iBankCoin
Home / Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades (page 29)

Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades

Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning

Source

Caterpillar, Inc. (NYSE: CAT) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) Reiterated Buy but lowered target to $54 at Argus.
Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMY) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) Reiterated Buy and raised price target to $51 at Argus.
Interline Brands, Inc. (NYSE: IBI) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.
KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Michael Kors Holdings Limited (NYSE: KORS) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley; Started as Outperform at Baird; Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Maintained Outperform with $100 target at Credit Suisse.
NII Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: NIHD) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Novellus Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) maintained Outperform but lowered estimates at Credit Suisse.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) Reiterated Outperform and raised target to $40 at Credit Suisse; Cut to Hold at Kaufman Bros.
Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $130 at Argus.
Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Comments »

Southwestern Energy (NYSE:SWN): Upgraded

BMO Capital is upgrading Southwestern Energy (NYSE:SWN) to Outperform from Mkt Perform with a $40 price target calling for Peak in negativity.

Notablecalls: Today is natty day. This comes after Chesapeake (CHK) vowed to curtail Marcellus drilling, sending natural gas prices way higher in minutes. One glimpse at US Natural Gas Fund (UNG) and you see it’s a coiled spring.

Full article here

Comments »

El-Erian’s Take on What the European Downgrades Really Mean

“The chatter on Friday’s downgrades of European sovereign ratings debt is all over the place – from those dismissing it as old news (especially given that S&P warned back on December 5th) to those viewing it as part of a larger and consequential transformation of the international monetary system.

What follows is an attempt to provide a guide to the multi-faceted implications.

It focuses on three types of consequences: (i) those that are unambiguous and already reflected, albeit not fully, in market valuations; (ii) those that are less well understood but will become clearer in the next few weeks; and (iii) those that are consequential but where the analytics are still largely unknown at present.

The sovereign debt of European sovereigns was already trading at yields consistent not only with what S&P announced today, but also with more draconian downgrades – thus the view that the impact on overall yields and spreads would be contained.

Yet there are some differences between signaling an action and actually taking it. First you remove residual uncertainty about the action, including timing and scale. Second, you encourage others to follow.

Third, you impact the pattern of investment flows, especially those subject to guidelines and restrictions defined in terms of ratings.

All three are relevant for Europe. The net result has both a quantity and price angle: a decline in future investment flows into the Euro-zone, and incremental market pressure that, other things being equal, would be more persistent than would have otherwise been the case.

This speaks to a weaker Euro [EUR=X  1.2678    0.0005  (+0.04%)   ] and recurrent volatility in sovereign spreads…”

Read more 

Comments »

Uptick in China’s LED street lighting demand

Piper Jaffray’s Ahmar Zamar is making a positive call on Cree (NASDAQ:CREE) after their checks uncovered a surprising December uptick in China’s LED street lighting demand.

– Piper’s proprietary checks with downstream LED lighting companies in China suggest Cree’s customers likely saw rush orders in December ahead of an earlier Chinese New Year holiday. They met with international and domestic lighting players including TC Interconnect, Neo Neon, Phillips, and Osram over the last few weeks. Firm’s checks also revealed that Chinese LED street lighting demand has recovered, and is growing at 30% y/y. Furthermore, competition is limited to leading chip suppliers Cree, Lumileds, and Osram. They view these checks as positive for Cree given 40% revenue exposure to China.

Firm reiterates Overweight and $50 price target on CREE

Note: Piper highlights Lumileds (NASDAQ:LEDS) as a leading chip supplier in addition to CREE. Should the China LED story find legs, LEDS could work well. Just take a look at the 40%+ move on Nov 4, 2011 following the news China had started incandescent bulb phase out. CREE was up 10% on that day.

Full Story Here

Comments »

Fitch Still Rates Italy as the Largest Risk

“LONDON—Fitch Ratings said Tuesday that among all the countries in the euro zone, Italy poses the greatest risk to the currency bloc, as the lack of a region-wide plan to prevent the crisis from spreading has been coupled with the country’s large debt burden and high borrowing costs.

The factors are a major reason why Italy’s credit rating is likely to be downgraded by the end of January, said David Riley, head of global sovereign ratings at Fitch, speaking at a conference in London.

Italy is planning to sell €440 billion ($561.67 billion) in government bonds and Treasury bills in 2012. This is a “daunting” task given its current costs of borrowing, Mr. Riley said.”

Comments »