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Key Secondary Offerings (BEXP, MAC, MI, NARA, WTNY, EURX)

247wallst — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:28:08 +0000

We have many key secondary offerings on deck today. Brigham Exploration (NASDAQ: BEXP), Macerich Co. (NYSE: MAC), Marshall & Ilsley (NYSE: MI), Nara Bancorp (NASDAQ: NARA), and Whitney Holding (NASDAQ: WTNY) all priced secondary offerings. Eurand NV (NASDAQ: EURX) is also on deck with a secondary offering, but no formal pricing has yet been seen.

Brigham Exploration Co. (NASDAQ: BEXP) priced a 16 million shares secondary offering (above the 14 million original amount) at $10.50 per share after closing at $10.68 yesterday. Credit Suisse and Jefferies underwrote this one.

Macerich Co. (NYSE: MAC) priced a 12 million shares secondary offering at $29.00 per share through Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan. This REIT closed at $29.81 yesterday and is actually trading above $30.00 on the pricing.

Marshall & Ilsley (NYSE: MI) looks like the largest secondary of the day at $782 million raised. The financial services company priced a 136 million share secondary offering at $5.75 per share after a $6.01 close. Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch were underwriters here.

Nara Bancorp (NASDAQ: NARA) sold 10 million shares of common stock at $7.50 per share in a deal sold through Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Shares closed at $8.00 yesterday and are trading around $7.75.

Whitney Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: WTNY) priced a 25 million shares secondary offering at $8.00 per share after closing at $8.30 yesterday. There was a large sales group here from J.P. Morgan and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey as joint book-running managers; co-managers were listed as Keefe Bruyette & Woods and Sandler O’Neill.

Eurand NV (NASDAQ: EURX) is on deck for an 8.5 million shares secondary offering from Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but no formal pricing has been seen.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 22, 2009

Posted in Banking, Secondary Offering Tagged: BEXP, EURX, MAC, MI, NARA, WTNY

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ANF, FRED, FDO, FINL, SEPR, VMED, WTNY, ZUMZ)

247wallst — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:32:19 +0000

It is looking pretty thin in analyst calls ahead of the 3-day weekend, but these are some of the top research upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen this Friday morning:

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) cut to Sell from Hold at Citi.
Fred’s Inc. (FRED) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
Family Dollar Stores (FDO) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.

Finish Line (FINL) Started as Outperform at Wedbush Morgan.
Sepracor (SEPR) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Virgin Media (VMED) Started as Outperform by Credit Suisse.
Whitney Holding (WTNY) Raised to Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Zumiez (ZUMZ) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: ANF, FDO, FINL, FRED, SEPR, VMED, WTNY, ZUMZ

S&P Looking For More Bank Losses (WFC, CMA, USB, BBT, RF, COF, FITB, HBAN, SNV, WTNY, FAS)

247wallst — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:40:14 +0000

Standard & Poor’s may still have at least some relevance in its debt ratings. This morning we saw a wave of downgrades at banks by the debt ratings agency on systematic-risk and non-systematic risk. We tried to shorten this up to the most concise report in rating groups as this is hitting many of the bank stocks pretty hard this morning. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), Comerica (NYSE: CMA), USBancorp (NYSE: USB), BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT), Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB), Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN), Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) and Whitney Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: WTNY) were all in the wave of S&P downgrades. This news has the extremely volatile Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) triple leverage financial sector ETF down 7% at $8.60.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was cut to AA- from AA. It is off watch but the outlook is negative. Comerica (NYSE: CMA) was cut to A- from A, and it is off watch and the outlook is negative. USBancorp (NYSE: USB) was cut to A+ from AA, and it is off watch and the outlook is stable. BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) was cut to A from A+, and is off watch and the outlook is stable.

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was cut to BBB+ from A, and it is off watch but the outlook is negative. Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was cut to BBB from BBB+. Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was cut to BBB from A- and the outlook is negative. KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) was cut to BBB+ from A-, and is off watch and the outlook is negative.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) is now junk. S&P cut it to BB+ from BBB, and it is off watch but the outlook is negative. Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) and Whitney Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: WTNY) were also cut to Junk Rating.

Associated Banc Corp. (ASBC), Astoria Financial (AF), PNC Financial (PNC), Susquehanna (SUSQ), Valley National Bancorp (VLY), Webster Financial (WBS), and Wilmington Trust (WL) were also part of this major downgrade.

It seems that S&P has figured out that the future of banks will not be as good as things were in the past. It sees stress tests pointing to more pain ahead and losses above current expectations. S&P sees weaker operating conditions ahead. Before you go run into a panic about write-downs and losses, keep in mind that S&P has had many of these banks under review for more than six months. It is also not exactly as though S&P (and Moody’s for that matter) was ahead of the curve in catching the banking and lending crisis that got us where we are today.

Jon C. Ogg

Posted in Analyst Calls, Banking, Financial Stocks Tagged: AF, ASBC, BBT, CMA, COF, FAS, FITB, HBAN, PNC, RF, SNV, SUSQ, USB, VLY, WBS, WFC, WL, WTNY