Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: PBG, WM, SNE, BBY, MAR...
Posted Sep 12th 2008 11:20AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Best Buy (BBY), Washington Mutual (WM), Analyst initiations, Gilead Sciences (GILD)
.gif)
Analyst upgrades:
- Banc of America upgraded shares of Pepsi Bottling (NYSE: PBG) to Buy from Neutral on valuation as they expect better leverage in FY09 and believe an overly bearish outlook is priced in. The company's target was raised to $37 from $35.
- Goldman upgraded Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) to Neutral from Sell and said Q3 results were worse than expected but not as bad as the decline in shares suggests. The analyst said WaMu's capital and reserves appear stable and that the company might be able to avoid another capital raise. WaMu's target was raised to $4 from $5.
- Greenhill & Co (NYSE: GHL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.
- F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) was upgraded at JP Morgan to Overweight from Underweight.
- Baird upgraded Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) to Outperform from Neutral.
Analyst downgrades:
- Jefferies downgraded PharmaNet Development (NASDAQ: PDGI) to Underperform from Buy following the lowered guidance as they believe the company's execution and cost control problems have not been solved. The company's target was lowered to $15 from $27.
- JP Morgan downgraded shares of Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) to Underweight from Neutral to reflect their weak outlook for the company's Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) handset unit.
- Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Danaher (NYSE: DHR) to Hold from Buy on valuation and concerns about the company's FX exposure.
- Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) was cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
- Portugal Telecom (NYSE: PT) was lowered to sell from Neutral at UBS and to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
- Quality Systems (NASDAQ: QSII) and BioScrip (NASDAQ: BIOS) were downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Piper.
Analyst initiations:
- Jefferies initiated Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE) with a Buy rating and $80 target. The firm expects substantial margin improvement, free cash flow, and earnings growth with eastern utility coal inventory levels under pressure and a robust export and met coal market.
- William Blair started BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: BMRN) with an Outperform rating. The firm expects strong EPS growth during 2008-2010, thinks the company's pipeline is underappreciated by the Street, and feels expectations have been reset to a reasonable level.
- Friedman Billings initiated the Lodging sector with a Market Weight rating, starting InterContinental Hotels (NYSE: IHG) and Marriott (NYSE: MAR) with outperform ratings and targets of $16 and $34, respectively, and Starwood Hotels (NYSE: HOT) with a Market Perform rating.
- Citigroup initiated Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO) with a Buy rating and $126 target.
Tags: BBY, BIOS, BMRN, DHR, DO, ERIC, FFIV, GHL, GILD, HOT, IHG, MAR, MEE, PBG, PDGI, PT, SNE, WM
Before the bell: Stocks ready to climb on hopes of continued low rates
Why do we have a weak dollar?
Holiday hiring slow for retailers
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-14-2008 @ 3:30PM
Rob said...
Buy the book Stock Investment Way to Wealth - Get help with stock investing and learn about making money over the long haul by following easy steps outlined in Reizner’s book, A Way To Wealth.
9-27-2008 @ 9:05PM
walt said...
I'm a beginner,and bought 300 shares of WM,when it was $5.00 a share thinking that I would make a little money on the way back up.However,not being experinced,in hindsight I should have dumped it when it came up to $4.50,from around $2.00.My question is,what do I doo with a stock that is maby worth .15 or nothing at all?What is this stock worth,if anything and what will happen on monday when they resume trading,will it be converted to JP.Morgan stock or will I be left holding the bag,if so what do I do now?