In other Sprint news this morning, Sprint shares were upped from "neutral" to "outperform" at Credit Suisse. Analyst Jonathan Chaplin set his price target at $6, asserting that the company will benefit from cost cutting, stronger sales of prepaid service, and improved customer retention trends. Sprint's stock settled Friday at $3.10, so Chaplin's price target implies expected upside of nearly 94%.

Continue reading Sprint Nextel scores upgrade, pays off $1B loan

Sprint Nextel scores upgrade, pays off $1B loan originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares of E*Trade Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC) caught a boost this morning on reports that Citadel Investment Group LLC, the online broker's largest stock and bond holder, has scrapped its plan to unload 120 million shares over the next three months. The size of the planned sale represented about 10% of the hedge fund's investment in ETFC.

"Citadel believes that the termination of the plan at this time is in the best interests of E*Trade and all of its stakeholders," said the firm in a statement. The massive sale, first announced on Aug. 11, was due to commence today, but Citadel says that no shares have been sold under the plan.

Continue reading Citadel scraps plans to unload E*Trade Financial shares

Citadel scraps plans to unload E*Trade Financial shares originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The shares of Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) surged this afternoon after the regional bank said it expects to report a first-quarter profit. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Chairman and CEO Dowd Ritter attributed the unexpectedly profitable quarter to recent strength in new account openings and customer deposit growth.

If Wall Street seems shocked by the news, it's because analysts were predicting Regions to swallow a quarterly loss of about $290 million, or 42 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. Plus, with nearly 5% of the equity's float sold short, it seems that many investors were also betting on the bank to report gloomy earnings.

Continue reading Regions Financial draws heavy call volume after 1Q profit forecast

Regions Financial draws heavy call volume after 1Q profit forecast originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS) September call volume & volatility Up on Icahn position. BEAS, a leading supplier of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and middle-ware software, is recently up .50 to $13.27. BEAS has market cap of $5.1 billion. Dow Jones reported Carl Icahn owns 33.4 million shares of BEAS stock including 16.2 million options. BEAS September option implied volatility is at 58; October is at 40; above its 26-week average of 38 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Macy's (NYSE: M) is recently up .90 to $30.25 on renewed takeover chatter. M is expected to report EPS on November 14. M September 30 straddle is priced at $2. M October option implied volatility of 50 is above a level of 47 from 9/13/07 and above its 14-week average of 38 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Option update: BEA System September call volume & volatility Up on Icahn position originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Juniper Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) -- volatility and call volume Elevated on unconfirmed Speculation. JNPR, a provider of Internet infrastructure solutions to Internet service providers and other telecommunication services providers, is recently up $0.58 to $25.75 on renewed and unconfirmed takeover chatter. JNPR is scheduled to report EPS in mid July. JNPR call option volume of 6,716 contracts compares to put volume of 2,312 contracts. JNPR July option implied volatility is at 41 & August is at 40, above its 26-week average of 36 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Jeffries Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF) -- volatility and volume Elevated on renewed and unconfirmed speculation. JEF is recently up $0.73 to $27.71. JEF has been mentioned frequently as a takeover target over the last three months. JEF July option implied volatility of 48 is above its 26-week average of 41 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Option volume leaders today are: Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO).

Daily Option Update is provided by Stock Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Option update 7-2-07: Juniper call volume elevated originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.