PRU posts
FeedPosted Nov 24th 2009 11:45AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Analyst initiations
Analyst upgrades:
- Wells Fargo upgraded Prudential (PRU) to outperform from market perform. The firm thinks the company is in a better position than its peers and will be able to more effectively exploit M&A opportunities.
- UBS upgraded Reliance Steel (RS) to buy from neutral based on potential growth through M&A and valuation. The firm raised its target to $50 from $49.
- Deutsche Bank upgraded Eastman Chemical (EMN) to buy from hold on expectations the company's portfolio transformation will drive higher normalized earnings power, which the firm believes is not fully reflected in consensus estimates. Deutsche raised its target price on shares to $70 from $62.
- Amylin Pharma (AMLN) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
- Cephalon (CEPH) was upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.
- Acuity Brands (AYI) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: BLK, CIEN, PCLN, PRU, RS, TIF, UNP ...
Posted Nov 1st 2009 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Teva Pharm Indus ADR (TEVA)
It's official: the holiday season is here, marking the beginning of the race to the end of the year. It's also time for another FOMC interest rate decision, as well as for another look at the employment situation, perhaps the most dreaded measure of the economic recovery in the U.S. This week will bring the Challenger job cut announcements for October on Wednesday, initial jobless claims for last week and the Monster Employment Index for October on Thursday, and the employment numbers for October on Friday.
The earnings season rolls on this week as well, and analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting good showings from the reports of Boston Beer Company Inc. (NYSE: SAM), DirecTV Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DTV), Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), and Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI).
Continue reading The week in preview: Eye on MasterCard, Prudential, Coinstar ...
Posted Feb 1st 2009 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, AFLAC Inc (AFL), Avon Products (AVP), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Northrop Grumman (NOC)
If you've been watching earnings this past week, or if you read last week's Week in Preview, then this coming week may leave you feeling a bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day. That is, again analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect earnings declines to be more frequent and deeper than earnings gains.
Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW), Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC), IAC Interactivecorp (NASDAQ: IACI), Moody's Corp. (NYSE: MCO), Elizabeth Arden Inc. (NASDAQ: RDEN), Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN), Diebold Inc. (NYSE: DBD), Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC), United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL), ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT), and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) are scheduled to report quarterly results this week, and they're all expected to report double-digit declines in earnings.
But again this week, let's take a look who Wall Street feels may have done well in the past quarter.
Continue reading The week in preview: High hopes for MasterCard, Avon, Aflac, Northrop Grumman
Posted Jan 13th 2009 9:30AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Bank of America (BAC), Chevron Corp (CVX), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Nucor Corp (NUE), Cramer on BloggingStocks, MetLife Inc. (MET)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says stocks are likely to decline, but don't expect them to fall hard and fast. So, five days ago we are talking about breaking back to above Dow 10,000 with ease. Now is there anyone out there who doesn't think that we will soon be retesting the mid-7000s? SPX 750, here we come?
What the heck happened in a week? Where did all of that optimism go? We haven't had that many preannouncements yet. We haven't had all of the retail failures we expected, and we didn't even get a spike up in the bad commodities -- like gasoline -- that had any last to it.
Of course, the most likely scenario about what happened is that we figured with all of the crises solved, the major banks no longer an issue, we would then be propelled higher. We also didn't have the reckless short-selling that had so characterized this market.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Markets to meander lower
Posted Dec 1st 2008 12:22PM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Analyst initiations, Limited Brands (LTD), BHP Billiton Ltd ADR (BHP), Rio Tinto plc ADS (RTP)
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Analyst upgrades:
- Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Premiere Global (NYSE: PGI) to Outperform from Perform on valuation and believes the company's strategic initiatives will drive "healthy" top-line results in a difficult economy.
- Citigroup upgraded Prudential (NYSE: PRU) to Buy from Hold on valuation, as they believe the stock is oversold at current levels. Though upgraded, the firm lowered their target price to $30 from $80.
- Citigroup also upgraded Bankrate (NASDAQ: RATE) to Buy from Hold as they believe the company will benefit from the financial market volatility and that the risk/reward is attractive at current levels. The firm maintains a $40 target on the stock.
- Hospitality Properties (NYSE: HPT) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.
- Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO) was upgraded at Merrill Lynch to Buy from Neutral.
- Alcon (NYSE: ACL) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.
Analyst downgrades:Continue reading Analyst calls: PRU, RATE, ACL, LTD, STM, SNP, NFLX, RTP, BHP, OXY ...
Posted Nov 12th 2008 8:22AM by Melly Alazraki (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), American Express (AXP), Applied Materials (AMAT), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Best Buy (BBY), Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) shares are down after the company said it
sees softer consumer spending and lowered fiscal 2009 EPS guidance.
American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) --
The Wall Street Journal reported that according to its sources, AmEx is
seeking about $3.5 billion from the U.S. government to help boost its balance sheet. This follows Monday's Federal approval for AmEx to become a bank holding company.
General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks GM is too big to fail and wants Congress to support a
financial assistance for the troubled U.S. auto industry. This follows Obama urging Bush to support aid for struggling automakers and Democrats in Congress passing legislation that would give GM, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and Chrysler
access to $25 billion in government-backed loans. But automakers need more. GM shares are trading higher.
Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU) said late Tuesday it will
pay a dividend of 58 cents per share on Dec. 19 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Nov. 24. This 2008 annual dividend is roughly half of the $1.15 per share it paid out to shareholders last year.
Continue reading Stocks in the news: BBY, AXP, GM, PRU, M, AMAT, BBBY, LVS, MSFT
Posted Nov 10th 2008 9:55AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Cisco Systems (CSCO), General Electric (GE), Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Home Depot (HD), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Alcoa Inc (AA), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing Co (BA), CBS Corp 'B' (CBS), Centex Corp (CTX), ConocoPhillips (COP), D.R.Horton (DHI), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Amer Intl Group (AIG), KB HOME (KBH), Lennar Corp'A' (LEN), , QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), Deere and Co (DE), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Freep't McMoRan Copper (FCX), Wells Fargo (WFC), Cramer on BloggingStocks, MetLife Inc. (MET)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says tons of stocks look like good buys, and they go down all the time. All weekend I heard it. Stocks have gotten too cheap. Put 'em away cheap. Don't worry about 'em cheap. To which I say, stocks are only cheap if the companies make it. Stocks are only cheap if the bondholders don't claim them.
Every day I see cheap stocks.
Ford (NYSE:
F) (
Cramer's Take) reported this morning. Ridiculously cheap. How cheap is
Sprint (NYSE:
S) (
Cramer's Take), for heaven's sake? Did you see the
Sunrise Senior Living (NYSE:
SRZ) (
Cramer's Take) numbers? That stock should show up when you enter "cheap stock" in Google. Except
Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:
LVS) (
Cramer's Take) comes up.
When Warren Buffett says stocks are cheap, or Jeremy Grantham or Steve Leuthold or Jeremy Siegel, it's very heartening. You just want to go out there and buy cheap stocks like
CBS (NYSE:
CBS) (
Cramer's Take) and
Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:
WSM) (
Cramer's Take) and
Ann Taylor (NYSE:
ANN) (
Cramer's Take) and
Talbots (NYSE:
TLB) (
Cramer's Take).
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: 'Cheap' is meaningless
Posted Oct 31st 2008 9:17AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Coca-Cola (KO), Market matters, McDonald's (MCD), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Procter and Gamble (PG), Barclays plc ADS (BCS), Cramer on BloggingStocks, MetLife Inc. (MET)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this trade has worked all week, but it's a shaky play on the fundamentals. It's a stubborn market. We sit here and marvel that
Barclays (NYSE:
BCS) (
Cramer's Take) or
Mitsubishi (NYSE:
MTU) (
Cramer's Take) need to raise money when three weeks ago we thought they were going to inherit the earth because they didn't lose money. We liked them because we stubbornly believed they were better.
We thought that
Prudential (NYSE:
PRU) (
Cramer's Take) was The Rock; now it is The Rock like the guy who makes a lot of movies -- not all of them good.
Lincoln National (NYSE:
LNC) (
Cramer's Take) was perceived to be much higher quality than
MetLife (NYSE:
MET) (
Cramer's Take), but that's wrong. The idea that the
Hartford (NYSE:
HIG) (
Cramer's Take) would be in trouble, as it has always been not in trouble, is amazing to us.
We stubbornly cling to the ones that we thought were good until we hear that they need a bailout. Then we turn on them like they were never good or like they are going to go bankrupt.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: If you buy the market, don't look down
Posted Oct 29th 2008 8:09AM by Melly Alazraki (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Aetna Inc (AET), Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA), Corning Inc (GLW), Procter and Gamble (PG), Economic data, Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), Qwest Communications Intl (Q), Federal Reserve, MetLife Inc. (MET)
U.S. stock futures
declined Wednesday morning but then turned positive seesawed Wednesday morning, a day after one of the biggest day of gains on Wall Street that saw the Dow industrials end up 889 points and close above 9,000 again, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve decision on interest rates to be announced at 2:15 pm. Most are expecting the Fed to
cut rates by at least half a point to 1%. Meanwhile,
oil rebounded from a 17-month low to above $64 per barrel ahead of the weekly inventory report due out later today. Also, September durable goods orders will be released ahead of the opening bell.
Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) reported adjusted earnings of 44 cents per share, inline with estimates. Kraft also raised expectations for 2008 earnings.
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) reported a 9% rise in both earnings and revenue, beating analyst estimates on both counts. P&G kept the same outlook.
Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) reported that
quarterly profit plunged 72% due to a surging yen that wiped out profits from flat-panel TV and PlayStation 3 sales and revenue from the movie
Hancock. This shouldn't have come as a surprise as last year the company slashed full year outlook.
Continue reading Before the bell: Futures seesaw ahead of Fed decision; KFT, PG, SNE, GM, MSFT, GOOG ...
Posted Oct 10th 2008 9:19AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), AFLAC Inc (AFL), Bank of America (BAC), Chesapeake Energy (CHK), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Comerica Inc (CMA), General Mills (GIS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Procter and Gamble (PG), , Freep't McMoRan Copper (FCX), Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks, Financial Crisis, MetLife Inc. (MET)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the safety theme will come back if only because these companies' earnings will be good in six months. Editor's note: Jim Cramer will present his 2009 stock outlook for the first time at TheStreet.com Investment Conference on Saturday, Oct. 25.
Click for details.
Now they come after the
Procter & Gambles (NYSE:
PG) (
Cramer's Take) and the
General Mills (NYSE:
GIS) (
Cramer's Take) and the like, betting that the action will be better in the cyclicals with all of this money being printed worldwide.
Commodities are also coming back because of reflation. And we have to feel that many of the infra and ag names are finally sold out by the hedge fund redemptions.
Here I am speaking of a
Freeport McMoRan (NYSE:
FCX) (
Cramer's Take), with its good yield and a belief that the hedge funds are at last done.
I don't buy it. I like a balanced portfolio, but I want to buy the GIS/PG all the way down because we are going into a recession, not going out of one. These companies pay dividends, raise dividends and have great commodity tailwinds.
Colgate's (NYSE:
CL) (
Cramer's Take) down a lot too, and I am liking that one.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Buy Procter, General Mills all the way down
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