Analyst Comments

Deutsche Bank today maintained a Buy rating on American International Group (NYSE: AIG) and boosted its price target to $56.00 (from $52.00). Analyst Joshua Shanker sees upside from AIG's P&C and Life operations.

"Following meetings with Peter Hancock, we feel more confident that AIG is on track to achieve a 90-95% combined ratio in its P&C operations by 2015. Additionally, paid loss trends could be improving more quickly than GAAP
results indicate," said Shanker. "Management hopes to implement a 'modest' (but not merely 'nominal') dividend and continue share repurchases in 2013, but is not yet prepared to speak to the views of its board, the Fed and the rating agencies.
Our Buy recommendation is predicated on our view that material 12-month
upside remains in the stock today."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on American International Group (NYSE: AIG) click here. For more ratings news on American International Group click here.

Shares of American International Group closed at $45.15 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $29.90-$46.46.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) has been a high-flying stock of late. However, executive changes at major customer HP (NYSE: HPQ) threatens to put a damper on the stock.

This morning, HP announced that Todd Bradley will step out of his role as executive vice president, Printing and Personal Systems (PPS), HP, to assume a new position at the company -- executive vice president, Strategic Growth Initiatives. Dion Weisler, currently senior vice president for HP PPS in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), will step in to Bradley's role as executive vice president, PPS, HP.

RBC Capital analyst Doug Freedman said the exectuvie change could lead to a change in strategy and ultimately less business for AMD.

"We recognize that executive shifts often lead to strategy changes, and believe that this could lead to an opportunity for Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to increase its presence at HP," Freedman said. "Currently, AMD's largest customer is HP, listed as its only 10%+ customer in its recent 10K. Consequently, the change in strategy at HP can potentially have a material impact on CPU market share, where AMD likely has its highest market share. Thus we will need to keep close eye on change in management strategies at HP which could result in market share shifts between INTC and AMD."

Sterne Agee analyst Sam Poser reiterated a Buy rating and $68 price target on Deckers Outdoor (NASDAQ: DECK) intra-day Tuesday after an investor presentation at a Jefferies conference earlier. The firm said the presentation highlighted that EPS growth will be the primarily driven by top line growth.

"We believe that new, innovative UGG product is essential to meet or exceed the mid teen EBIT target," Poser states. "Fixed costs from the growing retail base limit the upside to margins in the near term. We believe that the UGG product in 2013 has slightly improved. The fall '14 product which will be shown to retailers in early December must be compelling in order to meet the company's long term financial objectives. The benefits of UGG Pure will come into play if the 2014 product is compelling and innovative."

The analyst said 2013 is shaping up well with inventory levels at key wholesale accounts far cleaner than they were a year ago. The firm is confident that the UGG brand has stabilized and guidance is achievable.

The analyst said the next catalyst will be the Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) Anniversary Sale, which will likely provide insights into fall demand.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Deckers Outdoor click here. For more ratings news on Deckers Outdoor click here.

Shares of Deckers Outdoor closed at $54.52 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $28.53-$60.25.

This morning AMD (NYSE: AMD) publicly disclosed its strategy and roadmap to recapture market share in enterprise and data center servers.

Broadly speaking, AMD plans to focusing its R&D in areas where it can compete effectively, according to Wells Fargo analyst David Wong. In his view, this is an appropriate strategy and will help AMD reach a level of sustainable profitability in a reasonable period of time.

"We expect that in the higher end 2-way and 4-way server market Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) share will grow further as AMD's presence continues to fade," said Wong. "We think that AMD will build its microserver processor business. We expect that Intel, with its early entry into the microserver market and its manufacturing technology advantage, will have a strong position in the microserver market as it develops."

Wells Fargo has an Outperform rating on AMD.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on AMD click here. For more ratings news on AMD click here.

Shares of AMD closed at $4.05 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $1.81-$6.09.

Yesterday it was learned that TransDigm (NYSE: TDG) is considering a special dividend in the range of $1 billion to $1.8 billion, or $18 to $33 per share. In the view of analyst Noah Poponak of Goldman Sachs, the announcement is a positive.

"We view the announcement as a positive, as it shows Transdigm remains squarely focused on maximizing the shareholder returns . . . It is our view that this announcement does not mean TDG is unlikely to continue its acquisition strategy and do so at the pace it has done in the past. Even with a special dividend at the mid-point of this large contemplated range, we estimate TDG could still have the capacity to perform over $1.0bn in acquisitions in the near term – something it has done in a full-year only once in its history," said Poponak.

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating on TransDigm with a price target of $182.00.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on TransDigm (NYSE: TDG) click here. For more ratings news on TransDigm click here.

Shares of TransDigm closed at $152.24 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $116.61-$155.97.