09:29 ET Micron Tech (MU) 41.04: CSFB lowering estimates again to reflect further deterioration in DRAM prices; May qtr est. goes to ($0.20) from ($0.05), FY01 to $0.00 from $0.33, FY02 to $0.65 from $1.51; maintaining hold rating until substantive signs of a
sustainable pick-up in the PC build cycle begin to appear.
09:29 ET Robbie on Networkers : Hearing from sources at Robertson Stephens that the firm believes June will be dicey for Juniper (JNPR), but would add to position in the mid-40s; they also note Cisco (CSCO) has become more competitive at the high end of the market (there has been quite a bit of speculation that Cisco is regaining share in the core router market). On Extreme (EXTR), Robbie says the qtr is out of the woods and revenue run rate is running above firm's estimate.
09:24 ET Lehman on Comm ICs : As reported earlier, Lehman upgraded BRCM (see 7:14 comment), which some saw as positive for PMCS and AMCC. But in the BRCM note, Lehman made negative comments about these other comm IC cos, saying that PMCS and AMCC will experience further declines as well as the possibility of margin contraction due to pricing pressure.
09:18 ET Brooks Automation (BRKS) 55.30: Semiconductor equipment maker agrees to privately place $150 million aggregate principal amount of 4.75% Convertible Subordinated Notes; represents a $25 mln increase over the total principal amount of notes previously announced.
09:17 ET Gapping Down : Wireless handheld device stocks under pressure after Palm Inc (PALM) halved its Q4 revenue guidance: PALM (-29%), HAND (-18%), RIMM (-7%), AETH (-3%)... INTU (-6%) feeling impact of Pru downgrade... Investors selling DELL (-4%) and ADSK (-4.3%) after both companies lower Q2 numbers.
09:17 ET Handspring (HAND) 10.38: CIBC World Markets downgrades to BUY from Strong Buy due to likely inventory and margin pressure as a result of pricing pressure on PALM, believes HAND is selling more lower priced, lower margin products and fewer of the more expensive, high end devices. CIBC also cut PALM to BUY from Strong Buy.
09:05 ET Krispy Kreme (KKD) 56.40: Company declares a 2-for-1 stock split, payable June 14. This is the second 2:1 split that company has announced since February.
08:59 ET Portal Software (PRSF) 5.97: JP Morgan downgrades to MKT PERFORM from LT Buy after the company reported a disappointing quarter. Firm cuts Q2 estimate from $0.01 EPS on $84.1 mln in revenue to ($0.08) EPS on $44.6 mln in revenue.
08:53 ET Flextronics (FLEX) 29.58: EBN Online reporting that FLEX has formed an alliance with Japan's Kyoden Corp that will give the company an edge in efforts to gain contracts in the Japanese electronics market.
08:53 ET New Focus (NUFO) 13.98: Announces a voluntary stock option exchange program for the company's employees; program allows NUFO employees to elect to cancel certain outstanding stock options in exchange for an equal number of replacement options to be granted in the future; total number of options eligible for the exchange is 2.72 mln.
08:51 ET Agilent Tech (A) 38.72: -- Update -- Morgan Stanley upgrades to STRONG BUY from Outperform; believes that a turn is on the horizon and that one qtr of negative earnings isn't that bad; views multiple of 1.4x trailing sales as extremely low for a large-cap, blue-chip technology company with an accelerating secular revenue growth profile; firm raising price target to $50 (from $45).
08:48 ET Charter Comm (CHTR) 22.50: CIBC initiates coverage with a BUY rating calling CHTR the purest play in cable highly levered to the cable plant with 6.4 mln cable subscribers, essentially no non-cable assets and debt leverage at the high end of the industry average. Price target is $30.
08:45 ET Agilent Tech (A) 38.72: Salomon Smith Barney slashing Q3 est. from $0.28 to ($0.21) after company warns of loss for the qtr; cuts FY01 est. to $0.72 from $1.53; firm says Q3 feels like a bottom, as there are few orders left to cancel... Expects stock to trade in the low-$30s today and would be buyers rather than sellers at that level.
08:43 ET Crompton (CK) 10.82: Goldman Sachs upgrades to RECOMMENDED LIST from Mkt Outperform; says volume recovery is expected beginning early next year, comparisons should be easy starting 4Q, falling raw material prices should help.
08:37 ET Transkaryotic (TKTX) 28.70: Reports positive results in trial of its investigational enzyme replacement therapy, Replagal, the treatment of Fabry disease; study suggests that treatment with Replagal is effective in reducing cardiac mass and correcting the metabolic defect of Fabry disease.
08:33 ET Beverages Started : ABN AMRO initiates coverage of beverage stocks: BUD and KO get BUY ratings; PEP and BFB get ADD ratings and RKY gets a HOLD. Increased selectivity, rather than broad sector participation, has become critical.
08:26 ET LM Ericsson (ERICY) 6.39: Issue ticks up 3.3% in pre-market; reports that DB Alex. Brown making positive comments in Europe said to be behind advance in the stock; also rumor in the market that the CEO is resigning, which company has denied.
08:23 ET Next Level (NXTV) 8.87: Developer of integrated multimedia broadband access systems receives a $60 million loan commitment from Motorola (MOT), which owns 77% of the company. MOT will receive a pro rata portion of warrants to purchase 4.5 mln of NXTV common stock with each draw down of the loan; warrants exercisable at $7.39 per share.
08:21 ET Palm Inc (PALM) 7.05: Bear Stearns downgrades to NEUTRAL from Buy not only because of the shortfall in revenue but more for the uncertainty in its enterprise strategy (termination of the XTND acquisition) and legal questions surrounding the new wireless model with "push" email (RIMM was awarded a patent yesterday).
08:19 ET Kmart Corp (KM) 10.58: Merrill Lynch raises near-term rating to ACCUMULATE from Neutral based on evidence a turnaround beginning to surface; increases 12-18 month price target to $14; says company's vital signs remain weak, but many statistics are on the verge of improvement... (KM reported narrower-than-expected loss Thurs. morning).
08:19 ET RealNetworks (RNWK) 12.78: Thomas Weisel Partners upgrades to BUY from Mkt Perform saying subscriber base is growing and the business model is evolving nicely.
08:17 ET Concord EFS (CEFT) 46.53: UBS Warburg upgrades to STRONG BUY from Buy, raises price target to $65 from $60; analyst feels the stock has underperformed recently as a result of speculation over a secondary equity offering; offering has now been announced and should have no material effect on $1.17 and $1.55 diluted EPS estimates for 2001 and 2002.
08:15 ET Gapping Up : Seeing strength in Comm IC sector after Lehman upgrades BRCM (+5%) and MRVL (+4.5%); traders appear to be bidding up shares of sector names PMCS (+4.5%) and AMCC (+2.5%) as secondary plays, apparently missing the cautious statements than Lehman made about these two names in morning note; firm expects IC companies such as PMCS and AMCC to experience further declines, as well as the possibility of margin contraction, driven by pricing pressure as competition intensifies and growth remains elusive.
08:09 ET Opening Indications : S&P futures 1290 -1 or one point under fair value. Nasdaq 100 Pre-market indicator +1.5 points. Markets mixed on last night's earnings warnings.
08:07 ET SERENA (SRNA) : Reports Q1 earnings of $0.20 a share, 2 cents above consensus... SG Cowen upgrading to BUY from Neutral; internal sales reorganization appears to have been completed successfully; sales execution improved as the qtr progressed.
08:02 ET Intuit (INTU) 35.23: Prudential downgrades to HOLD from Strong Buy based on slower than expected revenue growth and little foreseeable spark in the next several months; sees few catalysts for INTU to trade up from current trading levels as INTU reaches its seasonally slow period; lowers price target to $31 from $42.
07:49 ET Merrill Lynch (MER) 68.86: Company considering a public offering of $750 million of 30-year zero-coupon senior notes convertible into Merrill Lynch common stock.
07:45 ET Business Week Stocks : Mid-Cap Fund manager David Mills thinks that Vector Group (VGR 36.80) is undervalued given cash flow, earnings power, and prospects for its new no-nicotine and no-carcinogen cigarette. Earlier this week, company announced that Carl Icahn's High River Limited will purchase 1.64 mln VGR shares at $30.50 per share, giving Carl Icahn a 13% stake in the company.
07:40 ET Business Week Stocks : Gruntal's Joe Battipaglia (aka "The Bull") is positive on mid-cap sector; two of Battipaglia's top picks are Caliper Tech (CALP) and North Fork Bancorp (NFB).
07:32 ET Veritas Software (VRTS) 69.20: UBS Warburg positive on VRTS this morning; says storage software channel sell out data for the month of April reaffirms VRTS' competitive position; VRTS growth so far in 2001 is stronger than in any month of 2000.
07:25 ET Opening Indications : This morning's fair value figures -- S&P 500 fair value: 1291; closed even with fair value. Nasdaq 100 fair value: 1932; closed 6 pts below fair value. Current indications: S&P 500 futures are -4, or 4 pts below fair value. Nasdaq 100 is -10.5, or 16.5 pts below fair value... Negative earnings guidance issued last night by Agilent, Dell, and Analog Devices weighing on the futures; France's Alcatel (ALA) slumps 6% on NYT report that company is in talks to acquire troubled Lucent.
07:19 ET Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 100.68: Lehman upgrading to BUY from Mkt Perform based on an improving competitive position with Procrit relative to NESP, and the potential for coated stents in the US; current valuation below historical premium to the S&P 500; raises price target to $110.
07:14 ET Lehman Ups CPE Comm ICs : Lehman Brothers upgrades Customer Premise Equipment Comm IC stocks Broadcom (BRCM) and Marvell Technology (MRVL) to BUY from Mkt Perform on view that companies are likely to recover earlier from the inventory correction vs the telecom IC companies; areas of particular strength are cable set-top boxes and cable modems (Broadcom), enterprise LAN, especially Gigabit Ethernet (Marvell and Broadcom) and wireless LAN in the home and the enterprise (Intersil); firm raises price target on Intersil (ISIL) to $45 from $25.
07:08 ET Ecolab (ECL) 41.76: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approves product from Ecolab that will help livestock producers in the U.S. protect their livestock against potential infection by foot-and-mouth disease. The product is an antimicrobial disinfectant used in housing facilities and other sources of cross contamination.
07:04 ET Minntech Corp (MNTX) 8.55: After the close, company reported Q4 results and announced that it is in talks concerning the possible sale of Minntech to a publicly-held corporation for a combination of cash and stock valued at $10.50 per share. Company stated that there is assurance that the transaction will be completed.
06:52 ET Wyndham Intl (WYN) 2.35: Financial Times reports that Bass plc is considering a $4 bln bid for the Dallas-based hotel operator. Publication notes that some of Wyndham's largest shareholders are thought to believe the company would be better served pursuing an independent strategy of reducing debt.
06:45 ET Instinet (INET) : IPO of Reuters Group (RTRSY) electronic trading unit priced at $14.50 a share, above the $11.50-$13.50 range. The size of the offering was raised to 32 mln shares from 29.5 mln.
06:38 ET Global Power Equip (GEG) : Prices 7.35 mln share initial public offering at $20 per share, above the $16-$18 range. Global Power is a manufacturer of equipment for gas turbine power plants. CSFB and Salomon Smith Barney running the book.
06:36 ET Amkor Tech (AMKR) 25: Semiconductor equipment company prices $250 mln convertible subordinated notes due 2006.
06:17 ET U.S. Markets : S&P futures trading at 1289, 2.0 points below fair value, Nasdaq 100 futures trading at 1925, 93.0 points over fair value. The 30-year bond is up 3 ticks at 5.755%. The dollar is beating up on both the yen and the euro this morning.
06:16 ET European Markets : FTSE +0.38%, DAX +0.21% -- European stocks higher despite a slide in shares of Alcatel on the back of news that Europe’s fourth largest phone-equipment maker is in advanced talks for a $40 bln takeover of Lucent Technologies. Shares supported by strong gains in the energy sector following President Bush’s new energy plan and strong first quarter profits from TotalFinaElf, Europe’s largest refiner.
06:16 ET Asian Markets : Nikkei -0.24%, Hang Seng -1.31% -- Asian stocks mostly lower with Japan hit by uncertainty surrounding changes to the Morgan Stanley Capital Index (MSCI) to be announced this weekend. NTT still plagued by weak earnings and expectations that its low free float (shares available for trading) will force a cut in the company’s MSCI weighting. Korea’s Kospi closed 0.7% higher, boosted by better foreign buying and hopes that Pohang Iron & Steel will see its MSCI weighting increased. Taiwan hit by an underperformance of banking stocks amid concerns about bad loans, while Singapore fell on growth concerns and Hong Kong was hurt by its small overall free float.
03:34 ET Lucent Tech (LU) 9.81: Alcatel (ALA 32.04) in advanced talks to acquire Lucent in all-stock deal valued at about $40 bln, or nearly 20% above LU's current value, reports the New York Times... Deal could be announced by early June.
03:25 ET Motorola (MOT) 15.56: Stock could feel some heat, as company is subject of less than flattering Wall Street Journal article. |
