Posted May 21st 2009 11:10AM by Laurie Pasternack
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Target Corp. (TGT), Campbell Soup (CPB), CIGNA Corp (CI), Safeway Inc (SWY), Analyst initiations, Gilead Sciences (GILD), Freep't McMoRan Copper (FCX), Suntech Power Hldgs ADS (STP)
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Analyst upgrades:
- UBS upgraded Target (NYSE: TGT) to Buy from Neutral and raised its price target to $52 from $45 citing reduced inventories, some credit stability, and an improved back-to-school period.
- Credit Suisse said concerns regarding Safeway's (NYSE: SWY) price position are overblown and that earnings risk is limited. The firm upgraded shares to Outperform from Neutral and raised the target price to $25 from $22.
- Oppenheimer upgraded Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ) to Outperform from Perform as it believes the story is underappreciated following the recent sector rally. The firm has a $14 price target on the stock.
- CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) was upgraded to buy from Neutral at Goldman.
- Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
- Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at FTN Equity.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: TGT, SWY, CSIQ, HOTT, MPEL, RIO, CPB, CVD and HGG
Posted Apr 27th 2009 1:00PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Walgreen Co (WAG), Novartis AG ADS (NVS), Baxter Intl (BAX), CVS Corp (CVS), Hormel Foods (HRL), Tyson Foods'A' (TSN), Smithfield Foods (SFD), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Agriculture
I remember Toronto during SARS. As one of the harder hit areas, it was not a happy place. It was the end of winter, but that miserable, cold winter just didn't want to end. People walked the streets in a gloomy haze, afraid to take the subway and giving dirty looks to anyone brazen enough to cough in public. Worse, I couldn't even visit a friend in the hospital. All things considered though, in global pandemic terms, it was over relatively quickly. Let's hope swine flu will be the same.
In the meantime, let's put on our investors hats and see what's in store for some stocks:
Travel and tourist stocksThis is one of the worst hit areas, especially airlines, as people may cancel their travel plans. For example,
AMR Corp. (NYSE:
AMR) traded over 9 percent lower an hour after the open.
Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:
RCL) was down over 15 percent. In fact UBS downgraded these airlines and hotels this morning: AMR,
Continental Airlines (NYSE:
CAL),
Host Hotels and Resorts (NYSE:
HST),
Lasalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:
LHO),
Marriott (NYSE:
MAR),
United Airlines (NASDAQ:
UAUA),
US Airways (NYSE:
LCC).
Carnival Cruise Lines (NYSE:
CCL) also declined considerably. Best to stay away from the sector.
Continue reading Don't fear the swine flu . . . trade it
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 1:20PM by Laurie Pasternack
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Caterpillar (CAT), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Dean Foods (DF), US Airways Group (LCC), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Analyst initiations, Broadcom Corp'A' (BRCM), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Andersons Inc (ANDE)
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Analyst upgrades:
- Merriman upgraded Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN) to Buy from Neutral on expectations shares will react positively to the full IMPACT data release on April 28. The firm thinks Provenge could represent the first cancer immunotherapy approved in the U.S. and raised its valuation range on the stock to $33-$34 from $18-$19.
- Piper Jaffray upgraded Andersons (NASDAQ: ANDE) as it believes the valuation is attractive, investor expectations are low, and the company's fertilizer and rail segments could recovery in FY10. The firm has a $19 target on shares. Goldman upgraded the auto sector to Neutral from Cautious and added Ford (NYSE: F) to its Conviction Buy list. The analyst does not believe Ford will have to declare bankruptcy and sees the company benefiting from Chrysler share declines and GM's (NYSE: GM) reduced product offerings. Ford's price target is $6
- Banc of America/Merrill upgraded U.S. Airways (NYSE: LCC) to Buy from Underperform.
- Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
- Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: DNDN, ANDE, the auto sector, DGX, MTB, ADVS, ITG, MF and PCLN
Posted Apr 20th 2009 10:30AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: PepsiCo (PEP), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Walgreen Co (WAG), Citigroup Inc. (C), Target Corp. (TGT), Brinker Intl (EAT), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), American Express (AXP), AutoNation Inc (AN), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Centex Corp (CTX), Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW), Kellogg Co (K), Hershey Co (HSY), Sears Holdings (SHLD), CVS Corp (CVS), Gap Inc (GPS), General Mills (GIS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Yum Brands (YUM), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Johnson Controls (JCI), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN), Unilever ADR (UL), Jones Apparel Group (JNY), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Recession, E*TRADE (ETFC)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is seeing signs of a coming boom, but he's still being cautious here. If you had to define the early cycle, if you had to outline what stocks should be soaring coming out of a recession into a boom and which ones should be faltering, you would have to say the action in this market in the last month is the quintessential behavioral pattern.
What are the components of the early cycle? First, it's the homebuilders. As is typical coming out of a recession, the stocks precede the bottom of housing. That's exactly what's happening with the lowest permits and highest affordability and best mortgage rates and massive inventory. Everywhere, except on Wall Street reporting, the bottom is bursting out. When you read the lead story in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and it is all about the thousands of prospective homebuyers heading south to pick up condos and homes for half of what they were worth two years ago -- or even less -- and you know that virtually no one has broken ground in the Sunshine State in a year, you can bet that the bottom's actually behind us. This housing market has wiped out all but the most stable private builders and even the public ones are merging as we know from
Pulte (NYSE:
PHM) (
Cramer's Take) and
Centex (NYSE:
CTX) (
Cramer's Take). So, in the next cycle, you can see some profitability developing year over year even though the new homes don't have much margin because the foreclosed homes next door are going for a song. And don't believe this won't change the dynamic of future foreclosures. In most areas, rent is higher than the interest on mortgages, so you will find that second or third job needed to stay in your home. The incentive structure's radically different than a year ago.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The seductive pull of the early cycle
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 10:00AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Market matters, Gilead Sciences (GILD), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Financial Crisis
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says it'd be easy to follow the herd and doubt the staying power of this rally, but that's not his style.
People think I am nuts . . . even more than usual. All they can talk about at the cocktail parties and the lunches and on the Street is how bad things are. They want to hide in gold. They want to hide under the bed. They think that every move is false and every rally must be sold. The negativity is so thick that even my closest friends think that I am being wishful about the turn. Oh, and heaven forbid there would be one positive article in The Wall Street Journal about this market. Just one!
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Sticking to my guns
Posted Feb 17th 2009 10:30AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Pfizer (PFE), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Aetna Inc (AET), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Lloyds TSB Group plc ADS (LYG), Barclays plc ADS (BCS), Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says picking stocks -- or worse, picking a bottom -- remains a dangerous activity. Sometimes it is so bad that it is BAD! Don't laugh at that seeming bit of counterintuitive logic. Every investment professional knows that because of the way economic cycles and central banks work, you are often looking for signs of such stress and negativity that it is so bad it is GOOD because of what the banks can do and what a bottom looks like.
This time it hasn't worked out that way. This time, what's bad is bad and getting worse. This weekend, David Carr in The New York Times wrote an excellent piece about the mistake of looking for a silver lining, something that news media does.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: This time around, bad is just bad
Posted Feb 10th 2009 9:15AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Cisco Systems (CSCO), China, Market matters, Chevron Corp (CVX), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that country can be counted on for tons of growth.
How perfect is China? We have producer price inflation down to almost zero, and rate cut possibilities as far as the eye can see. In our country, all we have heard is "pushing on a string." In their country, all they know is that when the Chinese central bank loosens, wondrous things happen, including a 29% gain in the index.
That gain is so glaring that you can be emboldened about it. You know that they have just started to put China to work and the inventories of all metals could be worked off quickly and the infrastructure products just started.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Load up on China after the Geithner gaffe
Posted Jan 28th 2009 1:06PM by Brent Archer
Filed under: Major movement, Earnings reports, Forecasts, Good news, Options, Technical Analysis, Gilead Sciences (GILD)
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:
GILD -
option chain) shares are headed higher today after
the company posted a fourth-quarter profit of $568.2 million, or 60 cents per share, on revenue of $1.43 billion. Excluding one-time items, GILD earned $598.5 million, or 63 per share, beating analysts' projections of 55 cents per share. 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 GILD.
GILD opened this morning at $49.42. So far today the stock has hit a low of $49.20 and a high of $51.15. As of 12:25, GILD is trading at $51.03, up $2.80 (5.8%). The chart for GILD looks bullish and
S&P gives GILD a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.
Continue reading Gilead Sciences (GILD) Q4 earnings & '09 outlook impress
Posted Jan 27th 2009 8:00AM by Paul Foster
Filed under: Options, Gilead Sciences (GILD)
Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG), a biopharmaceutical company, closed at $50.34. CELG is scheduled to announce Q4 EPS on January 29. CELG February and March option implied volatility of 49 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.
Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) closed at $68.20. GENZ is expected to report Q4 EPS on February 11. Robert W Baird has an $87 price target on GENZ. GENZ February option implied volatility of 40 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD), a biopharmaceutical company, is scheduled to report Q4 EPS on January 27. GILD February option implied volatility of 46 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.
Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com
Posted Jan 14th 2009 10:17AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: General Electric (GE), PepsiCo (PEP), Market matters, Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Bank of America (BAC), Research in Motion (RIMM), General Mills (GIS), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), Wells Fargo (WFC), Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says these assumptions are giving the market support, but it is quickly eroding. Two ideas are propping this market up: the trillions on the sidelines "waiting to come in on the all-clear" and "the explosion upward in the economy when all of the stimulus kicks in."
I am questioning both assumptions.
First, money in this market never waits on the sidelines unless it has no intention of coming in. There are plenty of stocks that fit the depiction of what "works" in this market and should be getting a super premium given their growth rates. I am not just talking
Research In Motion (NASDAQ:
RIMM) (
Cramer's Take), which I chronicled last night as selling at half of its growth rate. I know there is great skepticism about that growth rate even though I think it is real. Nor am I talking about the year-over-year growth rates in online education, although, again, they were called into question by some research Doug Kass discovered that made you a quick couple of thousand dollars if you bought near-term puts on the group, even though I think the broad secular trend upward is pretty clear.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Two false themes
Posted Dec 31st 2008 9:30AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Market matters, Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Black and Decker (BDK), Procter and Gamble (PG), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Eaton Corp (ETN), Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says we have the right people in charge, so 2009 looks a lot brighter. Send out the clowns. That's how I am looking at 2008.
The people who got us in this mess, whether it be Chris Cox -- last-minute stifling of any accounting hopes ... thanks, Chris! -- or the incredibly overrated and somehow revered Hank Paulson, and, most important, President Bush. Not for a minute did that man do anything to get us out of this jam. It is telling that when people speak of the outgoing administration on Wall Street, they never speak of Bush. It's all Paulson and some Bernanke, a Bush appointee. But in the biggest economic collapse statistically since the Great Depression, the president has played no role and clearly doesn't understand most if not all that is happening around him.
When we speak of the next administration and domestic policy, it is clear that we are going to speak about President Obama. He won't fob it off or deny what's happening. And remember, this crisis got very deep because the man at the top said the fundamentals were sound, and repeated that over and over and over, right up until the beginning of 2008, which is why things are as horrible as they are. And they are horrible. The president's advisers, no doubt cowed by a clueless chief, never wanted to differ, and Bernanke reminds me of one of those academics around presidents Kennedy and Johnson, a brilliant man who has gotten us into the equivalent of a domestic Vietnam. He's finally bombing the heck out of the economy, but it was too late, and now a new administration has to clean up his and Paulson's and Bush's mess for him.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Ending an awful year
Posted Dec 15th 2008 11:37AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Apple Inc (AAPL), Schlumberger Limited (SLB), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Altria Group (MO), Best Buy (BBY), Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Kroger Co (KR), Alcatel-LucentADS (ALU), Analyst initiations, Gilead Sciences (GILD)
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Analyst upgrades:
- JP Morgan upgraded Altria (NYSE: MO), citing the company's 25% cash return to shareholders by 2010 and its market leadership.
- RBC Capital upgraded Core Laboratories (NYSE: CLB) based on its solid balance sheet and liquidity, strong market positions, and technology-driven products.
- RBC Capital believes Schlumberger's (NYSE: SLB) earnings will decrease the least vs. its peers through 2010 and notes its breadth of products/services.
- Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.
- Bally Tech (NYSE: BYI) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
- Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Analyst downgrades:
- Goldman downgraded Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) citing consumer spending concerns and valuation.
- Merrill downgraded JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) citing expectations for credit costs to get worse in the US.
- Wachovia downgraded a handful of names, including Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK), in the Exploration & Production space as they believe natural gas prices have more downside in order to balance supply/demand fundamentals.
Continue reading Analyst calls: MO, SLB, BBY, AAPL, JPM, KR, ALU, GILD, BIDU, CEPH ...
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