SCH900105 (AV-299) Marks First of Several Monoclonal Antibodies from AVEO's Discovery Platform; Trial Triggers Milestone Under Agreement with Schering-Plough

NOTE TO EDITORS: The Following Is an Investment Opinion Being Issued by The Bellwether Report.

When your brother falls, you've got to pick up the pace.

Even when prices are down, don't think the market's a sure thing.

How a pharmaceutical tries to sell more drugs can provide clues about its management.

Positive trial data isn't enough to significantly boost Johnson & Johnson's Remicade.

This Fool made a great call on Goldman Sachs -- check out the other moves he has been making.

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Walgreen Co (WAG), Costco Wholesale (COST), Analyst initiations, Lloyds TSB Group plc ADS (LYG), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI)

Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded MetLife (NYSE: MET) to Outperform from Market Perform as they believe the company's capital and liquidity profile are very solid relative to this week's sell-off.
  
• The firm also upgraded shares of MSCI (NYSE: MXB) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation as they believe near-term challenges are already priced into shares.
  
• Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan based on valuation and strong pricing outlook.
• Costco (NASDAQ: COST) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Pali Capital lifted Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) to Neutral from Sell.
  
• Merrill upgraded Pall (NYS: PLL) and Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) to buy from Neutral.

Analyst downgrades:

• Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Trimble Navigation (NASDAQ: TRMB) to Perform from Outperform as they believe the company's Engineering and Construction division is facing a challenging period due to the credit market strain.
  
• Stephens downgraded Seacoast Banking (NASDAQ:SBCF) to Underweight from Equal Weight as they believe a dilutive capital raise is possible given future losses from real estate credits in coastal Florida.

• Friedman Billings cut Xyratex (NASDAQ:XRTX) to Market Perform from outperform at lowered its target to $13 to reflect credit concerns and risk of Western Digital (NYSE:WDC) reducing orders after the potential acquisition of Fujitsu operations.
• Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) was lowered to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  
• Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP) was downgraded at Merrill Lynch to Underperform from Buy.
  
• Lloyds TSB Group (NYSE:LYG) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Societe Generale.

Analyst initiations:

• Janney Montgomery believes FuelCell Energy's (NASDAQ:FCEL) products are reaching an inflection point where it will be able to see a path to positive gross margins. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $8 target.
  
• Jefferies initiated TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) with a Buy rating and $38 target and believes the company's off-price business model offers a strong value proposition to price-sensitive consumers.
  
• Kaufman Bros. believes BTU International (NASDAQ:BTUI) will transition to a major equipment supplier for the thin-film and crystalline solar cell sector; shares were assumed with a Buy rating and $14 target.
• Spectranetics (NASDAQ:SPNC) was initiated at Caris with an Average rating and $5 target.
  
• Healthways (NASDAQ:HWAY) was started with a Hold rating at Deutsche Bank.
  
• ConAgra (NYSE:CAG) and Mentor (NYSE:MNT) were initiated with Neutral ratings and a $21 target and $26 target, respectively, at UBS.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Walgreen Co (WAG), Costco Wholesale (COST), Analyst initiations, Lloyds TSB Group plc ADS (LYG), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI)

Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded MetLife (NYSE: MET) to Outperform from Market Perform as they believe the company's capital and liquidity profile are very solid relative to this week's sell-off.
  
• The firm also upgraded shares of MSCI (NYSE: MXB) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation as they believe near-term challenges are already priced into shares.
  
• Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan based on valuation and strong pricing outlook.
• Costco (NASDAQ: COST) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Pali Capital lifted Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) to Neutral from Sell.
  
• Merrill upgraded Pall (NYS: PLL) and Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) to buy from Neutral.

Analyst downgrades:

• Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Trimble Navigation (NASDAQ: TRMB) to Perform from Outperform as they believe the company's Engineering and Construction division is facing a challenging period due to the credit market strain.
  
• Stephens downgraded Seacoast Banking (NASDAQ:SBCF) to Underweight from Equal Weight as they believe a dilutive capital raise is possible given future losses from real estate credits in coastal Florida.

Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: MET, COST, WAG, CAG...

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Morgan Stanley is going from bearish to bullish equities. Firm's upside for the S&P 500 is 1300 by end 08 at a minimum, with scope to trade higher depending on the strength of policy action to stabilize the financial system.[More...]

Despite the recent commodity-price induced weakness that has helped improve valuation, we are keeping our Hold recommendation unchanged for Hess Corp. (HES) shares at this stage. The near-term outlook for the stock in particular and the overall group in general remains unfavorable. We will revisit our outlook for the stock once early signs of stability emerge in the crude oil market, which we believe will be sooner than later. We continue to see upstream momentum at Hess on the back of the company's leverage to high crude oil prices and a large inventory of projects in Brazil, Australia Libya and Ghana. On September 4, Hess Corporation announced that the Nimblefoot-1 exploration well on Australia's Northwest Shelf discovered natural gas. The well encountered 93 feet of net gas pay. Nimblefoot-1 is the third of four initial exploration[More...]

Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) is enjoying robust growth in its infrastructure business as service providers are spending on next generation networks. Although results have been good, we are growing increasingly concerned about levels of capital spending by service providers in light of indications that spending could be slowing. In light of this, we maintain a Hold recommendation on the shares of JNPR. Shares of JNPR are currently trading at a P/E multiple of 24.4x our 2008 earnings estimate of $0.99. Juniper has raised its long-term revenue growth target to 27.1% (at the mid-point of the new guidance) after posting 23.1% revenue growth in 2007. We lower our price target to $25.50, which represents a P/E multiple of 25.8x 2008 earnings estimates. Juniper's net margin has been on a declining trend due to a considerable increase in its[More...]

Schaeffer's Laura Houser takes a look at activity on the Street after the market close

Schaeffer's Carly Schaeffer takes a look at activity on the Street ahead of the market open

Schaeffer's Senior Equities Analyst Joseph Hargett takes a look at today's options activity on Schering Plough, Merck, and Deer & Co.

It was the last day of March when we wrote Schering-Plough shares touch lowest levels since 1996. Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE:SGP) CEO Fred Hassan showed up on Cramer's Mad Money on Friday and two days after announcing $1 billion worth of cost cuts and a 10% reduction in staff to offset losses from reduced Vytorin sales. So where do we go from here?

read more

Colleen King takes a look back at news on the Street