Before the bell: AMZN, ADBL, RL, ADBE, BKC ...

Posted Jan 31st 2008 8:33AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Dell (DELL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Schlumberger Limited (SLB), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Adobe Systems (ADBE), Boeing Co (BA), Research in Motion (RIMM), Red Hat Inc (RHT), Burger King Hldgs (BKC), Analyst Initiations, Nordstrom, Inc (JWN), Polo Ralph Lauren'A' (RL), Audible Inc (ADBL)

Before the bell: Stock futures lower -- second day of declines ahead?

Some analyst calls this morning:

Caris & Company initiated coverage on Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) with an Average rating and a $96 target price. It also initiated coverage on Nokia (NYSE: NOK) with an Above Average rating.
Stanford Research initiated coverage on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) with a Buy and on Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) with a Hold.
Bear Stearns upgraded Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) from Peer Perform to Outperform and downgraded Saks (NYSE: SKS) from Peer Perform to Underperform.
Jefferies & Co downgraded Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) from Buy to Underperform, lowering that target price from $50 to $30.
Banc of America downgraded Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL) from Buy to Neutral. It also downgraded Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) for Outperform to Sector Perform.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) agreed to buy Audible Inc. (NASDQ: ADBL), the provider of digital spoken word audio content, for $11.50 a share, a 23% premium to its Wednesday's closing price.

Macworld has quite the review of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s new MacBook Air. To summarize, it give it 3.5 out of 5, saying that the pros are: Weighs three pounds; bright LED-backlit 13.3-inch screen; full-size keyboard. The cons are: Slow processor; slow and small hard drive; limited configuration options; unswappable battery.

A strategic alliance of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT)'s Bell Helicopter operation has won a Navy contract worth up to $32 million to handle weather radar upgrades on the V-22 Osprey.

MarketingWeek claims that there is speculation that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) may launch a mobile phone in partnership with computer giant Dell (NASDAQ: DELL).

Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) said Thursday its second-quarter profit jumped 29% to $49 million, or 36 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 32 cents per share. Revenue rose 10% to $613 million. Analysts predicted revenue of $597.1 million.

Tags: aapl, adbe, adble, amzn, ba, bkc, dell, goog, inthenews, jwn, msft, nok, rht, rimm, rl, slb, txt