Charles Schwab (SCHW) has announced its decision to acquire optionsXpress (OXPS) in a friendly all-stock deal. This deal will help Schwab compete with other firms like E-Trade (ETFC), Ameritrade (AMTD), and Bank of America (BAC), which all have large online brokerage services and are vying to provide investors with the best tools and services.

The deal, which is expected to close by the third quarter of 2011, will cost Schwab $1 billion, and the company will issue 60 million new shares to swap each outstanding share of optionsXpress with 1.02 of its own shares. Our $19.74 price estimate for Charles Schwab is at a premium of almost 12% to its current market value.

Two weeks ago I decided to sell my shares of E*Trade (ETFC) after concluding it did not fit my investment criteria. It was one of my successful picks for 2010 and I made money having sold puts establishing a base price of $13.50. It closed Friday February 25 at $15.89.

I might not have chosen to post about this except for news that Ken Griffin's hedge fund Citadel Investment Group plans to sell much of its stake in E*Trade Financial. The largest shareholder selling out is news. Citadel will still hold valuable warrants, giving it the option of taking a very large position again, but for now there seems to be a change of heart for them as well.

E-Trade (ETFC) is a financial services company that provides online brokerage and related products and services to individual retail investors under the brand "E*TRADE Financial." The company also provides investor-focused banking products, primarily sweep deposits and savings products, to retail investors. It competes with firms like Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW), Ameritrade (AMTD), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC).

We have launched coverage on E-Trade with an $18.87 price estimate for the company's stock, a premium of about 5% to market price.

Teams have been preparing their game plans and it's time to see which of the 60 teams will win. No, not the Packers or Steelers -- Go Pack! -- but PepsiCo (PEP), Anheuser-Busch (BUD), General Motors (GM) and all the other companies competing for the best spots in one of TV's most expensive marketing moments, costing an estimated $3 million dollars per 30 second spot.

For those not into football, the ads in the Super Bowl game can be more amusing than the game itself as advertising teams compete for attention, show their best efforts and even get rated by numerous online sites. Last year, Doritos (owned by PepsiCo), and E-Trade (ETFC) did well, and Anheuser-Busch seems to always have a Clydesdale horse in the running.

E*Trade (ETFC - option chain) shares are rising today despite the company announcing Q4 earnings last night and posting a loss of $24.11 million, or 11 cents per share, on revenue of $517.95 million. Analysts had forecast a loss of 4 cents per share on revenue of 321.77 million.

ETFC also said it cut its loan-loss provision to $194 million from $292 million in the year-ago quarter, suggesting that it expects much lower future losses on bad loans. This stock is one that has been hit so hard by bad news that even though the overall earnings news was rough it is on the rise today. ETFC missed estimates and posted a loss after finally having two quarterly profits in a row, this small bit of optimistic news has energized investors. 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 ETFC.

Analyst Upgrades

• NYSE Euronex (NYX) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• General Dynamics (GD) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Deere (DE), Parker-Hannifin (PH) and ExlService (EXLS) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Aflac (AFL) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• Wynn Resorts (WYNN) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Amdocs (DOX) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Juniper (JNPR) to buy from hold at ThinkEquity.
• Rudolph Tech (RTEC) and KLA-Tencor (KLAC) to perform from underperform at Oppenheimer.
• Hershey (HSY) and Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• Micron (MU) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.

The year 2010 has come and gone and my results are in. This is my fourth annual stock results to be reported on BlogginStocks, so something of a track record is starting to form. This past year ended with a modest improvement over the unmanaged Standard & Poors 500 index

The original story, Chasing Value: 10 Stock Picks for 2010, took readers through a review of many candidates, concluding with the ten picks, using prices from Dec. 28, 2009.

Rumor has it -- again -- that dot.bomb era survivor E*Trade (ETFC) may be acquired by none other than Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) for an initial offer of $24 a share. This chatter moved the stock price marginally Friday up 72 cents to $15.27. Although as of Monday morning the rumors are unsubstantiated, trading in stock options has heated up on the call side.

Bantering about the inevitable acquisition of E*Trade has been an annual pastime on and off for the past 10 years, but they resurfaced again in earnest after the financial crisis creamed most companies and institutions. E*Trade is currently capitalized at $3.37 billion. If the rumors bear fruit, the Schwab offer represents approximately a 60% premium to the current price.

TD Ameritrade (AMTD), a broker whose competitors include Charles Schwab (SCHW) and E*Trade (ETFC), closed Wednesday's session higher by 2%. The final quote came in at $14.93. That's not too far from the 52-week low of $14.53. The twelve-month range is a narrow one, as the 52-week high is $21.30.

Is the stock a trade? An investment? Indeed, you may be thinking that it's time to buy. Some things worry me, however. The one-year chart isn't attractive at all. Well, in one sense it is, because a trader/investor would be buying low at this point.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) strong Q1 results beat earnings expectations, and yet shares sold off.
• American Express Co. (AXP) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, which lifted shares.
• Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares rose to a new all-time high after it said earnings surged 90% in its Q2.
• Coca-Cola Co. (KO) beat Q1 earnings estimates but weaker-than-expected revenue sent shares lower.
• eBay Inc. (EBAY) shares sold off after Q1 earnings were in line with expectations and guidance was weak.

E*Trade (ETFC), an online broker whose colleagues include Charles Schwab (SCHW) and TD Ameritrade (AMTD), is a low-priced stock. It closed on Wednesday at $1.82, representing a rise of 2.8%; the move was backed by strong volume. The company reported first-quarter earnings yesterday after the bell. What should we make of the results?

According to MarketWatch, things seem to be improving. A loss of 2 cents per share compared very favorably to the loss of 41 cents per share booked in the year-ago period. As for estimates, the analysts were thinking that a loss of 3 cents per share was in the offing.