Merrill upgraded Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) to Buy from Neutral citing progress in the company's turnaround plan, execution, and 2009 earnings growth.
Thomas Weisel raised Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) to Overweight from Market Weight and believes the company's core business remains strong and that valuation is attractive.
Friedman Billings upgraded shares of Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation after checks indicated the company should meet Q2 expectations.
NeuStar (NSR) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
Friedman Billings downgraded shares of Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ: ZION) to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered its target to $33 from $43 following the company's Q3 results, as they believe near-term credit trends and concerns surrounding its securities portfolio will limit upside. Shares were also downgraded at JP Morgan to Neutral from Overweight due to deteriorating credit trends.
Banc of America cut Monster (NASDAQ: MNST) to Neutral from Buy to reflect a lack of margin stability and their belief consensus estimates remain too high.
Barclays downgraded Avis Budget Group (NYSE: CAR) to Equal Weight from Overweight citing the global economic slowdown and refinancing risk.
Luxottica was also downgraded at HSBC to Neutral from Overweight.
JP Morgan cut AuthenTec (NASDAQ: AUTH) to Underweight from Neutral.
Analyst initiations:
Janney Montgomery believes Gladstone Capital's (NASDAQ: GLAD) management team and lower portfolio investment risk profile warrant a premium valuation. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $13 target.
CommVault (NASDAQ: CVLT) was initiated with a Buy rating and $14 target at Cantor, as the firm finds the stock attractively valued given its secular growth rate potential.
KeyBanc is positive on Papa John's (NASDAQ: PZZA) management team, growth potential, cost initiatives, and differentiation. Shares were assumed with a Buy rating and $30 target.
Arris (NASDAQ: ARRS) was initiated at Jefferies with a Hold rating and $7 target.
Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RIGL) was initiated at Banc of America with a Neutral rating and $21 target.
Morgan Stanley started Hansen Natural (NASDAQ: HANS) with an Equal Weight rating.
Since trading close to $25 per share in early 2007, shares of the former Hansen Natural (NASDAQ: HANS) heir-apparent Jones Soda (NASDAQ: JSDA) have tanked. They closed on Friday at a stunning 75 cents per share, down more than 27% on the day.
On October 6th, the company reduced its workforce by 38% to 68 employees, adding that termination and severance expenses were not expected to be material. CEO Stephen Jones said that "Given the financial crisis we're in, you have to preserve cash. Cutting back people is a horrible thing to go through, but you do it as a result of strategy. And my strategy is to focus on the core of what Jones Soda is."
Jones (whose surname is a coincidence) told Fortune Small Business about an ambitious plan to focus on core strengths, reduce sales to discounters, and bring the company back from the brink. Maybe that will work but, either way, the stock looks interesting at its current price. With a market cap of about $20 million, Jones Soda had tangible shareholder's equity of about $27 million at the end of the second quarter -- including nearly $20 million in cash and short-term investments.
Beverage stocks are often considered "defensive" in nature. After all, no matter what troubles beset the economy, people continue to eat and drink.
Granted, a recessionary environment might impact purveyors of expensive champagnes. But our focus here is on everyday canned sodas and moderately-priced beer and wine.
Of course, no report on beverages would be complete without the two giants of the field -- Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP).
Chuck Carlson, editor of The DRIP Investor looks at Pepsi and suggests, "Investors should take advantage of the current price lull to do buying in these shares."
Meanwhile, Stephen Leeb, editor of The Complete Investor, looks at Coke and is attracted by both its expanding market opportunities and expanding dividend.
Bottling these drinks is also big business and PepsiAmericas (NYSE: PAS) -- the world's second-largest bottler of PepsiCo beverages -- is a recent feature from quantitative analyst Vahan Janjigan, editor of The Forbes Growth Investor.
Energy drink maker Hansen Natural (NASDAQ: HANS) has caught the eye of Bill Martin. The editor of BullMarket.com finds the stock attractive because the company has recently attracted some hedge fund investors.
In The Forbes International Investment Report, editor John Christy interviews Lou Gerken of Gerken Capital Associates who sees potential in FEMSA (NYSE: FMX), which produces distributes Coca-Cola, Dos Equis, Tecate Beer in Mexico.
And Nilus Mattive in his Dividend Superstars newsletter, looks to Chilean wine maker, Vina Concha y Toro (NYSE: VCO) as a play for both growth and income investors.
This report is prepared by Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com which offers a daily overview of the favorite stock picks and investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.
If you are involved in the market right now and watch the volatility with swings up and down, it might be easy to forget that trading volume is very thin and that moves can be exaggerated easily. Today's numbers, with a recession in Europe and stagflation rising in the U.S., were discounted by traders looking ahead and interpreting data out on the calendar. The good news in housing is that existing houses are finally moving, but the bad news is that they are selling under replacement cost.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels: DJIA 11615.93 (+82.97) S&P500 1292.93 (+7.10) NASDAQ 2453.67 (+25.05) 10 YR T-Note 3.892% (-0.055%) 52-Week Lows
Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is a bit of a mystery. This had very unusual call option buying seen in the stock, yet shares were down marginally on the day by less than 1% at $31.96 before the closing bell. This stock has been the subject of rumors before, so anything is possible.
Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) was a winner today. Shares were up 10% at $21.20 right before the close on reports that it was cutting 1,000 newspaper jobs or about 3% of its workforce.
Hansen Natural Corp. (NASDAQ: HANS) was a huge winner after Nelson Peltz' Trian Funds disclosed an ownership stake. Shares were up over 10% at $29.79 in the final minutes of the trading day, and this is up almost 40% even after poor earnings recently.
PMI Group Inc. (NYSE: PMI) was a big winner today after the company sold off Australian operations for $920 million in a capital raising effort. Shares were up almost 60% at $4.45 in the final minutes before the close.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO) shares were up almost 8% at $8.80 right before the close after Jim Cramer interviewed Martha Stewart herself and said the stock is cheap at $8.00.
HANS opened this morning at $21.43. So far today the stock has hit a low of $20.67 and a high of $23.42. As of 12:55, HANS is trading at $23.42, up 1.77 (8.2%). The chart for HANS looks bearish and steady.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $17.50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns.
For this particular trade, we will make a 13.6% return in just six weeks as long as HANS is above $17.50 at September expiration. Hansen would have to fall by more than 25% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
HANS hasn't been below $20 at all in the past year and has shown support around $21.50 recently.
DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in HANS.
Morgan Stanley upgrades Citigroup (NYSE:C) to "equal weight" from "underweight", according toBriefing.com. The news service also reports that Deutsche Bank downgraded McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) from "buy" to "hold".
Standard & Poor's added Hansen Natural Corp (NASDAQ:HANS) and Chattem (NASDQ:CHTT) to its list of mid-sized companies that show the "highest growth characteristics.", according to the AP.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) Cut to Neutral at Cowen & Co, according to24/7 Wall St. The financial website also reports AT&T (NYSE:T) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan
If you haven't noticed the surging price of oil at the pump or the surging prices of your electric bills, maybe oil at $124.00 and higher per barrel will catch your eyes. Maybe proposing higher margin limits on oil futures trading isn't such a bad idea after all.
Despite this, retail sales managed to come in better than most were expecting... even if you can chalk that up to an extra day because of Easter in March. Jobless claims also fell by 18,000 from last week to about 365,000. Below are the unofficial closing levels for the major US index levels:
Barr Phrarmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: BRL) was the drug company blow-up today. The company missed earnings estimates and lowered guidance. As the company is a generic drug giant, does this mean people are going off their meds? Shares tanked by 22% to $38.28 in the final minutes today.
Really, the way Hansen Natural Corp. (NASDAQ: HANS) shares are dropping -- down about 14% as I write this and setting a new 52-week low earlier in the session -- you'd think the company reported disastrous results. Not so!
True, Hansen Natural reported Wednesday a lower-than-expected first-quarter profit due to lower profit margins, but the results weren't that bad. For the quarter, the company's net sales rose to $212.2 million and it earned $28.8 million, or 29 cents a share. Analysts, however, expected 35 cents on revenue of $221, according to Thomson Reuters. The thing is, that compared to last year, profit climbed 43% and revenue jumped 28%. It seems that the Monster Energy brand drinks had a lot do with Hansen's revenue growth, especially the new Java Monster dairy-based coffee drink.
The problem? Already in the fourth quarter investors were concerned about decreasing margins, and this quarter as well Hansen said its profit was hurt by higher costs, including a 34% boost in costs of sales and a 15% rise in operating expenses. Talk about margin squeeze.
Unilever (NYSE: UL) is the world's second-largest maker of food and detergent, so you would expect the company to hurt with rising commodity prices. But Unilever has been proactive and has raised prices 4.8% in the quarter to offset its rising costs. In fact, the company said revenue will beat its forecast for the first time in six years on increased prices and sales of Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton tea. First-quarter net income climbed 33%, exceeding analysts' estimates.
As expected, April retail sales have so far indeed been strong, although there are some ares weakness is seen.
Costco (NASDAQ: COST) shares are up 1.2% in premarket trading after the warehouse club retailer said April same-store sales increased 8%, beating analysts' expectations of 6.1%.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) shares are also higher in premarket trading, up 1.8%, after the world's largest retailer, said same-store sales climbed 3.2%, beating the 2.1% forecast by analysts. Staying with Wal-Mart for a moment, it said it plans to invest millions in Canada and open more supercenters.
The more luxurious items, though, such as lingerie sold at Limited Brands (NYSE: LTD) have seen a slowdown as the company said that April same-store sales fell 5%, falling short of the 2.3% sales decline analysts had anticipated.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: UBS AG, Ansys and AstraZeneca were today's noteworthy upgrades:
Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) to Buy from Hold after the company announced further write-downs and plans to boost capital.
Jefferies upgraded shares of Ansys (NASDAQ: ANSS) to Buy from Hold as they like the Ansoft (NASDAQ: ANST) acquisition and feel yesterday's sell-off creates an attractive entry point.
AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan following the positive Crestor study results.
OTHER UPGRADES:
Piper raised Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM) to Buy from Neutral.
Goldman upgraded Hansen Natural (NASDAQ: HANS) to Buy from Neutral.
Vertex Pharma (NASDAQ: VRTX) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Wachovia and to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
The oil sector is in the news today as executives from Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) head to Capitol Hill to testify on tax breaks, asking why "the cash-rich industry needs $18 billion in tax breaks over ten years." Instead, some think, this money can be used to subsidize renewable energy projects. In addition, the industry's record profits will likely be questioned. Meanwhile, oil prices were down to $100.94.
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) plans to close its desktop manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas as it continues to cut costs and lay off workers -- 10% of its workforce -- saying these measures will save as much as $3 billion.
Apparently, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is standing firm on its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and won't raise it, according to The Wall Street Journal. While many analysts believed the software maker would meet Yahoo! half way and raise its bid, especially as the two met to discuss the bid, it seems Microsoft simply could not find a reason to do so. Or at least so is reported, which could also be a negotiation tactic. YHOO shares are down 1.3% in premarket trading (7:06 a.m.).
Hansen Natural (NASDAQ: HANS) is recently trading down $3.65 to $40.50 in pre-open trading.
HANS reported Q4 EPS of 45 cents versus consensus estimates of 38 cents. Q4 net income was up 103% from last year.
Goldman Sachs says: "the stock fell after-hours based on the margin disappointment and because headline sales growth slowed from 61% in 4Q to 33% in Jan/Feb."
HANS overall option implied volatility of 64 is near its 26-week average of 62 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional movement.
Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com
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Analyst upgrades:
Since trading close to $25 per share in early 2007, shares of the former 
Beverage stocks are often considered "defensive" in nature. After all, no matter what troubles beset the economy, people continue to eat and drink. 
If you are involved in the market right now and watch the volatility with swings up and down, it might be easy to forget that trading volume is very thin and that moves can be exaggerated easily. Today's numbers, with a recession in Europe and stagflation rising in the U.S., were discounted by traders looking ahead and interpreting data out on the calendar. The good news in housing is that existing houses are finally moving, but the bad news is that they are selling under replacement cost.
Here are some highlights from this past week's 
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Hansen Natural
Comfort Zone Investing: Getting beyond today
Stock picks and pans for troubled times: RIMM, ED, ISRG, GLW, LEA, SLB, GOOG ...
Is Berkshire Hathaway better than S&P Index?
