Analyst upgrades 11-30-06: Homebuilders sector upgraded

Posted Nov 30th 2006 11:15AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) and the Homebuilders sector topped the upgrade list today.

Citigroup upgraded Sovereign Bank Inc. (NYSE:SOV) to Hold from Sell with a $25 target, citing expectations for management to announce a larger cost-cutting program in January of 2007.
Bank of America upgraded the Homebuilders sector to Neutral from Cautious after their survey showed traffic improvements in 33 of 39 markets in November relative to October; They do not expect a smooth trend, instead, the firm expects to see choppiness in the market for the next 12-24 months.
- In conjunction with the sector upgrade, Bank of America upgraded Standard Pacific (NYSE:SPF) to Buy from Neutral,
- and Meritage Homes Corp. (NYSE:MTH), NVR Inc. (NYSE:NVR), Pulte Homes Inc. (NYSE:PHM), The Ryland Group Inc. (NYSE:RYL) and Toll Bros. Inc. (NYSE:TOL) to Neutral from Sell.

OTHER UPGRADES:

Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at HSBC.
SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) was added to Merrill Lynch's Europe 1 list.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Tags: homebuilders, meritage homes, MeritageHomes, nvr, pulte homes, PulteHomes, ryland group, RylandGroup, sanofi-aventis, sap, Sovereign Bank, SovereignBank, standard pacific, StandardPacific, toll brothers, TollBrothers

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-01-2006 @ 1:09PM

JACK DOYLE said...

LOK BEFORE YOU LEAP ON HOME BUILDING STOCKS.IN SOUTH JERSEY THERE ARE 15 MONTHS SUPPLY ON HAND, THE AVERAGE AGENT SOLD ONE HOUSE IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS.