For the first time Monday I heard John McCain comparing Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter. I had heard this before in other arenas, but not from McCain. I guess that despite these two presidential candidates pledging to the American people to bring change and resist politics as usual, they are both, as usual as one could get.
Obama is being shaped by the pressures of running for office and to believe otherwise is delusional. I suppose one has to have hope but the effects of the campaign are becoming clear. Obama has been painting McCain as an extension of Bush, which is nonsense, and now in a typical tit-for-tat response, McCain is filling the air with Carter references.
Both McCain and Obama are wrong in their assessments of their opponents and they are becoming commoners to resort to the bottom of the barrel campaign techniques used in every campaign for most of our nation's proud history. Obama gave up the high ground too easily and McCain has decided he can sling mud with the best of them.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: WuXi Pharma, ExxonMobil and LifePoint Hospitals were today's noteworthy upgrades:
Jefferies upgraded shares of WuXi Pharma (NYSE: WX) to Buy from Hold as they believe the risk/reward is much improved following the recent weakness. They think the company's 2008 guidance is achievable.
Credit Suisse raised ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) to Outperform from Neutral as they believe the rise in crude oil means analyst estimates are too low.
Goldman sees upside to hospital stocks given low valuations and expectations. The firm upgraded LifePoint Hospitals (NASDAQ: LPNT) to Buy from Neutral and named it a top pick along with previous top pick Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH).
OTHER UPGRADES:
Goldman added NDS Group (NASDAQ: NNDS) to their Conviction Buy List and upgraded shares to Buy from Neutral.
Morgan Stanley raised Boeing (NYSE: BA) to Overweight from Equal Weight.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: DiamondRock Hospitality, Pzena Investment and Vodafone were today's noteworthy upgrades:
DiamondRock Hospitality (NYSE: DRH) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird, citing the newly-announced 4.8M repurchase plan, strong balance sheet and valuation.
Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of Pzena Investment (NYSE: PZN) to Market Perform from Underperform after the company announced February ending AUM.
Goldman added Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) to its Conviction Buy List following the recent weakness as they expect the company to benefit from growth in wireless data.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Washington Post, Harvest Natural, Memc Electronic Materials and Boston Private Financial were today's noteworthy upgrades:
Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's exposure to the counter-cyclical education division.
Jefferies upgraded shares of Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: HNR) to Buy from Hold and raised their target to $17 from $11 after the company received final approval in the conversion to a mixed company. They note that conversion clears the way for renewed investment.
Friedman Billings added Memc Electronic Materials Inc (NYSE: WFR) to its Top Picks List following its Q3 report and guidance as "solar wafer contracts," not including spot poly, are expected to increase from 15% of the total to 35%-40% in CY08 and greater than 50% in CY09.
William Blair raised its rating on Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BPFH) to Outperform from Market Perform after the better-than-expected Q3 results.
OTHER UPGRADES:
Goldman added Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) to its Conviction Buy List.
NTT DoCoMo Inc (NYSE: DCM) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Citigroup and to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: CyberSource, Century Casinos, Spectrum Pharm and Winnebago were today's noteworthy upgrades:
JMP Securities upgraded shares of CyberSource (NASDAQ: CYBS) to Market Outperform from Market Perform citing valuation, positive management comments regarding BidPay, and incrementally positive industry checks on its fraud product.
Brean Murray upgraded shares of Century Casinos (NASDAQ: CNTY) to Buy from Hold based on continued progress at recently opened properties, reduced Street expectations, and potential catalysts.
Brean Murray also upgraded Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SPPI) to Buy from Hold. The firm is highly confident that Spectrum's ozarelix will demonstrate similar efficacy and safety in the current U.S. Phase IIb trial and expects statistical significant. The firm expects Ph III initiations by year-end 2007 and Ph IIb data to be released on 2Q08.
Winnebago Industries (NYSE: WGO) was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital. The firm expects Winnebago to begin to post better earnings from more favorable mix and pricing in the 2008 model year.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Statoil (STO), BG Group (BRG), Repsol (REP), Flow International (FLOW) and the refining sector were today's more noteworthy downgrades:
Citigroup cut Statoil (NYSE: STO), BG Group (NYSE: BRG) and Repsol SA (NYSE: REP) to Sell from Hold due to valuation and the difficult operating environment.
Matrix USA downgraded Flow International (NASDAQ: FLOW) to Strong Sell from Hold, citing weak demand from Asian customers that led to slowing sales growth.
Bernstein downgraded the refining sector to Underperform and refiners Sunoco (NYSE: SUN) and Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO) to Underperform from Market Perform...
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP) was cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse; RBC Capital downgraded CP shares to Sector Perform from Outperform.
Goldman downgraded Taiwan Semi (NYSE: TSM) to Neutral from Buy.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK), Express Scripts, Inc (ESRX), SanDisk Corp (SNDK), Halliburton Co (HAL) and Texas Instruments (TXN) were some of today's noteworthy upgrades.
Express Scripts Inc (NASDAQ: ESRX) was upgraded to Strong Buy from Buy with a $113 target at First Albany, following the stronger-than-expected first quarter results.
SanDisk Corp (NASDAQ: SNDK) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
Halliburton Co (NASDAQ: HAL) was added to AG Edwards Focus Portfolio. The firm believes Halliburton trades at a great discount to its largest peer, Schlumberger Ltd (SLB), despite an improved earnings outlook and progress on several issues.
Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Gabelli to reflect strong first quarter results and valuation. Piper Jaffray upgraded shares of Texas Instruments to Outperform from Market Perform...
OTHER UPGRADES:
Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of BancFirst Corp (NASDAQ: BANF) to Market Perform from Underperform following its first quarter report.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: CKE Restaurants (CKR), Cardinal Health (CAH), eBay (EBAY) and CA Inc (CA) topped today's noteworthy initiation list today:
Nollenberger believes the Hardee's franchise is entering a period of accelerated growth and initiated shares of CKE Restaurants (NYSE: CKR) with a Buy rating and $27 target.
Goldman views Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) as a as a high quality, focused franchise with strong fundamental outlook driven by margin expansion and improvements in non-drug wholesale businesses and restructuring efforts, reinstating its Buy rating on the company.
American Technology initiated eBAY Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY) with a Buy rating and $43 target, believing the company is the top play on growth of U.S. e-commerce and they expect upside to numbers tonight.
Needham believes CA Inc (NYSE: CA) Inc remains in transition as it continues to work on the repackaging of its vast product array into five solution sets and started the company with a Hold rating.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
Lazard initiated F5 Networks Inc (NASDAQ: FFIV) with a Buy rating and $100 target.
Citigroup started Clearwire Corp (NASDAQ: CLWR) with a Hold rating and $23 target.
Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) opened at $71.00. So far the stock has hit a low of $71.00 and a high of $73.34. As of 10:25 this morning, CAH was trading at 72.87, up 2.84 (4.06%).
After hitting a one year high of $75.74 on March 20, 2006, the stock has seen a couple of sharp jumps over the last few months. The stock is climbing again today after the company announced that it is selling its drug services unit to Blackstone Group for over $3 billion cash. The technicals for the stock have been slightly deteriorating and S&P gives CAH a cautious 3 STAR hold rating.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a June bull-put credit spread below the $60 range.
DISCLOSURE NOTE: Mr. Schiller owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Under Armor Inc (NYSE: UA) and Cardinal Health Inc (NYSE: CAH) are today's most notable upgrades:
Credit Suisse upgraded Under Armor Inc (NYSE: UA) to Outperform from Neutral with a $65 target and believes that the company is emerging as one of the premier global athletic brands.
JMP Securities upgraded shares of Cardinal Health Inc (NYSE: CAH) to Outperform from Market Perform to reflect their expectation for accelerated earnings growth over the next three years.
OTHER UPGRADES:
Friedman, Billings upgraded shares of Urban Outfitters Inc (NASDAQ: URBN) to Outperform from Market Perform to reflect positive momentum in URBN's core division, inventory control and easy upcoming comps.
Stanford upgraded shares of Vonage Holdings (NYSE: VG) to Hold from Sell on valuation.
Goldman Sachs upgraded the US Homebuilding Sector to Neutral from Sell saying the worst may be behind the group, but fundamentals remain troubling. The analyst said the next meaningful data will be from the Spring selling season, 6-8 weeks away.
Goldman upgraded D.R. Horton Inc (NYSE: DHI), MDC Holdings Inc (NYSE: MDC) & Toll Brothers Inc (NYSE: TOL) to Buy from Neutral due to lower-risk at this point in the cycle. The Ryland Group Inc (NYSE: RYL) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Kimberly Clark (KMB) and Amazon.com (AMZN) topped today's most notable upgrades:
Prudential upgraded Kimberly Clark (NYSE: KMB) to Overweight from Underweight with an $80 target, reflecting lower commodity prices.
Stifel upgraded Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Buy from Hold with a $44 target, noting that Amazon is entering an operating leverage cycle and usually performs well in such environments.
OTHER UPGRADES:
Cowen considered bebe Stores's (NASDAQ: BEBE) risk/reward to be favorable at these levels, upgrading shares to Overweight from Neutral.
Prudential upgraded shares of Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) to Overweight from Neutral.
Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
On today's STOP TRADING! segment on CNBC, Jim Cramer went over a trade for a lesser-known name.
He said the big wide bottom in healthcare is here. Wellpoint, Inc. (NYSE:WLP) and Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) will win. He said Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) and Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ:CELG) are also too cheap and not done going up.
Cramer then reviewed Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) as sticking with a sell, but he likes Nike, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKE).
He also said techs and oils are going higher.
Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Whole Foods (WFMI), Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) and Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) top today's list of initiations.
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFMI) was reinstated with an Outperform rating, raised from a Sector Perform rating, at RBC Capital Markets. The firm said expectations have been reduced and the risk/reward is favorable.
Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY) was initiated with a Buy rating and $50 target at Bank of America. The firm is positive on Sanofi's late-stage pipeline beyond Acomplia.
Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISIS) was started with a Buy and $14 target at A.G. Edwards. The firm said Isis is at an inflection point and that potential commercial opportunity for the T5000 Biosensor has been "overlooked and undervalued by investors."
OTHER INITIATIONS:
Citigroup assumed the coverage of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH) with a Hold rating and $70 target.
Bear Stearns initiated Western Union Co. (NYSE:WU) with an Outperform rating and $27 target. Bear Stearns said they are positive on Western Union's powerful brand name and unique global network.
For the first time Monday I heard John McCain comparing Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter. I had heard this before in other arenas, but not from McCain. I guess that despite these two presidential candidates pledging to the American people to bring change and resist politics as usual, they are both, as usual as one could get..gif){kind=logo}
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