Posted Jul 2nd 2009 9:50AM by Laurie Pasternack
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Analyst initiations, Johnson Controls (JCI), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Delta Air Lines (DAL)
Analyst upgrades:
- Citigroup upgraded Adtran (NASDAQ: ADTN) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from the broadband Stimulus funds.
- Morgan Stanley upgraded Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) to Overweight from Equal Weight based on relative valuation and views the company as a "survivor." Additionally, the analyst lowered 2009 industry estimates but believes it is the last cut for the year and is incrementally more positive on the sector.
- Morgan Stanley also upgraded EXFO Electro-Optical (NASDAQ: EXFO) to Overweight from Market Weight based on valuation.
- Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
- Ascent Solar (NASDAQ: ASTI) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
- Mechel Steel (NYSE: MTL) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ADTN, CAL, EXFO, JCI, LUV, VAR, CSCO, KMT, EZCH
Posted Jun 30th 2009 8:00AM by Tom Johansmeyer
Filed under: International markets, Industry, Competitive strategy, AMR Corp (AMR), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), UAL Corp (UAUA), Delta Air Lines (DAL)
Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) is seeking immunity from antitrust laws to work more closely with United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) and others on international routes. And, since airlines operate in a state of seemingly perpetual turmoil, what's the harm? According to the Justice Department: plenty.
The airline sought broad immunity as part of an effort to join Star Alliance, which includes US Airways, Lufthansa (OTC: DLAKY), and Air Canada -- along with United. Continental believes that it needs to join Star Alliance in order to remain competitive, especially with airlines that have this type of immunity already.
Continue reading Justice Department pushes back on Continental immunity request
Posted Jun 2nd 2009 11:30AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Allergan (AGN), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Analyst initiations, Juniper Networks (JNPR), Visa Inc. (V)
Analyst upgrades:
- Jefferies upgraded MDS Inc. (NYSE: MDZ) to Buy from Hold on valuation as it believes shares are pricing in a "worst case" scenario at current levels. The firm keeps a $6.50 target on the stock.
- JP Morgan upgraded Continental (NYSE: CAL) to Overweight from Neutral on valuation as it believes the recent sell-off is overdone. The firm keeps a $13 price target on the stock.
- Thomas Weisel is positive on Allergan's (NYSE: AGN) diverse product portfolio, global infrastructure, vertical integration, and deep pipeline. The firm upgraded shares to Overweight from Market Weight and has a $54 target on the stock.
- NetLogic (NASDAQ: NETL) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Piper.
- Dover (NYSE: DOV) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America/Merrill.
- Map Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MAPP) was upgraded at Argus to Hold from Sell.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: CAL, NETL, MAPP, DDUP, LMT ...
Posted Apr 25th 2009 8:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Ford Motor (F), American Express (AXP), Boeing Co (BA), Hershey Co (HSY), Coach Inc (COH), Yum Brands (YUM), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Wells Fargo (WFC), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), SanDisk Corp (SNDK)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Apple, Ford, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Boeing, American Express and more
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 4:15PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Boeing Co (BA), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Wells Fargo (WFC)

Despite the market being up the last hour, today's stock market made six changes between being up and down. Oil inventories
continued their building to record or near-record levels. It was very light on the economic calendar today so traders had to use the cumulative earnings as the directional report. Even very
weak global recovery targets from the IMF were ignored.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,886.41 -83.15 (-1.04%)
S&P 500 843.56 -6.52 (-0.77%)
Nasdaq 1,645.85 +2.00 (0.12%)
Top Analyst UpgradesTop Analyst DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Directionless market, but directed stocks (BA, CAL, COF, FRE, WFC, OSTK)
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 10:30AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: Earnings reports, Contl Airlines'B' (CAL)
It was a rough first quarter for
Continental Airlines (NYSE:
CAL), as the air carrier announced that it
lost $136 million thanks to falling traffic. In addition, CAL saw a large amount of business travelers switching out of first class to save a few bucks in coach. During the quarter, CAL lost $1.10 per share. Excluding charges, CAL would have lost $1.07 per share. While the loss was larger than last year's first-quarter loss of 82 cents per share, CAL did manage to beat the Street's expected loss of $1.19 per share.
Quarterly revenue dropped to $3 billion from $3.57 billion last year, slightly higher than the expected $2.98 billion. CAL saw sales drop across all regions, with the U.S. and trans-Atlantic routes falling the most. CAL saw traffic drop 11.2% compared to a year ago, with empty planes outweighing the flights CAL cut. The company noted that it was helped by dropping fuel prices, as it spent nearly 42% less on fuel compared to a year ago.
Continue reading Continental Airlines posts a first-quarter loss, but tops expectations
Posted Feb 13th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), PepsiCo (PEP), Research in Motion (RIMM), Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF), Palm Inc (PALM), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL)

Today was almost as fitting as you could get for a Friday ahead of a 3-day weekend. It felt quiet and directionless, despite a huge late-day recovery just the day before. It was as if the markets had no serious direction ahead of a long weekend even though the stimulus package essentially looks like a done deal and even with banks halting all foreclosure activities for a brief period of time.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,849.13 -83.63 (-1.05%)
S&P 500 826.70 -8.49 (-1.02%)
Nasdaq 1,534.36 -7.35 (-0.48%)
10YR T-NOTE 2.88% (+0.12%)
Top Analyst UpgradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Market mixed, Palm rating raised, Microsoft to open retail stores, and Pepsico signals earnings growth
Posted Feb 13th 2009 12:25AM by Sarah Gilbert
Filed under: Contl Airlines'B' (CAL)
At about 10:20 EST, Continental Flight 3407 (also reported as 1304), a commuter plane out of Newark,
crashed into a home in Buffalo, New York. According to reports,
all 48 people aboard -- 44 passengers and four crew members -- and one person on the ground were killed.
The scene is currently engulfed in flames. The plane had been quite late departing Newark was arriving two hours past its scheduled time when it crashed about 10 miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport. The Q400 Bombardier aircraft was flying in fog, snow and wind.
After
last month's crash landing of a US Airways flight, airline stocks have taken quite a hit, all down as much as 50% since their highs in early January. Good news for the crew of flight 1549 did not translate into good news for
US Airways (NYSE:
LCC), and certainly not for
Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE:
CAL). Though the airline's stock will likely see big volatility at the start of trading on Friday, I don't expect this news to majorly impact the fortunes of either Continental or US Airways over the next 30 days.
Posted Oct 1st 2008 9:21AM by Allan Halprin
Filed under: Google (GOOG), Wal-Mart (WMT), AT and T (T), Citigroup Inc. (C), Money and Finance Today, , , Yum Brands (YUM), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL)
In the News:
Trading Strategies for OctoberFollowing the most volatile September in memory, here are 10 ways to play the year's scariest month.
http://www.marketwatch.com/newscommentary/tradingstrategies
Payout Jackpots for Credit Crunch CEOsThough they were at the helm of companies that were bruised or broken by the credit crunch, these 12 CEOs were still offered big severance packages when they were shown the door. They include Merrill Lynch's Stan O'Neal who got $161 million, Citi's Chuck Prince $105 million and Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo $100 million to name a few.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26959512
Continue reading Trading strategies for October, Payout jackpots for credit crunch CEOs & small biz woes - Today in Money 10/1
Posted Sep 15th 2008 12:03PM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), D.R.Horton (DHI), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Lowe's Cos (LOW), AMR Corp (AMR), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Analyst initiations, JetBlue Airways (JBLU), Delta Air Lines (DAL), , Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT)
Analyst upgrades:
- UBS believes US airlines estimates are too low and will move higher. The firm upgraded AirTran (NYSE: AAI), AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR), Continental (NYSE: CAL), Delta (NYSE: DAL) and Northwest (NYSE: NWA) to Buy from Neutral and JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) to Neutral from Sell.
- JMP Securities upgraded DealerTrack (NASDAQ: TRAK) to OUtperform from Market Perform as they believe 2H08 guidance represents a floor and that 2009 estimates are achievable, among other reasons.
- Potash (NYSE: POT) and Mosaic (NYSE: MOS) were raised to Buy from Hold at Soleil.
- Argus upgraded Seagate (NYSE: STX) to Buy from Hold on Friday.
Analyst downgrades:
- Jefferies downgraded Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS) to Underperform from Hold as they do not see a catalyst for the company to grow into 2009 consensus estimates. The firm lowered their target price to $25 from $32.
- Citigroup said following Lehman's (NYSE: LEH) bankruptcy, they expect a distressed-sale of American International's (NYSE: AIG) MBS portfolio, resulting in the worst quarter yet for the company. Shares were cut to Hold from Buy.
- D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) was downgraded to Sell from Hold and Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) was downgraded to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.
- Merrill downgraded Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) to Neutral from Buy and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) to Underperform from Neutral.
Continue reading Analyst calls: AAI, AMR, CAL, POT, AIG, DHI, PHM, GS, JPM, LOW ...
Posted Sep 11th 2008 12:59PM by Brent Archer
Filed under: Major movement, Good news, Industry, Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Options, Technical Analysis, Oil
Continental Airlines (NYSE:
CAL -
option chain) shares are soaring higher today after the company announced that
it expects more than $100 million a year in fees and savings by charging travelers to check luggage. Obviously, checked luggage fees irritate travelers, but it is good for the company, then it should be good for the stock, and if you make a little money on the stock then you can afford to pay the extra fees and maybe even a mini-bottle of whiskey too. CAL is also getting a lift today from the drastic
slide in oil prices, which have almost dropped below $100. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CAL.
CAL opened this morning at $15.52. So far today the stock has hit a low of $15.13 and a high of $17.90. As of 12:10, cAL is trading at $17.62, up $1.55 (9.6%). The chart for CAL looks neutral and
S&P gives CAL a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October
bull-put credit spread below the $10 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 8.7% return in just five weeks as long as CAL is above $10 at October expiration. Continental would have to fall by more than 43% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade
here.
CAL hasn't been below $10 since mid-July and has shown support around $15 recently.
Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.
DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in CAL.Posted Sep 2nd 2008 9:00AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Dell (DELL), Wal-Mart (WMT), PepsiCo (PEP), Market matters, Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Best Buy (BBY), Sears Holdings (SHLD), General Mills (GIS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Kohl's Corp (KSS), AMR Corp (AMR), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Economic data, Oil, Jones Apparel Group (JNY), Polo Ralph Lauren'A' (RL), Urban Outfitters (URBN), Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says with gas coming down further, the coming rally could be broad and fierce. The great hurricane fakeout leaves us with oil much lower than it began, having launched itself from $112. Now that the $110 level's been breached and natural gas has gone as low as $7.50, we can begin to put together a holiday scenario that might -- just might -- explain the incredible run in retail that's been going on.
The presumption in retail, if you use
Wal-Mart (NYSE:
WMT) (
Cramer's Take) as retail, was that once the stimulus wore off, presumably last month, the stocks would get hammered. On Aug. 7, Wal-Mart as much as told you that, and the stock dropped to $57 from $60.90.
Ever since then, it has been creeping up.
Kohl's (NYSE:
KSS) (
Cramer's Take) dropped a point from that warning, going from $45 to $44. It is now at $49.
Macy's (NYSE:
M) (
Cramer's Take) went from $19.80 to $18.90 before bouncing to $20.82.
Jones (NYSE:
JNY) (
Cramer's Take) went from $17.40 to $17.20 before roaring to $19.80.
Ralph Lauren (NYSE:
RL) (
Cramer's Take), because of a great quarter, didn't even get hurt, rallying from $67 to $75.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: This retail tide can lift all boats
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