MEDX posts
FeedPosted Jul 23rd 2009 7:40AM by Melly Alazraki (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the bell, International markets, Earnings reports, Deals, Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Ford Motor (F), Market matters, McDonald's (MCD), AT and T (T), 3M Corporation (MMM), American Express (AXP), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Economic data, Oil

U.S. stock futures rose on Thursday morning after Ford reported a surprise earnings and following some mergers-and-acquisition activity. Another fresh wave of earnings releases awaits investors today, as well as jobless, homes data.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F)
surprised Wall Street this morning when it posted a profit in the second-quarter of $2.3 billion due mainly to a huge gain for debt reduction. While Ford would have reported a loss of $424 million, or 21 cents per share, without special items, the loss is still far smaller than the 50 cents analysts had expected.
Continue reading Before the bell: Futures higher after Ford's surprise profit, ahead of data
Posted Jul 16th 2009 11:40AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Motorola (MOT), American Express (AXP), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Oracle Corp (ORCL), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), Analyst initiations, Raytheon Company (RTN)
Analyst upgrades:
- Citigroup upgraded Sunoco Logistics (NYSE: SXL) to Buy from Hold on valuation and raised its target on shares to $60 from $56.50. The firm sees better value in Sunoco Logistics than Enbridge Energy Partners (NYSE: EEP), which it downgraded to Hold.
- BofA/Merrill believes Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) offers the most potential upside in the larget cap defense sector. The firm upgraded shares to Buy from Neutral and has a $62 target on the stock.
- Roth Capital upgraded Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) to Buy from Hold based on seasonality, multiple product cycles, and valuation. Roth's target remains $15.
- Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Societe Generale.
- EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at RW Baird.
- American Express (NYSE: AXP) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
Continue reading Analyst calls: RTN, NVDA, ORCL, AXP, MOT, PM, CSCO, QCOM, DRI ...
Posted May 14th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)

After three days of selling and profit taking, it seems that low wholesale inflation and slightly higher weekly jobless claims were enough of a recipe for a rally.
Dow 8,331.32 +46.43 (0.56%)
S&P 500 892.95 +9.03 (1.02%)
Nasdaq 1,689.21 +25.02 (1.50%)
Top Analyst Upgrades & DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Bulls remind bears of their presence (WMT, CEG, BRK.A, MEDX, RMBS, NKTR, DGI)
Posted May 28th 2008 11:31AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Adobe Systems (ADBE), United Parcel'B' (UPS)
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Alaska Communications, Royal Bank of Scotland and Frontier Oil were today's noteworthy upgrades:
- Banc of America upgraded shares of Alaska Communications (NASDAQ: ALSK) to Buy from Neutral as they believe the company will return to a dividend growth focus after completing its strategic initiatives.
- Credit Suisse raised Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) to Neutral from Underperform as they believe the company has already taken "prudent" write-downs.
- Bear upgraded Frontier Oil (NYSE: FTO) to Peer Perform from Underperform as they believe the company is better positioned to withstand this period of margin weakness.
OTHER UPGRADES:
Posted May 19th 2008 3:10PM by Melly Alazraki (RSS feed)
Filed under: Pfizer (PFE), Novartis AG ADS (NVS), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Merck and Co (MRK), Genentech Inc (DNA), Amgen Inc (AMGN), Lilly (Eli) (LLY), ImClone Systems (IMCL)

Almost everyone these days has encountered cancer in one way or another. While the
rate of cancer incidence has stabilized to declined since the early 1990s and, with newer and better treatments as well as early detection, cancer death rates have also declined, the war on cancer is still far from won.
It is no surprise, then, that a few days ago,
IMS Health (NYSE:
RX) -- a provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries -- said that
cancer drugs sales will nearly double by the year 2012. Assuming a compound growth rate of 12-15% a year, sales will grow from $48 billion in 2008 to $80 billion by 2012.
The main contributors to growth, according to the study, are an increasing number of patients on chemotherapy, not just in major markets but in emerging markets, too, as well as longer treatment periods for growing numbers of patients. Also fueling growth are the increased use of targeted therapeutic agents, along with first-time innovations coming to the market. Expensive new biotechnology drugs, and the increasing use of combination therapies that contribute to the exploding cost of treatment will also fuel cancer drugs sales growth.
The overall pharmaceutical market grew at a 6.4% pace in 2007, meaning that with its double-digit growth rate, the cancer drug market -- today contributing 17% to global pharmaceutical sales -- will only represent a greater proportion and emphasis. Of course, there will be factors moderating growth, such as drugs losing exclusivity and financial constraints of payers.
Cancer-fighting drugs can reach the market twice as fast as the average medicine, and companies can charge as much as $50,000 for a single course of treatment. It is no surprise then that with more and more drugs coming off patent many pharma companies are turning their attention to cancer. But can it save them?
Continue reading Can cancer drugs help pharma sales?