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Posts with tag Marathon Oil

Analyst upgrades: LULU, NCC and DVN

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Lululemon, National City and Devon Energy were today's noteworthy upgrades:
  • Thomas Weisel upgraded shares of Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) to Overweight from Market Weight as they believe the company's momentum continues following the strong results; the firm maintains a $43 target on shares.
  • Bear upgraded National City (NYSE:NCC) to Outperform from Underperform citing favorable risk/reward following reports is is considering a transaction with KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY).
  • JP Morgan raised Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) to Overweight from Neutral citing solid organic growth with high rates of returns.
OTHER UPGRADES:

Marathon Oil: Too cheap to not consider

Readers of this space know that oil/oil services has been a preferred sector. Given ramping demand in the developing world and oil's importance in a growing global economy, oil and oil services companies are likely to continue to experience steady demand for their services/products, and a provider worth a review is Marathon Oil.

Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO) has what analysts like to see in an oil operation: a large/geographically-wide exploration footprint, very good production, and strong refining operations.

Further, that last tangible may be the most valuable, given the barely-adequate refinery capacity in the United States. What's more, the stock market's early 2008 sell-off has created a buying opportunity with Marathon. With a p/e of about 9, MRO's risk/return ratio is low. The Reuters FY 2008/FY 2009 EPS consensus estimates for MRO are $6.33 to $6.77.

Continue reading Marathon Oil: Too cheap to not consider

Analyst downgrades: GS, LEH and AMTD

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Goldman Sachs, Lehman and TD AmeriTrade were today's noteworthy downgrades:
  • UBS downgraded Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) to Neutral from Buy. The firm believes liquidity problems and de-leveraging in the capital markets will get worst before they get better; UBS also downgraded Bank of New York (NYSE: BK), State Street (NYSE: STT) and Invesco (NYSE: IVZ) to Neutral from Buy.
  • Following Bear Stearns' (NYSE: BSC) downfall, UBS also downgraded Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) to Neutral from Buy and said the company could be the "next on the list" for the confidence/liquidity crisis by some investors.
  • TD AmeriTrade (NASDAQ: AMTD) was downgraded to Neutral from buy at UBS and to Market Perform from Outperform at Friedman Billings. Friedman Billings downgraded TD Ameritrade citing slowing client activity as well as margin compression.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
  • JP Morgan cut Portugal Telecom (NYSE: PT) to Underweight from Neutral.
  • Goldman downgraded Marathon Oil (NYSE: MRO) and Holly Corp (NYSE: HOC) to Neutral from Buy and removed Frontier Oil (NYSE: FTO) from its Conviction Buy List.

Analyst downgrade: TXN, CHKP, MINI, VNBC and TPTX

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Texas Instruments, Check Point, Mobile Mini, Vineyard National Bancorp and TorreyPines were today's noteworthy downgrades:
  • Jefferies downgraded shares of Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) to Hold from Buy, as they believe the company's fundamentals are weakening given the worse than anticipated share losses in the wireless segment. Shares were also lowered to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan, to Equal Weight from Overweight at Lehman, to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse, and to Neutral from Buy at UBS to reflect the slowdown in the company's wireless growth.
  • Check Point Software (NASDAQ: CHKP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies on valuation and highlights the difficult spending environment in 1H08 as well as the company's tough comps.
  • Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Mobile Mini (NASDAQ: MINI) to Hold from Buy following the company's negative preannouncement.
  • Oppenheimer lowered Vineyard National Bancorp (NASDAQ: VNBC) to Neutral from Buy to reflect slower pace of balance sheet growth and lower gain-on-sale income estimates.
  • JMP Securities downgraded TorreyPines (NASDAQ: TPTX) to Market Outperform from Strong Buy and said Tezampanel's lack of dose response and statistically significant pain free response will keep the stock in the "show me" category.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:

Analyst initiations: OMPI, MSCC, MRO and ENP

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Obagi Medical, Medical, Microsemi, Marathon Oil and Encore Energy were today's noteworthy initiations:
  • Obagi Medical Products (NASDAQ: OMPI) was initiated with a Positive rating at Susquehanna, as they like Obagi's growth opportunity in the aesthetics-dermatology market and views the company as an interesting take-out target for a larger specialty pharmaceutical company.
  • Montgomery believes Microsemi Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSCC) core business is on track and gaining momentum based on leverage in both high-reliability and high-performance analog. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $34 target.
  • Goldman initiated Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO) with a Buy rating and $72 target, as they view Marathon as most favorably leveraged refining company and would use seasonal weakness in refining margins as a buying opportunity.
  • RBC Capital sees a large opportunity for Encore Energy Parners (NYSE: ENP) to grow its reserves from internal negotiated transactions from its parent, Encore Acquisition Companies (NYSE: EAC), starting shares off with an Outperform rating and $26 target.
OTHER INITIATIONS:

Newspaper wrap-up 4-30-07: Porsche bids for Volkswagen

MAJOR PAPERS:
OTHER PAPERS:
  • The New York Times "Dealbook" reported that Porsche has bid $48.9B for Volkswagen AG (OTC: VLKAY), and the bid will run for four weeks starting today.
  • The News Journal reported that AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) has received a subpoena from the Delaware Attorney General, which seeks documents about the company's contracts with Delaware hospitals.

Analyst downgrades 11-30-06: Tivo, Gap downgraded

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The Entertainment sector was the most noteworthy downgrade today.

  • Bear Stearns downgraded the Entertainment sector to Market Weight from Market Overweight based on long-term concerns of market share losses to user generated content, competition from new competitors and a shift in ad spending.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

  • TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Oppenheimer, citing weak subscriber metrics and outlook.
  • Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE:MRO) was downgraded at Friedman Billings to Underperform from Market Perform on valuation.
  • Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Matrix USA on valuation and slowing sales growth.
  • The Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy Lazard; Following Gap's latest merchandise deliveries, the firm has lost confidence in management's ability to source the right product, let alone the right merchandise.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-5.8612,986.80
NASDAQ-4.882,528.85
S&P 500+1.781,425.35

Last updated: May 17, 2008: 06:58 AM

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