Analyst action: CVS Caremark, Synovus
Posted on November 11, 2009 at 10:43 amScott Mushkin at Jefferies has lowered his price target on shares of CVS Caremark (Ticker: CVS) to $39 from $42 after the company’s so-so earnings call last week. He still rates the stock a ‘buy.’
Over at Morgan Keegan, Robet Patten has cut his rating on Synovus Financial to ‘market perform’ from ‘outperform.’ Shares of Synovus (Ticker: SNV) have lost three-quarters of their value this year.
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O’Charley’s walks the fine value line
Posted on October 29, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Jeff Warne, the CEO of O’Charley’s, this morning told investors and analysts that, in trying to drive traffic to his restaurants, his crew isn’t interested in deeply discounting the meals it offers now. Doing that instead of coming up with new offerings, he said, is simply “transferring value to the guest somewhat at the expense of the shareholder.”
“We’re trying to find the right balance between profitability and driving guests. It’s clear that value is the dominant message and we’re trying to do it in a profitable way.”
On what was otherwise a rather tame call – as is often the case when expectations are met – one moment of suspense came from Morgan Keegan analyst Robert Derrington, who pressed CFO Larry Hyatt on why the company wasn’t raising guidance for the full year when it beat its own third-quarter estimate. In keeping guidance flat, Derrington wondered, was the company implying that business is going to get worse?
Not quite, said Hyatt. But the consumer spending picture is very murky and the fourth quarter is generally on the slow side, so sticking your neck out on guidance just doesn’t make sense, especially when operating costs are pretty much fixed at this point.
“The fundamental question is sales. We don’t have any more visibility into fourth-quarter sales than we suspect anyone else does.”
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Analyst action: Psych Solutions, O’Charley’s
Posted on at 7:15 amSoleil Securites’ A.J. Rice yesterday downgraded shares of Psychiatric Solutions to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ and slashed his price target to $22 from $33. The stock (Ticker: PSYS) lost almost a quarter of its value after a disappointing Q3 report.
Over at Morgan Keegan, analyst Robert Derrington has raised O’Charley’s to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform’ citing the stock’s valuation and management’s operational plans. The restaurant chain (Ticker: CHUX) will report its earnings this morning; the Street is looking for a loss of 10 cents per share.
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Analyst action: Healthcare Realty, LP
Posted on August 12, 2009 at 8:12 amMorgan Keegan has raised its opinion of Healthcare Realty to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform.’ The Nashville-based REIT (Ticker: HR) earlier this week reported better-than-expected Q2 results. The stock is up about 1 percent in pre-market trading.
Over at Goldman Sachs, analyst Joe Stivaletti has lowered his rating of Louisiana-Pacific to ‘neutral’ after its recent run. The stock (Ticker: LPX) is set to open down about 3 percent.
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Analysts: Cracker Barrel well placed to grow margins
Posted on June 3, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Morgan Keegan analyst Robert Derrington says Cracker Barrel is “in the right place at the right time” in part because it stands to benefit from Americans’ shift from aviation to road trips. At Keybanc Capital Markets, analyst Brad Ludington sees the company ramping up its margins as the economy solidifies.
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Comptroller suggests swap changes
Posted on May 1, 2009 at 3:14 pmJustin Wilson today told the State Funding Board that interest rate swaps should be at least $50 million to keep smaller municipalities out of the trouble they got in after deals recommended by Morgan Keegan went south.
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Bredesen: ‘More guidance’ needed from state on muni interest-rate swaps
Posted on April 10, 2009 at 8:33 amThe Governor tells the NYT that more education is needed on the use of municipal bond derivatives that have burned a number of Tennessee cities.
“I think what happened is you had a very sophisticated seller of these things, and some people who were just learning their way making the decisions about how to utilize them,” Mr. Bredesen told reporters.
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Tennessee’s loosey-goosey muni bond derivatives
Posted on April 8, 2009 at 8:05 amThe New York Times lifts the veil on the surprises a number of Tennessee cities have gotten after working with investment bank Morgan Keegan to issue debt. The municipal bond derivatives marketed by Morgan Keegan – which also ran educational seminars on the complex deals – resulted in payments jumping higher as the economy tumbled.
Municipal bond experts say they know of no other state where a firm was allowed to wear three hats; several states prohibit a single firm from acting as both adviser and underwriter. In Pennsylvania, which has such a prohibition, federal prosecutors are investigating accusations that investment banks and financial advisers conspired to sell bonds with inflated fees to school districts.
“It’s like the lion being hired to protect the gazelle,” Robert E. Brooks, a municipal bonds expert and a professor of financial management at the University of Alabama, said of the situation in Tennessee. “Who was looking after these little towns?”
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BNA sells bonds
Posted on March 19, 2009 at 9:50 pmThe Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority has successfully marketed $36 million in bonds that will finance improvements to its gate areas, baggage claim and common areas and HVAC equipment.
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Regions unit buys in Boston
Posted on December 8, 2008 at 4:52 pmRegions’ Morgan Keegan investment banking division takes advantage of an industry in turmoil, snapping up a Boston firm specializing in tech deals.
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