First American posts
FeedPosted May 14th 2010 9:00AM by Laurie Pasternack (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Office Depot (ODP), OfficeMax Inc (OMX), Staples Inc (SPLS), Analyst Initiations, Anadarko Petroleum (APC), iRobot Corp. (IRBT)
Analyst Upgrades
- JPMorgan upgraded Anadarko Petroleum (APC) to overweight from neutral on valuation as it views the recent pullback in shares as excessive. Despite upgrading, the firm lowered its target for shares to $82 from $90.
- Oppenheimer upgraded Office Depot (ODP) to perform from underperform and upped its target for shares to $7 from $3 after raising its estimates for companies in the Office Products Retail space. The firm expects trends to accelerate for the sector due to moderating unemployment pressures. In conjunction with the upgrade, Opco raised its target for OfficeMax (OMX) to $26 from $21 and target for Staples (SPLS) to $30 from $28. Both stocks remain outperform rated.
- C.K. Cooper upgraded iRobot (IRBT) to buy from hold with a $30 price target following the company's analyst day.
- Seadrill (SDRL) was upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.
- Vodafone (VOD) was upgraded to neutral from reduce at Nomura.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: APC, ODP, IRBT, NFLX, POM, MMSI, NTAP, LULU, LNCE ...
Posted Nov 16th 2007 11:20AM by Lita Epstein (RSS feed)
Filed under: Market Matters, Mutual Funds, Citigroup Inc. (C), Money and Finance Today, Bank of America (BAC), , Personal Finance
Earlier in the week I talked about action some money market funds were having to take to protect their value and avoid having to "break the buck" thanks to the problems in the mortgage market. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the number of money market funds admitting to trouble is increasing {subscription required]. Today's story focuses on FAF Advisors, a unit of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) , which operates the First American Prime Obligations Fund. This fund posted a notice on its website that alerts its investors to the fact that the fund "entered into an agreement that provides that if a loss is realized on the notes issued by Cheyne Finance LLC, an affiliate of FAF Advisors will contribute capital to the fund, up to the amount of the loss, in an amount necessary to preserve the fund's price at $1.00 per share and to preserve the fund's AAA rating."
Cheyne Finance LLC is an SIV that went into receivership, so that's the one most are focusing on publicly, but as I've discussed before many money market funds hold assets from other SIVs in trouble. Five other fund groups that have moved to protect their funds or developed a plan under agreement with the SEC include Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) Columbia Management Group, Credit Suisse Asset Management,. Wachovia's (NYSE: WB) Evergreen Investments, SEI Investments Co. and STI Classic Funds. Other funds that held Cheyne-related assets in recent SEC filings include Valic II Company fund, offered by a unit of American International Group, and RiverSource Cash Management fund.
Continue reading More money market funds seek protection
Posted Jun 8th 2007 10:24AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Allergan (AGN), Lowe's Cos (LOW), Cheesecake Factory (CAKE)
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Nike Inc (NYSE:
NKE),
Foot Locker Inc (NYSE:
FL),
Tellabs Inc (NASDAQ:
TLAB),
ADTRAN, Inc (NASDAQ:
ADTN) and
Bookham, Inc (NASDAQ:
BKHM) were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Banc of America downgraded shares of both Nike and Foot Locker to Neutral from Buy, as the firm believes industry pressures in the U.S. could more than offset the potential turn in Europe and benefit from the 2008 Olympics.
- Cowen downgraded shares of ADTRAN, Bookham and Tellabs to Neutral from Outperform.
- Goldman Sachs also downgraded shares of Tellabs, to Sell from Neutral, as the firm believes the stock fully discounts the expected sales and margin improvement.
OTHER DOWNGRADES: