Analyst upgrades: ANN, CAL, CECO, INTC and KFN
Posted Aug 16th 2007 10:47AM by Kevin Shult
Filed under: Before the bell, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Good news, Intel (INTC), KKR Financial (KFN), Stocks to Buy
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Commercial Metals (CMC), KKR Financial (KFN), Career Education (CECO), Ann Taylor (ANN) and Intel (INTC) were today's noteworthy upgrades:
- CIBC upgraded Commercial Metals (NYSE: CMC) to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer based on valuation.
- KKR Financial (NYSE: KFN) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings, following managements detailed conference call and managements prudent and rapid actions to address the sale of its Rambus (RMBS) portfolio.
- Bear Stearns upgraded Career Education (NASDAQ: CECO) to Outperform from Peer Perform based on valuation.
- Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Piper Jaffray due to the upside at the company's LOFT division and the firm's belief that there is upside to their 2008/2009 estimates for Ann Taylor.
- Credit Suisse upgraded shares of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to Outperform from Underperform based on expected margin expansion, a more benign competitive environment in the MPU sector, better positioning vs. AMD (AMD) at the high-end, and strong demand trends...
OTHER UPGRADES:
- Network Appliances (NASDAQ: NTAP) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch and Caris raised shares to Buy from Above Average.
- JP Morgan added Continental (NYSE: CAL) to its Focus List. Punk upgraded Washington Mutual (WM) to Buy from Market Perform.
Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required). Tags: analyst, ann, cal, career, ceco, cmc, commercial, continental, intc, intel, kfn, kkr, network, ntap, rating, sov, sovereign, upgrade
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-11-2007 @ 2:07PM
Seth said...
Even though most people are waiting to see if the banks take the deal the KKR-First Data deal, something most people over look when M&As go down are what connections do the two companies have. KKR and First Data are well connected. Just one example, the founder of KKR, Henry Kravis, is a director at the Council on Foreign Relations. Joan Spero, a director at First Data, is also a director at CFR. If you think these two are not in constant discussion over this deal then you are crazy, this is what is called "networking". Check out this site I found called News Visual, some really cool inside info http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/09/strong-connecti.html