Analyst Upgrades

• Best Buy (BBY) was upgraded to top pick from outperform at RBC Capital, as the firm thinks the company's valuation is inexpensive while it will perform well during the holiday season.
• Credit Suisse upgraded CF Industries (CF) to outperform from neutral, citing favorable fundamentals in nitrogen and phosphate markets.
• Canadian Solar (CSIQ) was raised to buy from hold by Jefferies, which cited expectations for higher selling prices next year and cost savings from sourcing more components internally.
• BMO Capital upgraded RC2 Corp. (RCRC) to outperform from market perform as the firm believes that RC2's baby products are performing better than previously expected.
• Ericsson (ERIC) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at BofA/Merril.
• ProLogis (PLD) was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
• Constellation Energy (CEG) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: ABC, BBY, CF, CSIQ, ERIC, MO, N, NAV, ORLY, PCAR, RCRC, SYY ...

Analyst Calls: ABC, BBY, CF, CSIQ, ERIC, MO, N, NAV, ORLY, PCAR, RCRC, SYY ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Over the years, IT outsourcing Satyam (NYSE: SAY) became a symbol of the innovation and growth of India. Unfortunately, with the uncovering of the billion-dollar accounting scandal, the name is now in tatters.

However, Satyam has done an impressive job in taking action to deal with the crisis. For example, the company brought in A.S. Murthy as the CEO -- a 15-year veteran of Satyam -- who has lots of credibility. At the same time, the company has also appointed Homi Khusrokhan, the former Managing Director of Tata Chemicals, and Partho Datta, the former Finance Director of the Murugappa Group as special advisors. Boston Consulting Group will also provide much-needed assistance-for free.

Continue reading Is Satyam in play?

Is Satyam in play? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every year, the world's elite converge on Davos, a Swiss mountain village, to discuss the world and what they want to do to it. We're not invited but we end up paying the price for the mistakes that Davos Man makes. This year, Davos Man is feeling weepy. Let's hope that doesn't lead to a year of inaction on the world's pressing problems.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), which is now famous for not catching a fraud of epic proportions at Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY), has done a survey of Davos attendees which gives a flavor for just how pessimistic they are. It found that only 20% of 1,124 CEOs in 50 nations said they were very confident about prospects for revenue growth in 2009, down from half last year, and 25% said they were pessimistic -- this is the most gloomy result since PWC began tracking the CEO outlook in 2003.

Continue reading CEO gloom at record highs

CEO gloom at record highs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When the financial shenanigans were uncovered by Satyam's (NYSE: SAY) CEO, B. Ramalinga Raju, he gave a memorable quote: "It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten."

And, yes, it's also been pretty rough for many investors in India. Just look at the Blackstone Group LLP (NYSE: BX). In fact, according to Reuters, it looks like the experience has been a nightmare.

Over the past three years, Blackstone has invested about $730 million in India. Unfortunately, much of this was done at the peak of the market. Bear in mind that some of Blackstone's investments have lost 70%+ of their value.

True, India still holds lots of promise. To support its massive population, it's critical that the country find ways to grow and build its infrastructure. And, this means that there must be foreign investment.

Thus, India should rethink its investment regulations and try to loosen things up. If not, the recent losses could scare away investors for some time, ultimately crimping the long-term growth rate.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

Blackstone rides the tiger and gets eaten originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

After Enron, Arthur Andersen collapsed. With a new bombshell allegation about Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY), will its former auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) be next? To be fair, I have not seen any evidence implicating PWC in the Satyam scam. But surely PWC can't have been so incompetent that it did not know what its client was doing.

Satyam's CEO, B. Ramalinga Raju, initially claimed that there was a $1.1 billion shortfall between its reported and actual cash. Now an Indian prosecutor alleges that Raju made up 10,000 employees and then used the money those fake employees would have received (net of taxes and insurance) to buy land through almost 400 companies with fake names -- including that of his elderly mother. The prosecutor also alleges that Raju forged documents related to bank deposits.

You can't make this stuff up! And if these allegations are true, it does make me wonder what PWC was doing to earn its fee. There are some basic things that auditors are supposed to do -- like checking a company's bank deposits and comparing those to what management reports or verifying that the employees who are getting paid actually exist. If PWC couldn't pull off these basics, then it was either incredibly incompetent or in with management on the scam.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

Will Satyam sink PriceWaterhouseCoopers? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Harvard Business School (HBS) got its first black eye from Enron when an alumnus about which HBS had written gushing cases, Jeff Skilling, ended up causing one of America's biggest corporate frauds. And now Enron and HBS are joined again with the scandal at Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) -- whose stock finally opened yesterday on the NYSE and plunged 86% -- which has been dubbed India's Enron.

Satyam's founder and chairman Byrraju Ramalinga Raju is a graduate of HBS's executive education program. And HBS accounting professor Krishna G. Palepu was on Satyam's board of directors. But both of these gentlemen are gone now. And while I would have thought that Palepu would serve on Satyam's audit committee -- he opted out of that rule because of a consulting contract he had with Satyam which he felt would have compromised him had he served on the audit committee.

Palepu said he didn't learn about the fraud until after he had resigned from the company. So we are left with many questions: Why did Palepu resign if it wasn't because of the fraud? As an accounting professor, why didn't he detect problems with its books? (It would have been simple to compare Satyam's stated cash position with the content of its bank accounts). Was Palepu window dressing on Satyam's board? Did he just fly to India for the board meetings and accept his compensation or did he ask probing questions and try to understand Satyam's finances and strategy?

Continue reading India's Enron gives Harvard Business School another black eye

India's Enron gives Harvard Business School another black eye originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

• Apollo Group Inc. (NYSE: APOL) posted its third straight quarter of growth as enrollment soared.
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) earnings prospects will pick up after the first quarter, predicts Jim Cramer.
• Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) lowered its guidance due to slower traffic and sales during the holiday season.
• EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) reaffirmed its revenue and earnings guidance and announced job cuts.
• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was upgraded as Wall Street's Q4 and full-year estimates came down.
• KB Home (NYSE: KBH) failed to narrow its loss as much as expected but beat revenue estimates.
• Logitech International (NASDAQ: LOGI) withdrew its guidance and said it was cutting its global workforce.
• Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) posted strong Q2 results that easily beat earnings expectations (is it a buy?).
• Navistar International Corp. (NYSE: NAV) 2009 outlook fell short of estimates but it predicted 2010 growth.
• Premier Exhibitions Inc. (NASDAQ: PRXI) worse-than-expected Q3 numbers resulted in an downgrade.
• Satyam Computer Sciences Ltd. (NYSE: SAY) admited that it had been inflating earnings for years.
• Super Micro Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI) was downgraded after preliminary results missed estimates.
• Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) now expects a loss in 2008 rather than the profit in its previous guidance.
• WD-40 Co. (NASDAQ: WDFC) topped Q1 expectations but also lowered its guidance, sending shares lower.

For more earnings highlights, see Intel, Walmart, Chevron, Family Dollar, Monsanto and others

Upcoming earnings releases include Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), Infosys (NASDAQ: INFY), Linear Technologies (NASDAQ: LLTC) , Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX), Genentech (NYSE: DNA), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Marshall & Ilsley (NYSE: MI), Sealy (NYSE: ZZ), Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Earnings highlights: Time Warner, Satyam, Google, KB Home, Mosaic and others originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) stock has not opened for U.S. trading in days -- and if it did it would be down 91%. As I posted, its CEO announced that Satyam's financial statements were fraudulent and that means that its clients and 53,000 employees are up for grabs. In a world of shrinking budgets, Satyam's competitors ought to be eagerly feeding on the flesh of this crippled company.

Which competitors are likely to pick up the slack? Both Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and and International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) are best positioned to feed on Satyam's corpse. And with the $50 billion a year market for offshoring experienced a growth slowdown from 29% in 2008 to 10% in 2009 -- those Satyam clients could help plug the growth gap,

There are three reasons why Accenture and IBM should gain:

• They each already supply most of Satyam's blue-chip corporate clients;
• They each have built up their Indian operations in recent years, so they offer Satyam customers the same skills at competitive prices; and
• They are not Indian companies and therefore are not under the same corporate governance cloud that Satyam's revelations spread to all of India's outsourcers.

It may not be too late to invest in Accenture -- which is much more focused on consulting -- to take advantage of this possibility. In the case of IBM, the pickings from Satyam may not be big enough to move its stock.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. His eighth book is You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

Will Accenture and IBM pick up Satyam's slack? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) has not opened for trading today but it was down 91% in "pre-market." When you hear why, you'll realize that Satyam could be India's version of Enron. There were glimmers of trouble a few weeks ago when Satyam's chairman, Ramalinga Raju, unilaterally decided to buy his son's construction companies -- Maytas Properties Ltd. and Maytas Infra Ltd -- but when the stock collapsed after the announcement, he pulled back within 12 hours.

While that was bad enough, the biggest shocker came today when Raju resigned after announcing that he had faked Satyam's numbers for several years. It turns out that the reason he wanted to buy those construction companies was to plug the $1.03 billion gap between the falsely accounted for and real cash on Satyam's books.

Here's an irony: the word Satyam means "truth" in Sanskrit. And when the truth came out, Satyam got into a rapidly cascading wave of troubles. First, shareholders blocked his asset purchases, then the World Bank banned Satyam from bidding for orders for eight years, alleging that improper benefits were given to World Bank employees. Then four directors quit, and finally, Raju quit the company and announced his fraud.

Continue reading Satyam: 'India's Enron'

Satyam: 'India's Enron' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Satyam (NYSE: SAY) is recently trading at $1.44 in pre-open trading, below its close of $9.35. SAY Chairman Ramalinga Raju resigned after saying he falsified earnings and assets at India's fourth-largest software services provider. SAY January option implied volatility closed at 121, February at 114; above its 26-week average of 87, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.

Infosys (NASDAQ: INFY), a technology services firm based in India, closed at $26.60. INFY is scheduled to report Q3 EPS on January 12. INFY January 27.5 straddle is priced at $2.80, February 27.5 straddle is priced at $4.90. February option implied volatility of 63 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Wipro Ltd (NYSE: WIT), a technology services company based in India, closed at $8.41. WIT is expected to report Q3 EPS in mid January. WIT February call option implied volatility is at 78, puts are at 86; near its 26-week average of 80, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

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

Options Update: Satyam volatility elevated; shares collapse on accounting fraud originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The earnings crunch begins in earnest this coming week, with companies from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) to Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) and Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) scheduled to report results for the quarter just ended. But with the ongoing turmoil in the markets, much attention is on the tech and financial sectors. This week will provide plenty to mull over on both counts.

Wall Street expectations for tech stocks are fairly optimistic. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are looking for chip maker Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) and software/service company iGate Corp. (NASDAQ: IGTE) to be the sector's biggest earnings gainers of the week. Altera is expected to report earnings of 30 cents per share (up 33.3% from a year ago) on revenue of $355.1 million. Altera had previously forecast flat sales for the quarter, and shares fell to a 52-week low last week. iGate is expected to report earnings of 14 cents per share (up 42.9%) on revenue of $55.6 million. India-based iGate recently spun off its Mastech consulting services. Shares are down 45.0% in the past three months, and also reached a new 52-week low last week.

San Jose-based Novellus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS), on the other hand, is expected to report that net income tumbled 90.4% from a year ago to 4 cents per share, on revenue of $245.6 million. Novellus fell to a 52-week low early last week, and shares are down 44.5% year to date.

Continue reading The week in preview: Mulling over techs, financials

The week in preview: Mulling over techs, financials originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Deutsche Bank initiated shares of Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM) with a Buy rating and $62 target, as they believe the company can maintain its leadership position in the fast-growing IPTV and high-def DVD markets. Baird said Sigma's IPTV momentum is accelerating, Blu-ray demand in strong, and Ultrawideband is the next growth opportunity. The firm resumed coverage with an Outperform rating.
  
• Banc of America started shares of Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) with a Neutral rating and $39 target on valuation, as they believe better value exists in peers Cognizant Technology (NASDAQ: CTSH) and Infosys Technologies (NASDAQ: INFY).
  
• UBS initiated Genpact (NYSE: G) with a Neutral rating and $18 target on valuation.

• Goldman resumed coverage of HealthSpring (NYSE: HS) with a Neutral rating and $23 target.
  
• Wachovia initiated Gentiva Health (NASDAQ: GTIV) with an Outperform rating.

Analyst inititations: SIGM, SAY and G originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• St. Jude Medical's (NYSE: STJ) upgrade to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia was based on signs of an ICD recovery and reasonable valuation.

• Baird upgraded shares of Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) to Outperform from Neutral following better-than-expected guidance; Goldman upgraded Juniper to Buy from Neutral.

• Satyam (NYSE: SAY) was upgraded to Positive from Neutral at Susquehanna citing better than expected growth.

• Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) was upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns following the announcement that Sprint (S) and Clearwire will form a Nationwide 4G/Wimax Network.

• Citrix (NASDAQ: CTXS) was upgraded at Jefferies to Buy from Hold as they believe the strong customer response to Presentation Server Platinum Edition and the pipeline buildup related to NetScaler 8.0 bode well for the second half of 2007...

• Lehman raised DSW Inc (NYSE: DSW) to Overweight from Equal-Weight.

• Goldman upgraded shares of Labor Ready (NYSE: LRW) to Neutral from Sell.

• Rodman upgraded shares of Encysive Pharma (NASDAQ: ENCY) to Market Perform from Underperform.

• Lazard upgraded Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CBST) to Neutral from Sell.

• Selective Insurance (NASDAQ: SIGI) was upgraded at Fox Pitt to In Line from Underperform.

• Raymond James upgraded Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) to Strong Buy from Market Perform.

Analyst upgrades 7-19-07: DSW, JNPR and PFE originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Jul 2007 10:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that Texas has little authority to challenge the private equity buyout of TXU Corp (NYSE: TXU) which was announced yesterday.
• According to individuals familiar with the plan, wrote the Wall Street Journal, Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM) is expected to pick Tupelo, Miss., as its site for an eighth North American assembly plant.
• According to the Wall Street Journal, a large Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) contract win could be reversed because the Government Accountability Office advised the Air Force to reopen competition for a $15B rescue helicopter program due to improper cost evaluations.

• The Financial Times (subscription required) reported that International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) will offer its in-house "jamming" technology to outside corporations and organizations.
• India's Economic Times reported that Satyam Computer Services Limited (NYSE: SAY) has signed a deal with Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) to expand "its footprint in the global aerospace and defense market place.
• The Economic Times also reported that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) will face a domain dispute for Gmail in China, where the Internet address www.gmail.cn is owned by ISM Technologies.

Newspaper wrap-up 2-27-07: Toyota to pick Mississippi for new plant originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.