fig posts
Posted Nov 22nd 2008 11:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, PepsiCo (PEP), Walt Disney (DIS), Target Corp. (TGT), Corning Inc (GLW), Gap Inc (GPS), Intuit Inc (INTU), Limited Brands (LTD), salesforce.com inc (CRM)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Target, Heinz, Barnes & Noble, Pepsi, Disney and others
Posted Oct 27th 2008 10:13AM by Laurie Pasternack
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, PepsiCo (PEP), U.S. Steel (X), Analyst initiations
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Analyst upgrades:
- PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
- Fortress (NYSE: FIG) was upgraded at Citigroup to Hold from Sell.
- Prudential (NYSE: PUK) was lifted to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
- Keefe Bruyette upgraded Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) to Outperform from Market Perform and added shares to their Best Ideas List on valuation as they see an attractive risk/reward at current levels.
- UBS upgraded ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) to Buy from Neutral on valuation as they believe the company remains a market leader.
- Oppenheimer raised Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) to Outperform from Perform on valuation following the recent weakness as they expect positive clinical news flow beginning in December.
Analyst downgrades:
- UBS downgraded U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) to Sell from Buy and lowered its target to $30 from $60 citing deteriorating U.S. conditions and concerns about the company's high fixed costs in a falling steel price environment.
- Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
- China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) was lowered to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
Continue reading Analyst calls: PEP, FIG, PUK, BEN, ASML, X, RDS.A, CHU, SVR ...
Posted Sep 26th 2008 9:00AM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Deals, Private equity
Even with the huge federal government buyout, cash is still in short supply that the Federal Reserve recently
loosened the restrictions on private equity firms in terms of investment stakes in banks.
In light of this, one of the top private equity operators,
Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:
FIG), is
eliminating its Q3 dividend payment of $0.225 per share. Basically, the firm wants as much capital as possible to capitalize on the opportunities -- Fortress has about $300 million in cash. The CEO, Wesley Edens, said he wants to put money into banks, insurance companies and asset management operations.
In other words, this may be an attempt to reformulate the structure of Fortress's private equity structure, making it look more like a traditional financial services firm. It certainly helps that Fortress has a lot of capital to put to work.
However, such investments can be volatile and take several years to come to fruition. Then again, the purpose of private equity is to seek out long-term returns, right?
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements
. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website
Posted Jul 30th 2008 9:09AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Industry, Market matters, , Blackstone Group L.P (BX), Housing, Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says as long as there are other buyers of the paper, look for other similar deals. Merrill's (NYSE:
MER) (
Cramer's Take) deal with Lone Star gives the first real stab of the private market value of this paper, 22 cents on the dollar. But when you add in the financing you can argue that it is about half that.
Why so low? Because even after a year and a half of stress, we still can't publicly value this stuff.
Remember the deal with Lone Star is a private one, where the investors have to wait five years for the paper to mature. We don't really know what a CDO is worth, you just know what they may have paid.
This is despite the fact that for years now, this stuff has existed, no one has come out and said "this CDO has a lot of Florida, so it is bad," or "this piece of paper has a 90% default rate," or "this debt is hindered by bad HELOC."
Without that info, we can't price it. Lone Star knows more than most, but basically had to put up very little. In this deal, Merrill said "here, we will pay you to take these off our hands."
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Merrill starts process of CDO dumping
Posted Jul 28th 2008 8:45AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: DaimlerChrysler (DAI), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Private equity, Market matters, Blackstone Group L.P (BX), Initial public offerings, Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says KKR will join the list of buyout firms that fleece the small investor by going public. Just what we need, a private-equity firm to go public. That worked just great with
Fortress Investment (NYSE:
FIG) (
Cramer's Take), and it was terrific with
Blackstone (NYSE:
BX) (
Cramer's Take). At least this one is some sort of reverse merger that might not inflict too much pain on the public.
Of course, folks in this business are displaying their usual lack of shame. It would be an excellent time for them to have a good reason beyond employee retention; I mean if you are making all of that money, what's the issue with retention? It would also be terrific if they were doing well, but there hasn't been a deal in so long that it would be a bit of an oddity if they were doing anything other than making a lot of fees.
But Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a storied lot, so I figure the public will lap it up and all will be well until the losses start.
Or maybe this will be the one that's in the blue moon and the public will not be pants'd by the really smart bankers.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: KKR takes advantage
Posted May 21st 2008 8:00AM by Laurie Pasternack
Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, Yahoo! (YHOO)
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MAJOR PAPERS:
- Barnes & Noble Inc (NYSE: BKS) is considering a bid for rival bookseller Borders Group Inc (NYSE: BGP), the Wall Street Journal reported, a move which would allow Barnes & Noble to improve profits and reduce costs. Antitrust issues could prevent a deal.
- The Wall Street Journal also reported that Carl Icahn's effort to remove Yahoo! Inc's (NASDAQ: YHOO) board has picked up new supporters, including T. Boone Pickens, who acquired a 0.75% stake. Some Yahoo shareholders believe it is still too early to predict whether Icahn will be able to carry July 3's shareholder vote.
- A Financial Times investigation discovered that Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO) incorrectly awarded top ratings to billions of dollars to debt products due to an error in its computer models. Moody's said it is in the process of "conducting a thorough review" of the rating of the constant proportion debt obligations, which should have been up to four notches lower.
OTHER PAPERS:
- According to the people briefed on the matter, the New York Times reported that the buyout of Penn National Gaming Inc (NASDAQ: PENN) by Fortress Investment Group (FIG) and Centerbridge Parters may involve revised terms. The sources said the negotiations may "delay or even imperil" the deal.
Posted Apr 9th 2008 3:08PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Private equity, Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
Apollo Management, which is one of the largest private equity firms, has traded on Goldman Sach's (NYSE: GS) private exchange, GSTrUE OTC. Unfortunately, the shares are down 40% (since August). Of course, other alternative asset managers – such as Blackstone (NYSE: BX) and Fortress Investment Group (NYSE: FIG) – have suffered plunges as well.
So what's the next step for Apollo? Well, the firm plans to trade on the NYSE. The IPO filing calls for raising $475 million of capital.
Apollo got its start in 1990 and profited handsomely from distressed investments (keep in mind that this was after the buyout boom). Now, the firm manages $40.3 billion and has recently raised a fund for $12.5 billion. Over the past 18 years, Apollo has generated an impressive 29% net internal rate of return.
Continue reading Apollo Management to try its luck on the NYSE
Posted Mar 29th 2008 3:40PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Walgreen Co (WAG), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Adobe Systems (ADBE), Tiffany and Co (TIF), ConAgra Foods (CAG), Darden Restaurants (DRI), KB HOME (KBH), Lennar Corp'A' (LEN), Oracle Corp (ORCL), CKE Restaurants (CKR)
Posted Jan 10th 2008 8:28AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, Deals, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Wal-Mart (WMT), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Target Corp. (TGT), , Tata Mtrs Ltd (TTM), Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
Before the bell: Futures lower, ahead of retail sales, Bernanke speechTarget Corp. (NYSE:
TGT) said Wednesday that President Gregg Steinhafel would take over for
retiring CEO Bob Ulrich, who would step down as CEO on May 1. He will remain as chairman through Jan. 31, 2009.
As CES winds down, all eyes turn their attention to next week's Macworld and speculation on what Apple will showcase and introduce this year -- after last year's iPhone debut -- are abundant, but mostly Apple Inc (NASDAQ:
AAPL) is expected to introduce an
ultra-slim laptop computer and online movie rentals at its biggest annual show next week.
Meanwhile, for interesting reading, Wired has a four-page piece on how the
iPhone changed the wireless industry, turning the table around on carriers and giving power to manufacturers.
India's Tata Motors Ltd (NYSE:
TTM), which is negotiating the purchase of Ford's (NYSE:
F) luxury brands -- Jaguar and Land Rover -- unveiled the Nano, a
4-seater world's cheapest car with an engine around 625cc. The price tag will be about $2,500 and it will go on sale later this year.
Continue reading Before the bell: WMT, TGT, TTM, BSC, TM ...
Posted Dec 5th 2007 11:50AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst initiations
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MOST NOTEWORTHY: Fortress, ITT Educational Service and Kendle International were today's noteworthy initiations:
- Fortress Investment Group (NYSE: FIG) was initiated with a Hold rating and $18.50 target at Jefferies. The firm expects near-term volatility given the increasingly difficult private equity market.
- Banc of America assumed coverage of ITT Educational Service (NYSE: ESI) with a Buy rating and $130 target and believes the recent weakness creates an attractive entry point as they see continued margin expansion and upside to Street estimates.
- Susquehanna expects Kendle International (NASDAQ: KNDL) to benefit from positive trends in the Clinical Research Organization industry, expanded customer base and geographical reach, integration of Charles Rivers Laboratories (NYSE: CRL), and backlog. The firm started shares with a Positive rating.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
Posted Nov 17th 2007 4:40PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Private equity, Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
Last Wednesday, the mega hedge fund Och-Ziff went public. But investors were jittery and the stock has already dropped 12.5% since its debut.
Well, it may drop even more -- that is, according to a piece in Barron's [a paid service]. In fact, the author, Andrew Bary, calls the company's investment performance an example of "mediocrity."
The current market value of Och-Ziff is about $10.8 billion, which means it is trading at about 18 times earnings. So, on its face, this seems reasonable, right?
Well, you need to make some adjustments. First of all, there is the favorable tax treatment (which may undergo some changes in Congress).
Next, Och-Ziff relies primarily on hefty fees for its investment performance. But, what if the firm has a down year? It could be a big hit to the bottom line.
Continue reading Barron's slams hedge fund Och-Ziff
Next Page >
Not long ago, the private equity firm, Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE: FIG), appeared to be in deep trouble. But things are looking better now, as the stock price has gone from $1 to $4.65 this year.
Who's going to pay for the massive budget deficits? Well, how about the rich folks?.gif){kind=logo}
Analyst upgrades:
Closing Bell: When you are just glad the closing bell came (AIG, DELL, GMGMQ, CSCO, POT)
Biotech ETFs: Best bets on health care reform
Cramer on BloggingStocks: The world's been waiting for the new GM