A relief rally recovery is how you would describe Monday. The no-fly zone success of Libya over the weekend and the 'no more bad news' out of Japan were the two major contributors today. The US even announced that it would begin selling off the Treasury's $142 billion mortgage-backed securities portfolio.
Here were the unofficial closing bell levels today:
Dow Jones 12,036.53 +178.01 (1.50%)
S&P 500 1,298.38 +19.18 (1.50%)
Nasdaq 2,692.09 +48.42 (1.83%)
Top Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades
TIF posts
FeedClosing Bell: How Do You Spell Relief? (T, SCHW, OXPS, C, GE, EWJ, TIF)
Continue reading Closing Bell: How Do You Spell Relief? (T, SCHW, OXPS, C, GE, EWJ, TIF)
Tiffany & Co. Posts Strong Q4 Earnings, Q1 Forecast
Tiffany & Co. (TIF - option chain) shares are rising after the company reported Q4 2010 earnings Monday morning, posting a profit of $181.22 million, or $1.41 per share. Excluding one-time items, Tiffany earned $1.44 per share on revenue of $1.10 billion, while analysts had forecast a profit of $1.39 per share on revenue of $1.10 billion.
Tiffany cut its Q1 earnings forecast to 57 cents per share, down from a previous forecast of 62 cents per share, due to an anticipated decline in sales in Japan in the wake of the recent earthquake. However, that is still above analysts' forecasts of 55 cents per share, which is a good sign for the stock. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on TIF.
Continue reading Tiffany & Co. Posts Strong Q4 Earnings, Q1 Forecast
Stock Futures Higher on AT&T-T Mobile Deal
U.S. stock futures are higher this morning, after AT&T (T) announced its plans to buy T-Mobile USA for around $39 billion. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 105 points to 11,904.00, while those for the S&P 500 stock index climbed 13.60 points to 1,287.80. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index surged 24.25 points to 2,245.75.
Week in Preview: Housing Data and Late Season Earnings (ORCL, DFS, TIF)
Quarterly reports from Oracle (ORCL), Discover (DFS) and Tiffany (TIF) will highlight news on the earnings front this week.
Elsewhere on the economic calendar, the focus will be on housing, with existing home sales data due from the National Association of Realtors on Monday, new home sales numbers from the Census Bureau on Wednesday and data on housing starts released on Thursday.
Also watch for durable goods orders in February and the final GDP for the fourth quarter.
Continue reading Week in Preview: Housing Data and Late Season Earnings (ORCL, DFS, TIF)
Analyst Calls: COMV, FSLR, K, LDK, NGD, PTEN, RIMM, STD, TIF ...
- Tiffany (TIF) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
- Kellogg (K) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
- Citizens Republic (CRBC) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
- Research in Motion (RIMM) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
- MWI Veterinary Supply (MWIV) and Elster (ELT) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
- Paetec Holding (PAET) and Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
- New Gold (NGD) to outperform from market perform at BMO Capital.
- Aviat Networks (AVNW) to buy from hold at Needham.
- Abiomed (ABMD) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
- Animal Health (AHII) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
- PNM Resources (PNM) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: COMV, FSLR, K, LDK, NGD, PTEN, RIMM, STD, TIF ...
Tiffany Trading Lower: Buy or Sell?
Tiffany & Co. (TIF) has had an interesting trading day. With a little over two hours to go before the end of the session, shares are off by 1.1% to $60.26. Earlier this morning, the stock was at a higher level. TheFly says there was some speculation about the jewelry retailer being a potential acquisition candidate. I'm not sure if the company will be acquired or not, but I enjoyed reading a bit of good news on the fundamental front.
According to the Associated Press, Tiffany experienced an 8% rise in same-store sales for the months of November and December (this stat is adjusted to take into account changes in exchange rates). Also, the net-income outlook for the full fiscal year has been upgraded: the new range of between $2.83 and $2.88 replaces the old range of between $2.72 and $2.77.
Analyst Calls: AA, BA, BP, BSX, COH, GM, INTC, NSM, STJ, TIF, TSN, UA ...
- Boeing (BA) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
- Alcoa (AA) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
- BP (BP) to outperform from market perform at Raymond James.
- Office Depot (ODP) and Staples (SPLS) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
- ON Semiconductor (ONNN) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
- Kennametal (KMT) and Polyone (POL) to buy from hold at KeyBanc.
- Airgas (ARG) to outperform from market perform at William Blair.
- EchoStar (SATS) to neutral from underperform at Macquarie.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: AA, BA, BP, BSX, COH, GM, INTC, NSM, STJ, TIF, TSN, UA ...
Tiffany Sees a Bid After Earnings Release
Tiffany & Company (TIF) was up over 5% to $61.30 late in the afternoon session. Excellent volume backed the move. Shareholders are certainly happy with today's action, especially since a new 52-week high was made during the intraday activities (as of now, that high was set at $61.58).
This stock has been doing very well since it bottomed out in July, as the chart indicates. With such a sharp move to the upside, is it time for traders to exit their profitable positions?
Closing Bell: Pre-Holiday Market Cheers (ARMH, INTC, IRE, CREE, EWY, TIF, TIVO, USO)
The day before Thanksgiving was a very positive as the caution of Tuesday faded. The skirmish in the Koreas was calmed a bit and jobless claims nearly came in under 400,000 for the prior week. Even the woes of Europe seem to be calming on Ireland's major austerity cuts even if Portugal and England had demonstrations out in the streets. October new home sales was a disappointing 8% drop but consumer confidence is holding up. Here are today's closing bell levels:
Dow Jones 11,187.28 +150.91 (1.37%)
S&P 500 1,198.35 +17.62 (1.49%)
Nasdaq 2,543.12 +48.17 (1.93%)
Top Analyst Calls
Face-Off on Stocks: Tiffany, Coach and Polo Ralph Lauren
Shares in all three of these consumer discretionary companies have gained about 70% since the recession ended in June 2009. Over the same period, the S&P 500 ($INX) is up 20%.
Continue reading Face-Off on Stocks: Tiffany, Coach and Polo Ralph Lauren
Tiffany Shares Take a Hit Following Q2 Results
Shares of Tiffany & Co. (TIF) are off by 3.2% as I write this. At a price of $40.68, the stock is well below the 52-week high of $52.19. Volume is quite strong. Second-quarter numbers provided the catalyst for the move. According to this article, earnings per share came in at 53 cents. That was seven pennies better than last year's figure. But the profit didn't go beyond the expectation of the analyst community, it was only in-line. Could that be why the market is so unhappy today with the stock?
Continue reading Tiffany Shares Take a Hit Following Q2 Results
Closing Bell: When Bad News Is Good News (INTC, TBT, PAR, NBG, SPWRA, TIF, F)
Today got a boost from a less-bad GDP that came in as a revised 1.6%. Slow growth, but not as slow as what was expected. Even an overdue warning from Intel did not manage to be bad enough to stall the market recovery. After Ben Bernanke said he'd do whatever it took to maintain a recovery, stocks and oil rose, and some of the air came out of the bond bubble. Here were today's closing bell levels:
Dow Jones 10,151.18 +165.37 (1.66%)
S&P 500 1,064.60 +17.38 (1.66%)
Nasdaq 2,153.63 +34.94 (1.65%)
Top Analyst Call
Continue reading Closing Bell: When Bad News Is Good News (INTC, TBT, PAR, NBG, SPWRA, TIF, F)
The Week in Preview: Eye on Tiffany, Canadian Banks, Semtech
Most of the S&P 500 companies have already reported earnings results for the most recent quarter. But scheduled to release their results this week are Medtronic (MDT) and Novell (NOVL), which analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to post earnings per share (EPS) about same as last year, as well as JDS Uniphase (JDSU), Patterson Companies (PDCO) and Tiffany & Co. (TIF), for which analysts foresee year-over-year earnings growth. Of these, the expectations are highest for Tiffany.
During the three months that ended in July, Tiffany launched an iPhone app and increased its quarterly dividend. Analysts expect the New York-based specialty retailer to report that earnings per share came to 53 cents, a 26.4% increase from a year earlier. Second-quarter revenue is expected to have grown 12.8% to $690.8 million. So far, analysts predict full-year earnings of $2.61 per share (+22.9%) on $3.0 billion (+11.8%) in revenue. Earnings results topped consensus estimates in four of the past five quarters, by 11 cents per share in the first quarter.
Continue reading The Week in Preview: Eye on Tiffany, Canadian Banks, Semtech
Tiffany Down In Afternoon Trading: Buying Opportunity?
One day after Tiffany (TIF) reported Q1 earnings, the stock is in the red. As of this writing, it is down better than 3% with a little over one hour to go before the market closes up shop. Volume isn't too bad right now.The luxury retailer is currently trading at $45.32, which is a significant distance from the 52-week high of $52.19. The one-year chart is typical of many stocks these days: there's an uptrend, followed by some resistance near the right side. The resistance is obviously related to the trading problems we've been having.
Continue reading Tiffany Down In Afternoon Trading: Buying Opportunity?
Analyst Calls: BP, EV, JBHT, SY, TIF, UPS, XOM, ZION ...
- Piper Jaffray upgraded UPS (UPS) to overweight from neutral with a $79 price target following the company's better-than-expected Q1 results.
- SunTrust believs Zions Bancorp's (ZION) tangible book value is around $20/share, making any future capital raise not as dilutive as the firm previously expected. The firm upgraded shares to buy from neutral and has a $26 target on the stock.
- FBR Capital upgraded J.B. Hunt (JBHT) to outperform from market perform following the company's better-than-expected Q1 results. The firm raised its target price for shares to $43 from $40.
- American Superconductor (AMSC) was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
- BP (BP) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
- Global Payments (GPN) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
Continue reading Analyst Calls: BP, EV, JBHT, SY, TIF, UPS, XOM, ZION ...
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