employees, but might offer some good news for Infosys — and Goldman for that matter.

Of course, the big question for the India-based outsourcers is how much of growth they can expect to see between now and the end of the year. Infosys got 6.2% quarterly growth in the Americas during the quarter and expects growth to continue. The other issue they face is whether or not they can control costs. Infosys expects wages to eat away about 1% of the company’s operating margin this year.

Growth that depends on a depreciating currency in a weak economic climate is tenuous at best. There are a lot of things that can go wrong and put a serious crimp in growth forecasts.

But all is well today. Just past noon today, Infosys shares are up more than 8%, at $56.88, in a 52-week range of $46.12-$77.92. Wipro shares are up about 3.5%, at $9.77, in a 52-week range of $8.63-$16.81. Cognizant shares are up nearly 6.5%, at $71.82, in a 52-week range of $53.54-$83.48.

Paul Ausick

We would also be watching these two:

• Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT) with a $36 billion market cap in the same space of IT-outsourcing in India. Wipro is indicated down around $14.20 on no volume as of yet versus a close of $15.85 yesterday and versus a 52-week trading range of $11.30 to $16.81.
• Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH) is technically US-based but has many employees for the same sort of work outside of the United States (including India and many other countries).  Volume is thin, but Cognizant shares are indicated at just under $79.00 versus an $80.78 close on Thursday and versus a 52-week trading range of $45.85 to $82.86.

The IT-outsourcing outfit reported that its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings translated to $0.70 EPS per ADR after revenues grew about 23% to $1.6 billion.  Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.70 EPS and $1.63 billion in revenues.

The company also issued some mixed guidance for the first fiscal quarter.  It now sees earnings at $0.62 to $0.63 on implied revenues of about $1.64 to $1.66 billion.  Where the problem arises is that Thomson Reuters is calling for estimates of $0.69 EPS and $1.65 billion in revenues. 

For Fiscal-2012, earnings guidance is $2.83 to $2.88 in earnings per ADR and revenues are being forecast at $7.13 to $7.25 billion in revenues.  Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates of $3.10 EPS per ADR and $7.25 billion.  The company’s stance is that it expects the demand environment for its IT services “to be normal this year” in its sector.  Normal?  In short, the company is not seeing a jump up in business and it is asking you to trust what is obviously a back-end loaded year.  Even if the summer months are traditionally not robust in IT, software, and hardware spending, asking investors to be patient and to trust guidance seems a bit much when you consider the markets.

Infosys continues to add to its headcount, with a gross employee additions of 8.930 in the quarter to a whopping 130,820 employees.  The company ended its quarter and fiscal year with right at $3.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents versus what was a $41.7 billion market cap as of yesterday’s close. 

There are two key departures from the Infosys board of directors that investors will want to consider.  Mr. K. Dinesh is co-founder and he is leaving after the annual meeting; Mr. T. V. Mohandas Pai is also leaving after the annual general meeting in June.

Infosys shares at 8:00 AM EST are indicated down around $67.00 on thin volume in pre-market trading after a $73.01 close yesterday and the 52-week trading range is $53.28 to $77.92.

JON C. OGG

Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) Started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Ansys Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: APSG) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) Target raised to $116 at HSBC.
Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) Added to Goldman Sachs Conviction Buy List.
Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: HIG) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
Jetblue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: PFG) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

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JON C. OGG

The India-based IT-outsourcing outfit also recognized that giant currency fluctuations are a large concern.  New hires were said to over 7,000.

The first take is that shares have gotten ahead of themselves and that shares are fully valued.  We’ll pass a final judgment later because of a recent run-upin shares.

Infosys closed at $71.01 yesterday and the 52-week range is $45.24 to $71.99; shares are indicated down 2% at $69.60 in early indications.

Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) is a direct competitor indicated down over 1% and “The U.S Indian Outsourcer” is Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH) and shares are indicated down only marginally.

JON C. OGG