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Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations

Analyst upgrades:
  • Citigroup upgraded Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) to Buy from Hold after meeting with management as it believes a more aggressive strategy will lead to the company regaining market share. Citi raised its target on shares to $66 from $54.
  • Piper Jaffray upgraded Allscripts (NASDAQ:MDRX) to Overweight from Neutral after learning the company signed a large contract with North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital. Piper now sees upside to estimates and raised its target on shares to $22.50 from $14.
  • UBS upgraded Amedisys (NASDAQ:AMED) to Buy from Neutral following a review of the Senate Finance Committee's healthcare proposal, which they view as "benign." The firm raised its target to $57 from $46.
  • Daimler (NYSE:DAI) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein.
  • Boston Private (NASDAQ:BPFH) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette.
  • E-Trade (NASDAQ:ETFC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations

Adobe was challenged in Q3, but will a new acquisition add value?

Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE), a software company whose colleagues include Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), issued Q3 results on Tuesday. Revenues dropped over 20%. Adjusted income was 35 cents per share versus 50 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

As can be seen, Adobe is still suffering from the economic downturn. Not only did sales decline on a year-over-year basis, but they also dropped sequentially.Thankfully, management was at least able to beat expectations by a penny, as indicated by data at Earnings.com. Adobe also did relatively okay with operational cash flow.

Continue reading Adobe was challenged in Q3, but will a new acquisition add value?

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ADBE, GIS, MAR, S, TTWO, VZ ...

Analyst upgrades:

  • Deutsche Bank upgraded Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) to Hold from Sell as it believes the company's second half of 2009 is tracking better than expected due to retailer restocking. Deutsche raised its target on shares to $33 from $15 but thinks Garmin's long-term trends remain unfavorable.
  • Goldman upgraded Fortune Brands (NYSE: FO) to Buy from Neutral citing potential EPS improvement driven by the Home division. Fortune Brands price target to $49 from $45. Note that the firm downgraded General Mills to Neutral from Buy.
  • Oppenheimer upgraded FPIC Insurance (NASDAQ: FPIC) to Outperform from Perform to reflect the company's acquisition of Advocate MD and management's commitment to share repurchases. The firm set a $49 price target on the stock.
  • PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) and Olin Corp. (NYSE: OLN) were upgraded to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
  • Synovus (NYSE: SNV) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at BofA/Merrill.
  • Take-Two (NASDAQ: TTWO) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.

Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ADBE, GIS, MAR, S, TTWO, VZ ...

Before the bell: Futures higher on Bernanke comments, Adobe-Omniture deal

U.S. stock futures climbed Wednesday morning after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said recession is very likely over. With more data coming out this morning, the upbeat sentiment about the economy might be tested. Still, deal action from Adobe Systems further pushed positive sentiment.

Bernanke said Tuesday that the Great Recession has "very likely" ended, but he also warned that growth may be too tepid to cut the unemployment rate significantly anytime soon. "It's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time," he said.

Continue reading Before the bell: Futures higher on Bernanke comments, Adobe-Omniture deal

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: LNC, AZN, APOL, PNRA ...

Analyst upgrades:
  • Banc of America/Merrill upgraded Lincoln National (NYSE: LNC) to Buy from Underperform and raised its target to $17 from $10 citing expectations that the company will "qualify for and accept TARP funding."
  • Credit Suisse upgraded AU Optronics (NYSE: AUO) to Outperform from Neutral as it believes inventory levels are low end demand is better than expected.
  • JP Morgan upgraded Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) to Overweight from Neutral. The firm views the recent pullback in shares as a buying opportunity given the company's attractive nuke position and expected ramp in government spending.
  • Patterson-UTI Energy (NASDAQ: PTEN) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  • Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) was raised to Overweight from Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
  • Stryker (NYSE: SYK) was lifted to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital.

Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: LNC, AZN, APOL, PNRA ...

Closing Bell: Despite $120 oil, stocks post gains

Can you believe oil put in another monster day with oil up $1.91 at $121.88 today. This morning started out looking just like March with financials way down, and commodities up. That abated toward the end of the day. An analyst prediction of $150 to $200 oil helped propel oil today. Below are today's unofficial closing prices:
  • DJIA 13,025.31 +55.77 +0.43%
  • S&P 500 1,418.42 +10.93 +0.78%
  • NASDAQ 2,483.31 +19.19 +0.78%
  • 10YR-Bond 3.893% (+0.048)
  • TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS.
The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) announced today $1.3 billion has been raised to invest in high quality loan assets by closing three CLOs. Blackstone pointed out that the CLOs are not an attempt to remove risky assets off balance sheets. The newly acquired GSO Capital Partners now manages 26 CLOs for a total of $14 billion. Shares actually fell 0.75% by the end of the day to $19.57.

Continue reading Closing Bell: Despite $120 oil, stocks post gains

Earnings highlights: Verizon, Comcast, CBS, DreamWorks, IAC, Kodak and others

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Verizon, Comcast, CBS, DreamWorks, IAC, Kodak and others

Yahoo! gets analytical

Websites produce huge amounts of data – which can be quite valuable and is a big business, as seen with operators like Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR), WebTrends, CoreMetrics, and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Analytics.

Well, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is jumping into the game. Today, the company announced that it has purchased IndexTools (the price tag was not disclosed).

Founded in 2000, the company has built a nice offering of analytics tools to measure web behavior. For example, you can analyze things like the return-on-investment for paid search.

According to its website, IndexTools has grown 100%+ per year for four years (since 2002). What's more, the customer retention rate is an impressive 98%.

Simply put, web analytics is absolutely critical for a major player in online advertising. Unfortunately, in the case of Yahoo, the company allowed Google to get a head start.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Analyst downgrades: SGP, VOD, TIBX, RYAAY, TOC, OMTR

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Schering-Plough, Vodafone and Tibco were today's noteworthy downgrades:
  • Goldman downgraded Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) to Neutral from Buy following the panel discussion suggestion that doctors cut use of Vytrorin, Zetia. Shares were also cut at Lehman to Equal Weight from Overweight and at Cowen to Neutral from Outperform.
  • Morgan Stanley lowered Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) to Underweight from Overweight as they believe the European Commission will aggressively lower mobile termination rates to cost to improve competition.
    Jefferies downgraded shares of Tibco (NASDAQ: TIBX) to Underperform from Hold as they believe the economy will catch up with the company in the coming months.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
  • Goldman removed Ryanair (NASDAQ: RYAAY) from its Conviction Buy List.
  • Thomson (NYSE: TOC) was cut to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  • Broadpoint downgraded Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR) to Buy from Strong Buy.

Analyst upgrades: JWN, JCP, ZQK, OMTR and CCK

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Quiksilver, Omniture and Crown Holdings were today's noteworthy upgrades:
  • B. Riley upgraded shares of Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK) to Buy from Neutral on valuation and to reflect the EPS catalyst and debt reduction associated with divesting Rossignol.
  • Friedman Billings upgraded shares of Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR) to Outperform from Market Perform following the recent pullback, as they believe the company is in its best competitive position ever, which should drive increasing win rates and help restore pricing power.
  • Banc of America upgraded shares of Crown Holdings (NYSE: CCK) to Buy from Neutral to reflect the company's international exposure and believes metal packaging companies should be better able to manage input inflation.
OTHER UPGRADES:

Metrics industry heating up with Google's Urchin public debut

The internet is wonderful for marketers. Traffic can be measured really finely and the whole marketing-sales loop actually can be measured. Unlike TV or radio, internet firms know exactly what they spend on bringing traffic to their websites and how much these firms make off of each visitor. Metrics is super-important and is a differentiator.

Of course, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has its long tentacles everywhere. Google has been providing many websites with free analytics software integrated with its paid-links AdWords, so website operators can measure the effectiveness of search engine marketing efforts, as well as measuring traffic into and out of their websites. Omnitron (NASDAQ: OMTR) is a big player in this space following its purchase of competitor Visual Sciences.

So, it's interesting to read this morning that Google is now making its Urchin software available for public beta use. Google's Urchin is similar to Analytics except that the software is installed on clients' servers, instead of just plugging in some code on a website. Urchin seems to be a beefed-up version of Analytics, and now organizations with a lot of content behind a firewall can use Google software to analyze their web metrics. As more and more companies rely upon Google's marketing arm to drive internet traffic, Google's monetization arm to help monetize traffic on websites, Google's shopping cart, and Checkout, metrics is the grease that makes all these things work in harmony.

This means more money for Google's clients, and ultimately more money for the internet's Big Daddy, Google.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Author owns a long-term position in Google stock and uses Google products to manage his firm's website.

Omniture says it's all in the measuring

The choppy/consolidating (or perhaps worse) market conditions sometimes gives the impression that growth plays do not exist, but that is not the case, and one growth company worth reviewing is Omniture.

Omniture (Nasdaq: OMTR) is a leading provider of online business optimization services, which customers use to manage/enhance online, offline and multi-channel business initiatives.

Analysts really like the company's primary product: SiteCatalyst, which helps clients electronically measure web site traffic, visitor activity, advertising effectiveness, and e-commerce transactions. Analysts also are impressed by Omniture's Fortune 1000-level clientele.

The company offers several additional tools, including a product designed to enable customers to access all of their data in real time. The Reuters F2007/F2008 EPS consensus estimates for Omniture are 20 cents/42 cents.

The risks? Analysts are keeping an eye on the company's order backlog for any signs of a slowdown in business.

The First Call mean rating for Omniture is: Buy. [22 firms.] Mean 2008 target: $35.00. [high: $44, low: $26.]

Stock Analysis: Omniture is a moderate-risk stock not suitable for low-risk investors. Investors with an investment horizon longer than 2 years should be rewarded from Omniture's shares. Sell / Stop Loss if you were to purchase shares in this company: $16.

Disclosure: Lazzaro has no positions in stocks. In addition to private real estate holdings, he owns corporate and municipal bonds, and cash certificates of deposit.

Analyst initiations: Home Depot, Lowe's, ComScore

MOST NOTEWORTHY: ComScore (SCOR), Lowe's (LOW) and Home Depot (HD) were today's noteworthy initiations:
  • ComScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) was initiated with an Outperform rating and $35 target at Oppenheimer. The firm said SCOR operates in a high growth sector with a sustainable competitive advantage and attractive valuation.
  • Jefferies assumed coverage of Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD) with Hold ratings and a $24-$26 target and $25-$27 target, respectively. The firm expects further downward EPS revisions as the housing recession extends.
OTHER INITIATIONS:
  • Jefferies initiated Energy XXI (NASDAQ: EXXI) with a Buy rating and $7 target.
  • Select Comfort (NASDAQ: SCSS) was initiated with a Market Perform rating at Raymond James.
  • Oppenheimer started Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR) with an Outperform rating and $34 target.

Omniture and Visual Sciences: Riding the Google analytics wave

Question: what does every e-commerce site need to enable it to sell more merchandise?

If you answered more giant Whoopi Goldberg ads, you're only half right.

What every Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Ebay (NASDAQ: EBAY) needs is better metrics. Why?

Search engine marketing (or SEM) is about paying for traffic. By bidding on keywords, advertisers with Google or its competitors are paying to bring people to their websites. Once there, a website needs to convert traffic into sales. Not an easy thing to do and clearly, some traffic is more valuable than other traffic. The better Google gets at valuating the traffic and providing these metrics to their advertisers, the more profitable everyone becomes. Google makes more money because it optimizes the bidding on keywords by really valuating a click. Advertisers win because they have the tools to bid on the most profitable traffic. For an unbelievable treatise on why analytics are so important, check out Dave McClure's great work on the industry and why investors should take note (Warning: Dave uses some strong language).

Continue reading Omniture and Visual Sciences: Riding the Google analytics wave

Analyst initiations 9-5-07: LULU, DPZ, KNXA, OMTR and NWS

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Lululemon, Domino's Pizza, Kenexa, Omniture and News Corp were today's noteworthy initiations:
  • Lululemon (NASDAQ: LULU) was initiated with a Neutral rating at Merrill Lynch. CIBC believes the company is well-positioned to replace its Canadian success in the U.S. market and started shares with a Sector Outperformer rating and $39 target. The stock was started at Wachovia with a Market Perform rating on valuation.
  • Citigroup finds Domino's Pizza (NYSE: DPZ) compelling for long-term investors given the company's solid cash flows, above-average margins, and international growth opportunity. The firm initiated shares with a Buy rating and $22 target.
  • RBC Capital started shares of Kenexa Corporation (NASDAQ: KNXA) with a Sector Perform rating and $32 target, citing lack of visibility into the company's product roadmap.
  • RBC initiated shares of Omniture Inc (NASDAQ: OMTR) with an Outperform rating and $33 target. The firm believes Omniture is well-positioned given cross selling opportunities, best in class products, strong secular trends, and expanding client roster.
  • News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) was initiated with a Buy rating and added to Stifel's Select List. The firm believes the FOX TV Network, stations and FOX News can garner an incremental recurring 100% margin retransmission and affiliate fees totaling $1B by 2010, adding that its sum-of-the-parts model for News Corp captures the value of $8B of "hidden" assets, yielding a fair market value of $30-$31.
OTHER INTIATIONS:
  • CRT Capital initiated shares of Navistar (NASDAQ: NAVZ) with a Buy rating and $75 target.
  • JP Morgan started shares of Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX) with an Overweight rating.
  • Think Equity started shares of Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ: WFMI) with an Accumulate rating and $51 target.

Next Page >

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-17.2410,433.71
NASDAQ-6.832,169.18
S&P 500-0.591,105.65

Last updated: November 24, 2009: 10:49 PM

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