Analyst Comments

Buckingham Research Maintains a 'Neutral' Rating on Wal-Mart (WMT), See Upside/Downside Fairly Balanced Jan 8, 2009 04:04PM

Buckingham Research maintains a 'Neutral' rating on Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT).

Buckingham analyst says, "After beating and raising guidance on several occasions over the past year WMT stumbled in 4QFY08. The company got too optimistic on sales and apparently something else is occurring on the expense line. Sales weakness in international markets is likely to continue, in our opinion, and the company is not sharing details as of yet regarding its expense issues. This suggests that estimates need to come down at least a little for next year. Further, we already believed that next year Street consensus figures were too high as we doubt they fully reflected the impact of the stronger US dollar. We are trimming our estimates further and now are at $3.50 for next year (3% annual growth on top of an 8% increase in FY08). This figure is $0.21 below the previous consensus."

"We suppose that the promise of lower gas prices and stimulus action will get WMT shares going again and we continue to like the company’s defensive positioning and low-price franchise in this economy. However, with the miss to 4QFY08 guidance we are less convinced that execution is as stellar as investors had believed prior to today."

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Wal-Mart) operates retail stores in various formats around the world.

Wedbush Morgan Maintains a 'Hold' on Majesco Holdings (COOL), Impressed With Progress But Investors Remain Skeptical Jan 8, 2009 02:12PM

Wedbush Morgan maintains a 'Hold' on Majesco Holdings (Nasdaq: COOL).

Wedbush analyst says, 'We think that guidance is attainable at the high end of the range...We are impressed with the company’s progress in managing its return to growth...We continue to believe that Majesco can deliver sustainable profits...However, we are maintaining HOLD; while we are impressed with the company’s turnaround, we think that investors will remain skeptical at least until there is further evidence that profitability is sustainable."

Majesco Entertainment Company is a provider of interactive entertainment products.

Wedbush Morgan Maintains a 'Hold' on Family Dollar Stores (FDO), Raises Price Target and Estimates Jan 8, 2009 02:06PM

Wedbush Morgan maintains a 'Hold' on Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO), raises price target from $25 to $26.

Wedbush analyst says, "Holiday season was a success, as December sales were up 8% and comps were up 6%. Raising our Q2 EPS estimate to $0.50 (from $0.47) and our FY:09 EPS estimate to $1.81 (from $1.75). With the stock trading above our $26 price target, we see limited potential for further upside; Maintain HOLD. Raising our price target to $26 (from $25), which assumes that FDO should trade at approximately 14.0x our revised calendar 2009 EPS estimate of $1.84 (previously $1.78), or at a slight premium to our projected 13.0% longer-term earnings growth rate."

Family Dollar Stores, Inc. operates a chain of more than 6,500 general merchandise retail discount stores in 44 states, providing consumers with a selection of merchandise in neighborhood stores.

Wedbush Morgan Maintains a 'Buy' on ON Semiconductor (ONNN), Raises Price Target Jan 8, 2009 02:04PM

Wedbush Morgan maintains a 'Buy' on ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN), raises price target to $5.

Wedbush analyst says, "Despite the pre-announcement, we continue to favor shares of ON Semi and think the stock has been excessively punished (-41% in 4Q versus NASDAQ of -23%). With ~$450mn in cash and management’s aggressive stance in cost cutting, we think ON’s healthy FCF generation will prove robust despite ongoing macro weakness...Given our most recent checks and commentary from peers, it is no surprise that management believes 1Q09 will prove to be another challenging quarter as visibility remains poor."

ON Semiconductor Corporation is a global supplier of power and data management semiconductors and standard semiconductor components.

Analyst Round-Up: Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) - 3 Downgrades, 2 Price Target Cuts Jan 8, 2009 12:13PM

Several analysts are out with downgrades on Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) today following the company's Q4 and FY08 warning, which was issued after the close yesterday.

• Needham downgraded Intuitive from Buy to Hold, citing "medtech sector fundamentals are worse than we previously realized..." Click here for the full report.
  
• downgraded to Sell at Brean Murray, with an $80 price target. Click here for the full report.
  
• Lazard Capital Markets cut Intuitive from Buy to Hold.
  
• JPMorgan cut its price target on ISRG from $150 to $122, while maintaining a Neutral rating.
  
• Deutsche Bank also lowered its target, moving its expected price from $290 to $130. Despite the estimate cut, the firm maintains a Buy rating on Intuitive.

Shares of Intuitive Surgical are currently trading down 7.3% to $109.49. While still down a good amount, shares are well off their session lows, as the stock dipped as much as 20% in after-hours trading following last night's news.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of da Vinci surgical systems for use in urologic, cardiothoracic, gynecologic, and general surgeries.