Analyst Upgrades

• Intel (INTC), ON Semiconductor (ONNN), Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC), Fairchild Semiconductor (FSC), STMicroelectronics (STM) and Altera (ALTR) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Capital One (COF) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Dollar Tree (DLTR) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Foot Locker (FL) to buy from neutral at Sterne Agee.
• Progressive (PGR) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Flow International (FLOW) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.
• Signature Bank (SBNY) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• HiSoft Technology (HSFT) to buy from neutral at UBS.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: AMTD, C, COF, DLTR, FL, GS, IBM, INTC, NYT, PGR, SCHW ...

Analyst Calls: AMTD, C, COF, DLTR, FL, GS, IBM, INTC, NYT, PGR, SCHW ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• Union Pacific (UNP) and Polycom (PLCM) were upgraded to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Time Warner Cable (TWC) was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• Cheesecake Factory (CAKE) was upgraded to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• LaSalle Hotel (LHO) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Graco (GGG) was upgraded to buy from hold at BB&T.
• Valley National (VLY) was upgraded to market perform from underperform at Keefe Bruyette.
• Credit Suisse (CS) was upgraded to hold from sell at RBS.
• U.S. Bancorp (USB) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Penn National (PENN) and Riverbed (RVBD) were upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Goodrich (GR) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Cowen.
• Amazon.com (AMZN) upgraded to buy from average at Caris.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: AMZN, CAKE, CS, EMC, FCX, GR, HOT, K, MAR, TWC, UNP, USB ...

Analyst Calls: AMZN, CAKE, CS, EMC, FCX, GR, HOT, K, MAR, TWC, UNP, USB ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Closing Bell: Cheers Ahead of Help From Fed (AAPL, DGI, HPQ, LSCC, MCD, SKH)

Closing Bell: Cheers Ahead of Help From Fed (AAPL, DGI, HPQ, LSCC, MCD, SKH) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Jefferies upgraded Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) to Buy from Hold and raised its target to $22 from $17 on valuation and the company's "diversified" business.
  
• Barclays expects Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ: STLD) to outperform in Q1 as investors become more comfortable with the company's balance sheet. Shares were upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight.
  
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Asset Acceptance (NASDAQ: AACC) to Market Perform from Underperform on valuation but lowered their target to $6 from $8.
• Blackrock (NYSE: BLK) and Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) were added to Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
  
• Lattice (NASDAQ: LSCC) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Continue reading Analyst calls: XLNX, STLD, ICE, NYX, MT, JOYG, CME, LLL, AAPL, ENR ...

Analyst calls: XLNX, STLD, ICE, NYX, MT, JOYG, CME, LLL, AAPL, ENR ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The neatest consumer products are the ones you can customize, after you get them home. For manufacturers of high tech equipment, one such product is the programmable logic device. A top supplier of PLDs is headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC) designs, develops and markets high performance, programmable logic products and related software. Programmable logic products are widely used semiconductor components that can be configured by end customers as specific logic circuits, and thus enable shorter design cycle times and reduced development costs. Customers are primarily original equipment manufacturers in the communications, computing, consumer, industrial, automotive, medical and military end markets. Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL) and Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) are strategic partners.

Investors were pleased last week when the company issued Q2 revenue guidance that was in-line with Street estimates. Management said that new products were showing strong Q2 growth, as compared with the prior quarter. Merriman Curhan Ford noted that it believes the company's new 130nm and 90nm field-programmable gate array products will grow more rapidly than the Street is currently expecting. LSCC shares popped into a bullish "flag" consolidation pattern on the news. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling when they entered them. In this case, that would be to the upside. The stock now appears to be in the process of attempting that breakout.

Brokers recommend the issue with two "strong buys," one "buy," seven "holds" and two sells. The LSCC Price to Sales ratio (2.78) and Price to Book ratio (1.33) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutional investors hold about 95% of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 400 MidCap Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $4.96 and $7.55. A stop-loss of $5.10 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.

Lattice Semiconductor: Programmable logic chips for flexible manufacturing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.