Top 5 Analyst Calls of The Week (AMZN, APC, GOOG, VVTV, AAPL)

This may be the first day of 2011, but we still have several standout research calls from the last week that highlight some of the key widely held stocks going into 2011.  We have selected five outstanding or even dubious research calls that stood out above and beyond the rest of the research calls in a light trading week.  The top analyst research calls revolved around Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), ValueVision Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VVTV), and in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

We have highlighted each call, shown the implications, and added color if applicable.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) had a research call that may never be seen by the public and those looking at the stock price today may either not believe the report or throw it out entirely.  Independent research shop Argus was maintained as a “Hold” rating.  That doesn’t sound like much even if you consider that Argus called it a first rate company.  Here is the big issue and one which may bring up value concerns or at least highlight its super-premium valuations… “Based on our multistage dividend discount model, we calculate a theoretical fair value for AMZN of about $89 per share, well below current prices.”  That is almost $100 below current prices, although Argus was not exactly calling for Amazon to crash down to that level.  This is one more example of how using traditional analysis in growth momentum stocks becomes hard to use logic in the analysis.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) was given a great call from Credit Suisse this week ahead of any merger news.  The firm raised its objective target back on Monday to $86 from $74, which would have generated a gain of nearly $10 per share.  Maybe that was luck, maybe not.  Another call came out late Thursday from Bank of America Merrill Lynch calling for a much higher upside if a merger comes.  BofA/ML gave a $110 starting point in an M&A scenario.

Trefis made a cautious call on Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) which may act to highlight some of the concerns ahead.  It noted, “Our price estimate for Google stands at $632, which represents a 5% premium to market price. However, recent product delays could be reason for concern as operating costs necessary to resolve the issues increase and profit margins correspondingly suffer”… and more.

ValueVision Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VVTV) may have stood out more than it would have normally because it was such a light news week on analyst calls.  Still, a kill is a kill and a win is a win.  That being said, the impact call of the week goes to Piper Jaffray for its Overweight rating initiation and $8.00 price target.  Two weeks earlier, Piper Jaffray underwrote an offering at $3.75 per share.  Shares were at $4.88 the day before the analyst call and it closed up at $5.90 the following day and then up at $6.20 the day after that.  The call generated gains of 27% in just two days and it implied upside of 64% if its target objective is reached.

Because it was a light week, we are featuring an “analyst montage” for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and its outlook for 2011.  We wanted to know if it can live up to expectations as a stock, but more importantly what Apple would look like if it actually hits those expectations.  To top it off and to make for another call of the week, James Altucher gave the scenario for a $1 trillion market cap or a $1,200.00 price target.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG