Who knows why the Treasury gives our money to some banks and not to others. That comes to mind when considering that we just gave $18 billion to 10 regional banks -- three of which are unprofitable. Why does this matter? Because giving taxpayer money to an unprofitable bank could be as good as flushing it away. I guess Treasury figures it can always get more where that came from, so why not?

Here are the lucky winners of the government bailout lottery that earned a profit and their pre-market stock price change:

• SunTrust (NYSE: STI): $540 million -4.6%
• Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF): $374 million -2.3%
• Northern Trust (NASDAQ: NTRS): $214 million -2.1%
• Regions Financial (NYSE: RF): $206 million -0.8%
• Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN): $115 million +6.1%
• Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY): $41 million 0%
• City National (NYSE: CYN): $16.6 million 0%

And here are the three that lost money but still got taxpayer capital -- the amount of their latest loss is in parentheses:

Continue reading 10 more banks get $18 billion of our money; three are money losers

10 more banks get $18 billion of our money; three are money losers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of ING Group (NYSE: ING) to Outperform from Market Perform after upgrading the European insurance sector to Overweight from Neutral due to improved risk management.
  
• Keefe Bruyette also upgraded Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) to Market Perform from Underperform to reflect the company's national footprint if the Wachovia (NYSE: WB) deal goes through.
  
• JP Morgan upgraded Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) to Overweight from Neutral citing top line performance, growth profile and valuation, among other reasons.
• Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  
• Amylin Pharma (NASDAQ: AMLN) was raised to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.
  
• Louisiana Pacific (NYSE: LPX) was upgraded at RBC Capital to Sector Perform from Underperform.

• Jefferies downgraded shares of Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) to Hold from Buy and lowered its target to $50 from $55 to reflect risks to the company's earnings outlook from the weakening economy.
  
• Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) was cut to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank as they believe the economic slowdown will bring slower volumes. Coca-Cola's target was lowered to $56 from $64.

Continue reading Analyst calls: ING, WFC, DLTR, JBL, AMLN, ECL, KO, IACI, FFIV ...

Analyst calls: ING, WFC, DLTR, JBL, AMLN, ECL, KO, IACI, FFIV ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Anadigics, American Axle and Caterpillar were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Stephens downgraded shares of Anadigics (NASDAQ: ANAD) following the company's Q2 results, as they believe shares could trade sideways until the macro environment improves. The firm lowered their target to $9 from $14. Jefferies downgraded shares to Hold from Buy to reflect the company's lower than expected outlook. The firm lowered their target to $9 from $15.
• Deutsche Bank cut American Axle (NYSE: AXL) to Hold from Buy to reflect the risk associated with the company's exposure to General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Chrysler. The firm lowered their target price to $7.50 from $11.
  
• JP Morgan downgraded Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) to Neutral from Overweight based on increasing macro headwinds and likely multiple pressure.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) was cut to Sell from Neutral at Piper.
  
• United Microelectronic (NYSE: UMC) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Downey Financial (NYSE: DSL) and City National (NYSE: CYN) were lowered to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette.

Analyst downgrades: ANAD, AXL and CAT originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Barclays (NYSE:BCS) to Overweight from Equal Weight after the company announced plans to raise capital and disclosed no further write-downs.
  
• Keefe Bruyette lifted City National (NYSE:CYN) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation, as they believe the company should outperform peers in terms in credit quality.
  
• Societe Generale upgraded shares of BAE Systems (Other OTC:BAESY) to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's earnings visibility.

• Baird upgraded Host Hotels (NYSE:HST) to Outperform from Neutral.
  
• Goldman added Monsanto (NYSE:MON) to its Conviction Buy List.
• Corinthian Colleges (NASDAQ:COCO) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Lehman.

Analyst upgrades: BCS, CYN and BAESY originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• City National Corp (NYSE: CYN) - downgraded to a sell from a neutral; stock is down 1.5%
  
• Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. (NYSE: CFR) - downgraded to a sell from a neutral; stock is down 3.3%
  
• First Midwest Bancorp (NASDAQ: FMBI) - downgraded to a sell from a neutral; stock is down 3.1%
  
• Texas Capital Bancshares (NASDAQ: TCBI) - downgraded to a sell from a neutral; stock is down 6.7%
  

Merrill Lynch (MER) issues a string of bank downgrades originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Matrix USA started Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) with a Strong Buy rating, believing steady demand from defense spending and communications systems is allowing the company to continue to build impressive fundamental trends.

• Piper believes CastlePoint'sHoldings Ltd (NASDAQ: CPHL) relationship with Tower Group allows it immediate access to a high quality book of business, strong relationships in the industry and the ability to efficiently place capital overnight. Piper Jaffray stated shares of CastlePoint with an Outperform rating and a $20 target.

• Lazard started Orasure Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: OSUR) with a Buy rating and $12 target based on new production launches and new CDC HIV testing guidelines...

• UBS started Grant Prideco, Inc (NYSE: GRP) with a Neutral rating.

• Banc of America started Bon-Ton Stores, Inc (NASDAQ: BONT) with a Buy rating and $64 target.

• Roth Capital transferred coverage of Web.com, Inc (NASDAQ: WWWW) with a Buy rating and $8 target.

• City National Corp (NYSE: CYN) was started with a Hold rating at AG Edwards.

Analyst initiations 5-04-07: BONT & LMT originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 May 2007 11:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.