MSO posts
FeedPosted Nov 5th 2009 11:30AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA), Analyst initiations
Analyst upgrades:
- Deutsche Bank upgraded Vale SA (NYSE: VALE) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from higher realized prices. The firm raised its target on shares to $30 from $23.
- Soleil upgraded Education Management (NASDAQ: EDMC) to Buy from Gradually Accumulate following the company's Q1 results and raised its target on shares to $34 from $32.
- Credit Suisse upgraded Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) to Outperform from Neutral. The firm also added the stock to its Focus List and raised its target on shares to $49 from $41. Credit Suisse believes Medtronic's base business is stabilizing and the stock's risk/reward is compelling.
- Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Roth Capital.
- Martha Stewart (NYSE: MSO) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Morgan Joseph.
- Dominion Resources (NYSE: D) was upgraded to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: CMCSA, GAME, GRMN, ETN, FO, MDT, MSO ...
Posted Sep 16th 2009 10:40AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Adobe Systems (ADBE), General Mills (GIS), Analyst initiations
Analyst upgrades:
- Deutsche Bank upgraded Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) to Hold from Sell as it believes the company's second half of 2009 is tracking better than expected due to retailer restocking. Deutsche raised its target on shares to $33 from $15 but thinks Garmin's long-term trends remain unfavorable.
- Goldman upgraded Fortune Brands (NYSE: FO) to Buy from Neutral citing potential EPS improvement driven by the Home division. Fortune Brands price target to $49 from $45. Note that the firm downgraded General Mills to Neutral from Buy.
- Oppenheimer upgraded FPIC Insurance (NASDAQ: FPIC) to Outperform from Perform to reflect the company's acquisition of Advocate MD and management's commitment to share repurchases. The firm set a $49 price target on the stock.
- PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) and Olin Corp. (NYSE: OLN) were upgraded to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
- Synovus (NYSE: SNV) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at BofA/Merrill.
- Take-Two (NASDAQ: TTWO) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ADBE, GIS, MAR, S, TTWO, VZ ...
Posted Apr 16th 2009 3:00PM by Sarah Gilbert (RSS feed)
Filed under: Management, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)
If I was
worried about the fate of Martha Stewart's flagship magazine, Martha Stewart Living, perhaps my concerns were unfounded. The statement from
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE:
MSO) could not be more bold, more unfailingly optimistic (like Martha herself):
Martha is getting a raise.
It's a big one, from her current CEO salary of $900,000 a year to at least $2 million annually for the next three years, plus a hefty "retention incentive" of $3 million today.
But where was she going? you might ask. After all, the company is
her very self, media-opolied. As far as I can tell, she was going nowhere, but without her there is little left. Martha's aspirational persona has made an indelible mark on our culture, one that has no danger of falling victim to our economic downturn. She represents the soul of the DIY ethos; not for nothing do people say of any well-executed craft, especially one involving vintage pieces found at a thrift store, "that's so Martha!"
Continue reading Martha Stewart is still money
Posted Feb 22nd 2009 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Marvel Entertainment (MVL)
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the parade of earnings declines to continue into the final week of February, with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO), Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN), Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN), Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M), DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA), Limited Brands Inc. (NYSE: LTD), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE: RY), Del Monte Foods Co. (NASDAQ: DLM), Kohl's Corp. (NYSE: KSS), Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS), Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB), RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH), and H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) all expected to post lower earnings for the most recent quarter. Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP), Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS), and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: CTB) are expect to have swung to a loss.
Continue reading The week in preview: Eye on Marvel, KBR, First Solar, Deckers and more
Posted Aug 14th 2008 4:15PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Hansen Natural (HANS), Alcoa Inc (AA), Gannett Co (GCI), Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)
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 LowsAlcoa 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.
Posted Aug 11th 2008 1:11PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: Television, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)
Martha Stewart's daughter Alexis and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt, co-hosts of a show on Sirius Satellite Radio, are teaming up for a new television parody of vintage
Martha Stewart Living episodes. The title?
Whatever, Martha!
Surprisingly, the show has the blessing of Martha Stewart, who is not normally known as a barrel full of laughs. She
told The New York Times that "They promised not to be mean, and I had to trust them. I'm not going to have a heart attack."
The half-hour show, set to debut on
Fine Living on September 16th, will feature old clips from Ms. Stewart's show alongside sarcastic commentary from her daughter and Ms. Hutt. There are no clips available online but it sounds similar to
ESPN Classic's Cheap Seats.
It's nice to see that Martha Stewart has a sense of humor. Given that shares of
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE:
MSO) have gone from $20 to $8 in a little more than a year and a half, she will need it. The debut of the new show is symptomatic of the problems the company is facing: Stewart went from an icon to a cliche, and now she completes the cycle by becoming a joke.
With the
recent resignation of its CEO following the completion of the Emeril acquisition, this is a company in turmoil. Given its lackluster ability to generate profits during its prime, it seems like a stock worth avoiding.
Posted Jul 14th 2008 10:00AM by Brian White (RSS feed)
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Columns
Welcome to the 68th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.
This week, I'll be taking a look at the most recent financial results from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT). The retailer continues to state the the federal tax economic stimulus checks being used by customers in its stores have buoyed it results.
Overall, this is good news. When the tax stimulus checks run out, though, will Wal-Mart continue to post such great sales figures like it did in June 2008? Remember June 2007?
Last summer, Wal-Mart also easily defeated analyst calls and toasted the expected same-store sales growth. Is seasonality more a part of the picture than tax checks? How about gas pricing stamping out multiple shopping trips by many families? All of this contributes, I would posit.
Continue reading The Wal-Mart Weekly: 2008 shaping up to be a winning year
Posted Jul 10th 2008 5:20PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT)
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's (NYSE:
MSO)
recent announcement that its crafts line would be debuting in
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:
WMT) stores nationally sent MSO up more than 5% at first, but the stock has since given all that back and then some: the stock is down nearly 10% from where it was before the announcement.
The company needs to replace the guaranteed licensing fees from K-Mart that are in the process of phasing out, and revenue from that business is likely to plummet when the guarantee declines from $65 million this year to around $20 million next year.
But Wal-Mart? Haven't their been entire books written on how tough it is to make money selling to Wal-Mart? It's easy for me to understand Wall Street's skepticism about this deal, and there have been a lot of uninspiring developments for the company in recent months: first the company
paid $45 million for the Emeril empire, what was supposed to be company transforming acquisition. Then a few months later, CEO Susan Lyne
resigned abruptly -- which doesn't speak well for the new strategy.
Maybe the Wal-Mart deal will work out splendidly -- but the company appears to be all over the place.
Posted Jun 12th 2008 11:21AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Novartis AG ADS (NVS)
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MOST NOTEWORTHY: Lubrizol, BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Novartis were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Jefferies downgraded shares of Lubrizol (NYSE:LZ) to Hold from Buy as they expect persistent raw material cost pressures to limit upside over the next few quarters. The firm lowered their target price to $60 from $65.
- Citigroup cut BioMarin (NASDAQ:BMRN) to Hold from Buy after their survey indicated an upside surprise from the Kuvan launch is unlikely. The firm lowered their target price to $37 from $42.
- HSBC downgraded shares of Novartis (NYSE:NVS) to Underweight from Neutral following the company's stake in Alcon (NYSE:ACL) as they believe it dilutes the company's return on assets.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
Posted Jun 11th 2008 4:18PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: After the bell, Major movement, Earnings reports, Citigroup Inc. (C), , Nortel Networks (NT), Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)
Today was yet another day where Joe Public felt like he spent a round in the ring with Joe Lewis. It's getting that way again, and now the only real positive is that contrarians may start to get happy.
Oil jumped back up another $5.00 per barrel on inventory numbers reported this morning. The continued weak environment sent financials and airlines into the dirt again. PIMCO's McCulley said he believes that the Fed is understating inflation and the Fed's Beige Book hinted that some higher costs are beginning to be passed down to consumers.
Here are the unofficial closes of major US index levels:
DJIA 12082.14 (-207.62)
S&P500 1335.56 (-22.88)
NASDAQ 2394.01 (-54.93)
10YR T-NOTE 4.07% (-0.026%)
Top 10 Analyst Calls
Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (NYSE:
BUD) saw another
big pickup in its call options activity today and then CNBC's David Faber said that InBev in Europe may be close to making an unsolicited bid for the company. Shares were up about 2.3% at $58.45 in the final minutes of the day.
Continue reading Closing Bell: Inflation, financials, and oil... ugliness everywhere, almost
Posted Jun 11th 2008 12:48PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Management, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)
Bad news out of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NASDAQ: MSO) today: CEO Susan Lyne has stepped down after four years as the company's CEO. President of Media Wenda Harris Millard and President of Merchandising Robin Marino will become co-CEOs.
Oh, how quickly things change. Back in April, Martha Stewart Living announced that it was acquiring the Emeril brand for $50 million, with an optimistic Lyne saying, "This acquisition is strategically important to our company as we continue to expand and diversify our business and represents a significant opportunity for us going forward." The company said it expected the acquisition to add $8 million of EBITDA in its first year of operation. Now Lyne is gone without explanation, and the press release didn't even mention the "strategically important" Emeril deal, which has a value of more than 10% of the company's market cap.
Continue reading Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO resigns
Posted Feb 19th 2008 11:00AM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: Deals, Marketing and advertising
Last month, I reported that
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE:
MSO) was actively
seeking an acquisition to diversify beyond its core Martha Stewart brand.
Now the company has found what it hopes is it's missing piece, and is set to
acquire superstar chef Emeril Lagasse's [subscription required] media and licensing empire for $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock, according to the
Wall Street Journal.
The purchase price will include the rights to Emeril's television programs, syndicated episodes of the "Emeril Live" show on the Food Network, cookbooks and Emeril's websites, and licensing deals from All-Clad cookware, Wüsthof cutlery, Wedgwood tableware and T-fal appliances. The acquisition also includes Emeril-branded spices, marinades, coffee, Bam! B-Q sauce and other food products, according to the
Journal. Emeril's restaurants and corporate office are not part of the deal.
It seems likely that the market will react positively to this development, but I wouldn't be buying here. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia hasn't been able to make much money from the Martha Stewart brand and adding another brand to a failing company hardly seems like a recipe for success.
Posted Feb 19th 2008 8:00AM by Laurie Pasternack (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, General Electric (GE), Motorola (MOT), Research in Motion (RIMM), , Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)
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MAJOR PAPERS:
- In a diversification move, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc (NYSE: MSO) will reportedly acquire the media and licensed properties of well-known TV chef Emeril Lagasse for $45M in cash and $5M in stock, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- According to the Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street," the current quarter for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (NYSE: LEH) will not be good and it also has a sizable amount of commercial real estate loans which could lead to bigger write-downs. The latest estimates are of an approximate $1.3B write-down, above recent estimates, and higher than the $830M in the fourth quarter.
OTHER PAPERS:
WEB SITES:
- Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) is suing Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) claiming the company violated seven U.S. patents covering mobile-communications technology, Bloomberg reported. Research in Motion also filed a suit against Motorola claiming the company infringed on Research in Motion patents.
Posted Jan 21st 2008 10:50AM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: Magazines, Internet, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)
With its stock sitting in a toilet that would make the housekeeping goddess cringe, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO) is looking for something to boost its operations.
Fortune reports it has learned that the company "has held recent talks with two prominent tastemakers, the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley and Jonathan Adler, known for his home décor, with the aim of building multifaceted brands around these personalities that span television, publishing and the internet."
The talks have reportedly broken off, but CEO Susan Lyne has said that she is on the prowl for acquisitions. Acquisitions have a bad habit of failing to generate value for the acquirer, and Fortune notes that "The pressure to do a deal will intensify this year, as MSO prepares to take a hit on several fronts." And therein lies the problem.
The company has historically been unable to generate a profit, and that's not going to get any better in the near future. An acquisition driven by what amounts to desperation is unlikely to change that. And signing a big star will cost a lot money, and the value of that star's brand will tend to aggregate to them, not MSO -- that's the nature of licensing deals.
Bottom line: If you want to buy shares of MSO, it should be because you're bullish on the future of the company as it is now, not because you're hoping that a management team that has failed to generate value can make a killer acquisition that will restore the company to its once high-flying status.
Posted Dec 11th 2007 1:44PM by Sarah Gilbert (RSS feed)
Filed under: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO)
If anything could be blamed for the
just-announced shuttering of
Blueprint magazine, it could be the current issue's cover, in which a pink (!!) tree is out-sparkled only by the sequined frothiness of the bleached blonde holding a gigantic bauble alongside. Inside we see 20-something editor-in-chief Sarah Humphreys, who writes, "... if
Blueprint's taught me anything, it's that there's plenty of room for spiced sugar bomboloni at the Thanksgiving table."
Umm. OK, Sarah.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE:
MSO) strayed a little too far from the company's audience of blue-bloods and those who aspire to craft like them with
Blueprint, a magazine unfortunately titled (evoking architecture of the blue-collar sort, not "where to find candles made of pink glitter"). It was meant to target the young single urbanite; but what newly-married aspirational New Englander wants a magazine full of recycled
Martha Stewart Living projects, mixed with lipstick and gilded fashion advice? Evidently, not many.
The "brand" will be re-envisioned as a way to extend the audience of
Martha Stewart Weddings past her nuptials, with occasional "special interest format" magazines (think
Martha Stewart Baby), and the
Bluelines blog will continue. The January/February 2008 magazine (probably already on the way to newsstands) will be the final standalone issue.
Continue reading 'Blueprint' magazine shut down, following 'House & Garden'
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