Hudson City Tops Bullish Volatility Skews; Xcel Energy Tops Bearish

Wade Hansen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: ConocoPhillips (COP), Stocks to Buy, Stocks to Sell

On Wednesday, Investors pushed call option prices higher in the savings & loan industry and pushed put option prices higher in the electric utilities industry.

Any time the volatility skews above 1.00, it is an indication that calls are more expensive than puts. Typically, when calls are more expensive than puts, it means the demand for calls is greater than the demand for puts because investors believe the stock is going to rise in the future and they want to take advantage of that movement by buying calls.

The opposite is also true. Any time a volatility skews below 1.00, it is an indication that puts are more expensive than calls.

Bullish Volatility Skews

- Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (HCBK)---part of the Savings & Loans industry---came in at the top with a volatility skew of 1.13. This may come as a surprise as HCBK is down -6.89 percent for the past month.

Continue reading Hudson City Tops Bullish Volatility Skews; Xcel Energy Tops Bearish

Hudson City Tops Bullish Volatility Skews; Xcel Energy Tops Bearish originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analyst downgrades 7-24-07: AXP, GSF, NFLX, TIVO and WSM

Kevin Shult — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:03:00 EST

Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Bad News, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), American Express (AXP), Stocks to Sell

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Netflix (NFLX), NiSource (NI), TiVo (TIVO), Williams-Sonoma (WSM) and KLA-Tencor (KLAC) were today's more noteworthy downgrades:

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) was cut to Hold from Buy at Needham to reflect the lowered subscriber guidance and their belief that things can get worse before getting better. Shares were also downgraded at Cowen, to Neutral from Outperform, and Lehman, to Equal Weight from Overweight.

NiSource (NYSE: NI) was cut to Underweight from Equal Weight at Lehman based on the expected increases in interest expense and taxes.

TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) was downgraded to Short from Sell at SMH Capital and believes the current valuation now reflects 20% penetration of the Comcast Corp (CMCSK)-owned digital sub base for the joint venture product bundle, which the firm considers aggressive. In addition, the firm believes TiVo's new pricing structure doesn't add much value.

Matrix cut Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) to Sell from Hold on valuation and deteriorating operating results.

Citigroup downgraded shares of KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) to Hold from Buy on valuation as they see risk to 2H07 estimates due to slower near-term cost savings and higher integration costs...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

Friedman Billings downgraded American Express (NYSE: AXP) to Market Perform from Outperform.

Piper Jaffray cut Atheros Communications (NASDAQ: ATHR) to Market Perform from Outperform.

Jefferies downgraded United Rentals (NYSE: URI) and GlobalSantaFe (NYSE: GSF) to Hold from Buy.

Merrill downgraded Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) to Neutral from Buy.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Analyst downgrades 7-24-07: AXP, GSF, NFLX, TIVO and WSM originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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