If you are looking for clues telling you which stocks have a good chance of increasing in value, you might want consider watching what insiders are doing. After all, talk is cheap, but when insiders put their own money on the line, you should sit up and take note.

Ziopharm Oncology (ZIOP) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending January 21, as insiders snapped up 2,426,240 shares of the company's stock at a market value of $11,645,952. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by 0.00% and now own 2.44% of ZIOP stock.

Continue reading Insiders Snapping Up Ziopharm Oncology, Schulman and More

Insiders Snapping Up Ziopharm Oncology, Schulman and More originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• CLSA upgraded Capital One (COF) to outperform from underperform based on valuation and an acceleration in loan growth. The firm raised its price target to $43 from $40.
• KeyBanc upgraded Brush Engineered (BW) to buy from hold based on increased confidence in profit momentum in Specialty Engineered Alloys, valuation and value-added revenue unit growth. The firm has a $30 target on the stock.
• Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Heico (HEI) to buy from hold with a $42 target, citing the better-than-expected Q3 results.
• Greenbrier (GBX) was upgraded to buy from hold at BB&T.
• Paychex (PAYX) was upgraded to hold from sell at Deutsche Bank.
• A. Schulman (SHLM) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Longbow.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: ASX, BW, CBOE, COF, CREE, MDT, NDAQ, SCHW, TSM ...

Analyst Calls: ASX, BW, CBOE, COF, CREE, MDT, NDAQ, SCHW, TSM ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: BP Plc, Swiss Reinsurance and A. Schulman were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of BP Plc (NYSE: BP) to Overweight from Equal Weight as they believe the company is at an inflection and net income should grow 22% in 2009.
  
• UBS upgraded Swiss Reinsurance (OTC: SWCEY) to Neutral from Sell on the company's balance sheet, which they believe is solid, but still sees material risk to consensus estimates.
  
• KeyBanc upgraded shares of A. Schulman (NASDAQ: SHLM) to Buy from Hold as they believe the new CEO has had a significant positive impact and that downside is limited from current levels.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Piper.
  
• Ashland (NYSE: ASH) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
  
• BMO Capital upgraded Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC) to Outperform from Market Perform.
  
• Goldman upgraded Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) to Neutral from Sell.

Analyst upgrades: BP, Swiss Reinsurance, A. Schulman originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My top conservative idea for 2008 is A. Schulman (NASDAQ: SHLM), which makes high-performance plastic resins and compounds that are used by customers to produce everything from pens to artificial turf," says quantitative analyst Vahan Janjigian, editor of The Forbes Growth Investor.

"Almost three-fourths of fiscal 2007 sales (ended August 31) were generated from outside of North America. The firm makes resins that give plastics a specific color or physical property, such as conductivity.

"Its polyolefins units makes products such as interior trims for automobiles, toys, and office supplies and its engineered compounds division helps products maintain specific characteristics such as heat resistance, electrical conductivity, and high strength-to-weight ratios.

"SHLM is recovering from a difficult fiscal year. Management started several strategic initiatives to put profitability back on track. Most of these efforts focused on improving profitability in North America. Business units were reorganized with the aim of cutting costs.

Continue reading Best Stocks for 2008: Forbes quant picks A. Schulman (SHLM)

Best Stocks for 2008: Forbes quant picks A. Schulman (SHLM) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 30 Dec 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Lehman Brothers downgraded Hess Corp (NYSE: HES) to Underweight from Equal-Weight based on valuation.
• American Home Mortgage Investment Corp (NYSE: AHM) was cut to Underperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette, to Market Perform from Outperform at Friedman Billings, to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Lehman Brothers, to Sell from Hold at Citigroup and to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
• Anglo American plc (NASDAQ: AAUK) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets based on valuation.

• Murphy Oil Corp (NYSE: MUR) was cut to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Lehman.
• Credit Suisse downgraded Alaska Air Group, Inc (NYSE: ALK) to Neutral from Outperform.
• Gabelli downgraded shares of A. Schulman, Inc (NASDAQ: SHLM) to Hold from Buy to reflect the company's weak second-quarter.
• Raymond James downgraded Avnet, Inc (NYSE: AVT) to Market Perform from Outperform.
• Blyth, Inc (NYSE: BTH) was cut to Sell from Hold on valuation.

Analyst downgrades 4-09-07: Hess Corp & American Home Mortgage downgraded today originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.