Analyst Upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Illinois Tool Works (ITW) to buy from hold, citing valuation and the company's strong revenue performance. The firm has a $60 price target for shares.
• Goldman upgraded PPD Inc. (PPDI) to buy from hold and raised its price target to $31 from $28. The firm expects strong top line growth and bookings momentum for the upgrade.
• Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Insituform Technologies (INSU) to buy from hold based on higher estimates for sewer rehab and energy. The firm has a $31 target on the stock.
• Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Wisconsin Energy (WEC) and Northeast Utilities (NU) were upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Rockwell Collins (COL) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: AON, AMED, C, GS, HEW, ITW, JPM, MS, PPDI, TLB, URBN ...

Analyst Calls: AON, AMED, C, GS, HEW, ITW, JPM, MS, PPDI, TLB, URBN ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Closing Bell: A Fifth Straight Win, but Sloppy (AA, BP, HEW, AON, SNDK, WMT, WY)

Closing Bell: A Fifth Straight Win, but Sloppy (AA, BP, HEW, AON, SNDK, WMT, WY) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded National Fuel (NYSE: NFG) to Hold from Sell to reflect better than expected drilling results for the company's Marcellus shale assets. Citi raised its target on shares to $43 from $42.
• Baird upgraded Netezza (NYSE: NZ) to Outperform from Neutral and raised its target to $14 from $7 based on the company's new product announcement and potential revenue acceleration.
• JPMorgan upgraded Liberty Interactive (NASDAQ: LINTA) to Overweight from Neutral. The firm finds the valuation attractive following Liberty's better than expected Q2 results and set a $13 price target on the stock.
• Marlin Business (NASDAQ: MRLN) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at William Blair.
• Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX) was upgraded to Sell from Conviction Sell at Goldman.
• Hewitt Associates (NYSE: HEW) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: BBY, DAI, FTE, LOGM, RIMM ...

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: BBY, DAI, FTE, LOGM, RIMM ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Baird upgraded Con-Way (NYSE: CNW) and Old Dominion (NASDAQ: ODFL) to Outperform from Neutral due to the benefits of a likely bankruptcy of YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW). Old Dominion's target was raised to $40 from $26 and Con-Way's was raised to $42 from $22.
• Citigroup upgraded Pride International (NYSE: PDE) to Hold from Sell as it believes higher valuation levels are warranted with the upcoming spin-off of Seahawk Drilling. Citi raised its target on shares to $25 from $18.
• Jesup & Lamont upgraded FedEx (NYSE: FDX) to Buy from Hold with a $63 target as it believes the worst is largely behind the company.
• Hewitt Associates (NYSE: HEW) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.
• ArvinMeritor (NYSE: ARM) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust.

Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ANF, FDX, IBM, RBS, SNDK, T

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ANF, FDX, IBM, RBS, SNDK, T originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Along with the May flowers, the coming week will bring plenty more disappointing earnings reports. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipate that Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM), CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS), Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT), and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) will all post lower earnings for the most recent quarter. American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) are expected to report losses.

But which companies are doing well? Here are a few reporting this week that analysts are optimistic about.

Continue reading The week in preview: May flowers, earnings, and more

The week in preview: May flowers, earnings, and more originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 03 May 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Merriman upgraded shares of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to Neutral from Sell as they believe consensus estimates for Q4 and FY09 are no longer too high. In addition, the firm believes Google's slowing capex spend will improve margins and their recent channel checks indicate the company's ad coverage has increased significantly during Q4.
  
• Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to Outperform from Perform following yesterday's disclosures regarding Steve Jobs' health. The firm has a $135 price target on Apple shares.
  
• UBS upgraded BMC Software (NYSE: BMC) to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $31 from $28 citing easier booking comps in the March quarter.
• YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Wachovia.
  
• Goldman removed Hewitt (NYSE: HEW) from its Conviction Sell List.

• Stephens downgraded Emergency Medical Services (NYSE: EMS) to Equal Weight from Overweight on valuation, as they believe the stock is fairly valued at current levels. The firm maintains a $39 price target.
  
• Merriman downgraded Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) to Neutral from Buy after Super Micro pre-announced a Q2 miss to reflect the company's "challenging" outlook.
  
• Baird downgraded Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) to Neutral from Outperform citing Revlimid growth concerns following their most recent survey and potential pressures on the European business and on Thalomid.
• Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) was lowered to Market Perform from Outperform at Leerink.
  
• Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) was cut at Goldman to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

• Merriman believes Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI) is well-positioned to benefit from the upgrade to Advanced Metering Infrastructure by tier one utilities and finds the stock attractively valued. Shares were initiated with a Neutral rating.
  
• Oppenheimer assumed Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL) with a Perform rating and expects the company's growth to slow in 2009 given global credit concerns and the economic slowdown.
  
• Citigroup started Telmex (NYSE: TMX) with a Sell rating and $15 target. The firm believes the company's inability to offer 3-play services could lead to accelerated market share loss in 2009.
• Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) was initiated at Janney Montgomery with a Neutral rating and $31 fair value estimate.
  
• Arthur J. Gallagher (NYSE: AJG) was initiated with a Neutral rating at Piper Jaffray.
  
• Jesup & Lamont assumed UTi Worldwide (NASDAQ: UTIW) with a Buy rating and $18 target.

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: GOOG, AAPL, CELG, NFLX ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Hewitt Associates has a winning human resources formula

Hewitt Associates has a winning human resources formula originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Seeing to a company's diverse human resource service needs can be a complex operation and sometimes a little help is needed. One of the world's leading providers of such assistance is headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

Hewitt Associates (NYSE: HEW) offers human resources services. The company administers health care, payroll and retirement programs on behalf of hundreds of firms, for millions of employees and retirees worldwide. It also advises more than 2,300 companies on the design, implementation and operation of their own human resources programs. Hewitt employs some 23,000 associates, in 33 countries. Clients include Alcoa (NYSE: AA), Target (NYSE: TGT) and Wachovia (NYSE: WB).

Continue reading Hewitt Associates (HEW): Shares forming a bullish 'flag'

Hewitt Associates (HEW): Shares forming a bullish 'flag' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.