Not all companies in these love-struck industries are good buys. Here are 10 stocks to break up with this Valentine's Day.

• 1-800-Flowers (FLWS): A good gift, but a poorly run company that has posted a loss for three of the past four quarters.
• Hershey (HSY): Missing out on the Cadbury merger was not so sweet for Hershey.
• Cardiac Sciences (CSCX): It's hard to have a heart for a company that fails seven out of my eight fundamental screens.

Continue reading Ten Valentine's Day Stocks to Hate

Ten Valentine's Day Stocks to Hate originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Banc of America initiated the Metals and Mining sector with an Equal Weight rating and believes investors should take a selective approach to stocks in the group. The firm initiated Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and RTI International Metals (NYSE: RTI) with Buy ratings and a $44 target and $41 target, and started Allegheny Tech (NYSE: ATI), Century Aluminum (NASDAQ: CENX) and Titanium Metals (NYSE: TIE) with Neutral ratings and a $64 target, $58 target and $12 target, respectively.
  
• Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ: LAMR) was initiated at Caris with an Above Average rating and $40 target. Caris is positive on the company's North American focus and exposure to the aggressive deployment of digital boards.
  
• Stanford believes Rigel Pharma's (NASDAQ: RIGL) lead drug R788 has the potential to be the first oral drug for rheumatoid arthritis and expects clinical news flow and partnerships to serve as catalysts. Shares were initiated with a Buy rating and $30 target.

• Thomas Weisel assumed Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) with an Overweight rating and $90 target.
  
• International Flavors (NYSE: IFF) was initiated at Lehman with an Underweight rating.
  
• JP Morgan started Ares Capital (NASDAQ: ARCC) with an Underweight rating.

Analyst initiations: AA, ATI, CRM, LAMR and RIGL originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Titanium Metals(NYSE:TIE), reported disappointing earnings last week and as a result, the stock got slammed. The miss was largely attributed to inventory issues in the aerospace supply chain. For those not familiar, the company produces titanium melted and mill products for commercial aerospace, military, industrial, and other applications worldwide.

Many will say that this stock is priced for perfection and it's had such a monstrous run, that it will be impossible to push higher. There is no question that early investors made a mint. Since August '04 the stock has returned over 1,100%. That being said, the stock is off 25% over the last 6 months. Fundamentals in the aerospace industry look good. The company said that the delay of the initial deliveries of the Boeing (NYSE:BA)787 commercial aircraft shouldn't effect their outlook. Led by continuous demand from emerging markets, the company should be set for continued strong growth, and I expect a pick-up by the US carriers sometime in late '08. This should be more than enough to keep their stock price flying high.

With the large diversified metals companies looking at acquisitions, it wouldn't be a surprise if Titanium's name came into play.

With the recent weakness, a strong metal like Titanium is what's needed to strengthen your portfolio.

Disclosure: Author holds no position in any stock mentioned as of 11/6/07.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com.

Titanium Metals: Look past last quarter and focus on the future originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Titanium Metals (TIE) to be added to S&P 500 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Steve Madden, Ltd (NASDAQ: SHOO) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Nollenberger as they believe Madden is well positioned going into the back half of 2007 with clean inventories and focused products.

• Matrix believes increasing marketing efforts and European growth are contributing to significant improvement in fundamental trends for Expedia Inc (NASDAQ: EXPE), and upgraded shares to Hold from Sell.

• Pacific Crest upgraded shares of Oracle Corp (NASDAQ: ORCL) to Outperform from Sector Perform to reflect improved channel checks and the probability of continued success.

• CIBC upgraded Tim Horton's (NYSE: THI) to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer based on valuation...

• Banc of America upgraded Intersil Corp (NASDAQ: ISIL) to Buy from Neutral.

• Bear Stearns upgraded Illumina, Inc (NASDAQ: ILMN) to Outperform from Peer Perform.

• Buckingham raised Kohl's Corp (NYSE: KSS) to Strong Buy from Neutral.

• Matrix USA raised Titanium Metals Corp (NYSE: TIE) to Buy from Hold.

• Merrill Lynch upgraded Kulicke and Soffa Industries Inc (NASDAQ: KLIC) to Buy from Neutral.

Analyst upgrades 6-14-07: EXPE, KSS, ORCL, SHOO and THI originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.