• UBS upgraded Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) to neutral from sell and placed a short-term buy rating on shares based on the new Palm Pre. The firm raised its target to $6.50 from $1.35.
  
• UBS upgraded Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE: SLW) to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $7.50 from $5.75 based on its improved view of the company's credit risk.
• Canaccord upgraded Elan PLC (NYSE: ELN) to Buy from Sell and raised its target to $10.87 from $6.90, citing Tysabri potential.
• Brandywine Realty (NYSE: BDN) and Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) were upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
• Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) and L-3 Comm (NYSE: LLL) were raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Continue reading Analyst calls: PALM, ELN, LLL, RTN, ADBE, ERIC, RYL, PCG ...

Analyst calls: PALM, ELN, LLL, RTN, ADBE, ERIC, RYL, PCG ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wachovia (WB) talks the talk originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst upgrades:

• Merrill upgraded Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) to Buy from Neutral citing the company's better near-term pipeline outlook with two potential blockbusters to be approved over the next year. Schering-Plough's target was raised to $23 from $20.
• Morgan Stanley lifted RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) and Texas Roadhouse (NASDAQ: TXRH) to Equal Weight from Underweight.

• Jefferies downgraded shares of Hologic (NASDAQ: HOLX) to Hold from Buy as they see limited near-term catalysts after the company reported a Q3 miss and lowered top-line guidance for FY08. The firm lowered their target to $24 from $28.
  
• Baird downgraded California Pizza (NASDAQ: CPKI) to Neutral from Outperform as they see limited near-term upside given the uncertain 2H08/2009 outlook. The company's target was lowered to $15 from $17.
  
• JP Morgan downgraded Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL) and CB Richard Ellis (NYSE: CBG) to Neutral from Overweight due to the continued challenging economic environment.

• BC Capital initiated Dollar Financial(NYSE: DLLR) with an Outperform rating and $24 target. The firm likes Dollar's geographically diversified business and valuation.

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Do stock market analysts take creative writing or are they the ultimate bandwagon guys? The lame information provided by stock market analysts keep providing more fodder for my rants. Last Friday -- Lehman raised Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) to Overweight from Equal Weight citing relative valuation and strong U.S. gas exposure....well duh!

I have ranted and raved about the poor performance of most analysts for almost the entire time I have been writing for BloggingStocks but the wonders never cease. The stock is at a 52 week high and now they take notice. I don't have their "training" yet I was pushing APC at $40, its low. It closed at $78.15 near its all time high and now Lehman makes the call. To quote a 90 year old Wall Streeter when asked to share what he had learned from his 70 years in the market "Nobody knows nuttin". The following is the two year chart for APC.

The Motley Fool ranted in a similar vain when they discussed a study by Patrick Cusatis and J. Randall Woolridge of Pennsylvania State University that studied 20 years' worth of published earnings estimates made by Wall Street industry analysts. They discovered that analysts were consistently overly optimitsic and that practically speaking, you should ratchet them down to the tune of around 40%; or you'll be sorry.

Sunday Funnies: Analysts must have a great sense of humor originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 18 May 2008 20:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Bank of America (BAC) pushed down by finance woes

Bank of America (BAC) pushed down by finance woes originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bloomberg News reports that an analyst at the Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) published a report about Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) that hammered Merrill's stock. The culprit? The Goldman analyst William Tanona predicts that Merrill will need to write off $4 billion worth of fixed-income assets, resulting in the lowest quarterly earnings in almost six years. Merrill shares fell as much as 2.8% after Tanona cut his third-quarter earnings estimate to 15 cents a share from $1.95. For the full year, Tanona said he expects earnings of $6.75 a share, or 25% less than his previous prediction.

I have always found it interesting to read analysts reports from investment banks pertaining to their competitors. In Tanona's case. investors seem to have given his reasoning significant weight, despite the evident conflict of interest inherent in Goldman dissing a competitor. Of course, in Goldman's mind, Merrill is likely seen as a cut below.

Nevertheless, if Tanona is right, Merrill may be among the first to take a hard look at the true market value of its fixed income assets -- which include mortgage backed securities (MBSs), collateralized loan obligations (CDOs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). This alphabet soup of dodgy investments is likely to cost many other firms a significant amount of their capital. And the day of reckoning is fast approaching.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

Goldman Sachs (GS) analysts nails Merrill Lynch (MER) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Select Analyst calls for Oct.3, 2006 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Oct 2006 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.