Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ALKS, CS, EBAY, AMZN, EXPE, FDX ...
Posted Dec 19th 2008 11:35AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, eBay (EBAY), Amazon.com (AMZN), Expedia Inc (EXPE), FedEx Corp (FDX), Analyst Initiations
.gif)
Analyst upgrades:
- Jefferies upgraded shares of Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS) to Overweight from Neutral on valuation, as they believe the current share price undervalues Risperdal Consta and provides little to no value for other pipeline drugs.
- JP Morgan upgraded ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) to Buy from Hold following the company's Q1 results, as they believe further estimate reductions are unlikely.
- UBS expects ITT Educational (NYSE: ESI) to benefit from strong enrollment growth and they see less private student lending risk. Shares were upgraded to Buy from Neutral.
- BMC Software (NYSE: BMC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman and added to the firm's Conviction Buy List.
- Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
- Covance (NYSE: CVD) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at First Analysis.
Analyst downgrades:
- UBS downgraded Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) to Neutral from Buy and added shares to its Short-term Sell list citing the significant reduction in 2009 coal prices and estimates.
- Friedman Billings cut Century Aluminum (NASDAQ: CENX) to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered its target to $8 from $18 shares to reflect a lowered aluminum price forecast and financing concerns.
- Bernstein downgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Market Perform from Outperform citing recent share performances and the difficult macro environment.
- CommVault (NASDAQ: CVLT) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman and added to the Conviction Buy List.
- TomoTherapy (NASDAQ: TOMO) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.
- Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) was lowered to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
Analyst initiations:
- Morgan Keegan initiated Brinker (NYSE: EAT) with a Market Perform citing the difficult macro economy, relative debt levels and the competitive environment.
- Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) was initiated at Oppenheimer with an Outperform rating and $12 target. The firm expects the company to benefit from growing demand for higher acuity assisted living.
- Baird initiated Healthcare Realty (NYSE: HR) with an Underperform rating and $19 target citing the company's premium valuation vs. the group.
- UBS initiated Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN), and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) with Neutral ratings citing the difficult near-term demand environment.
- FedEx (NYSE: FDX) was started at Jesup & Lamont with a Hold rating.
Tags: ALKS, ASML, BKD, BMC, BXP, CS, CVD, EAT, ESI, EXPE, FDX, HR, OWW, PCLN, TOMO
Closing Bell: When We All Love the PIIGS (NBG, SQNM, PG, ERTS, KO)
Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks List Shrinks from 26 to 21
Chasing Value: Hasbro Earnings Makes My Point
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-19-2009 @ 10:34AM
michael said...
EXPE, PCLN and OWW -
Tough Times are ahead for them, partly because of their lack of innovation. Priceline came up with a great model 10+ years ago and has since become yet another Online Travel Agent. I suggest following these startups - based on a advertising model (rather than transaction), serving both the road trip and the air markets:
http://www.triptouch.com
http://www.imin.com
Here is an example page from TripCart.com showing how these start-ups provide real value:
http://www.tripcart.com/usa-regions/New-York-City,Spas.aspx
Others that come to mind are:
TripHub
TripIt
TripWiser
NileGuide
Uptake