MOST NOTEWORTHY: K Swiss, BJ's Restaurants and Ford were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Merrill expects the turnaround at K Swiss (NASDAQ: KSWS) to be difficult given weakening retail sales. Shares were downgraded to Sell from Neutral.
Jefferies cut shares of BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ: BJRI) to Hold from Buy due to the company's high relative exposure to the subprime mortgage markets.
Ford (NYSE: F) was downgraded to Underperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns. The firm recommends taking some profits following the recent rally in shares. Shares were also cut to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan, citing valuation, and to Sell from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Caliper Life Sciences, Network Appliance, EMC Corp, Concur Tech and TechTarget were today's noteworthy initiations:
Caliper Life Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: CALP) was initiated at Piper Jaffray with an Outperform rating and $8 target. Piper believes the company's collection of acquisitions offers a diverse portfolio targeting a $1.2B segment of the life science tools market.
Credit Suisse resumed coverage of Network Appliance Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) and EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) with Neutral ratings and a $28 target and $20 target, respectively, as they have concerns of near-term demand risk.
Concur Technologies (NASDAQ: CNQR) was started at Jefferies with a Buy rating and $40 target, as they believe the company is changing the landscape of employee expense management by integrating travel and expense reimbursement and feels shares deserve a premium valuation.
Oppenheimer sees limited upside from current levels at TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ: TTGT) and would consider an entry point in the low-to-mid teens. The firm started shares with a Neutral rating and $17 target.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
Banc of America initiated K Swiss Inc (NASDAQ: KSWS) with a Sell rating and $20 target.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Wyeth (WYE), Luminent Mortgage Capital (LUM), CheckFree (CKFR), EOG Resources (EOG) and K-Swiss (KSWS) were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Cowen downgraded Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) to Neutral from Outperform based on limited long-term limited visibility.
JP Morgan downgraded shares of Luminent Mortgage (NYSE: LUM) to Underweight from Neutral citing difficult CMO and CDO market conditions.
JP Morgan downgraded CheckFree (NASDAQ: CKFR) to Neutral from Overweight following the company's acquisition by FiServ (FISV).
Matrix cut shares of EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) to Sell from Buy to reflect lower natural gas prices and increasing costs.
Matrix believes soft demand for athletic shoes is leading to declining sales for K-Swiss (NASDAQ: KSWS), and cut shares to Sell from Buy...
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
JMP Securities downgraded CapitalSource (NYSE: CSE) to Outperform from Strong Buy.
Oppenheimer has turned negative on oil and gas names for the near-term, as they now believe the downside risk exceeds upside potential; they cut shares of Apache Corp (NYSE; APA), BP PLC (NYSE: BP), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), among others, to Neutral from Buy.
L-3 Communications Holdings Inc (NYSE: LLL) was downgraded by Bank of America to Neutral from Buy based on valuation, as they see limited upside from current levels. The firm's target for L-3 is $92.
NewMont Mining Corp (NYSE: NEM) was downgraded by RBC Capital Markets to Underperform from Sector Perform based on Newmont's weak production profile and declining financial forecasts. The firm lowered its price target for Newmont to $48 from $52.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
K Swiss Inc (NASDAQ: KSWS) was downgraded by Susquehanna to Neutral from Positive. The firm does not believe domestic sales will stabilize until 2008 and sees European growth being less robust over the next several quarters.
Alltel Corporation (NYSE: AT) was downgraded at Deutsche Bank to Hold from Buy on valuation. The firm's target for Alltel is $63.
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MOST NOTEWORTHY: K Swiss, BJ's Restaurants and Ford were today's noteworthy downgrades:.gif){kind=logo}
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