Stocks slip but post best month in four years

Margin Pressures Could Weigh on CVS Health (CVS) Shares; Oppenheimer Cuts Price Target to $115

Oppenheimer maintained an Outperform rating on CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), and cut the price target to $115.00 (from $122.00), following the company's 3Q earnings results. CVS reported 3Q revenue of $38.6B vs. consensus $37.9B. Adj. EPS was $1.29, in line with consensus $1.29. Analyst Mohan Naidu believes that the margin outlook and lack of clarity on organic growth in... More

Low Tax Rate on One-Time Item Contributes to ExxonMobil (XOM) EPS Beat; UBS Raises Price Target to $81

UBS reiterated a Neutral rating on ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), and raised the price target to $81.00 (from $77.00), following the company's 3Q earnings results. 3Q15 EPS fell 46% YoY to $1.01, above consensus of $0.89. A lower than expected tax rate related to a one-time item benefitted EPS by... More

UBS Raises Price Target on Chevron (CVX) Following 3Q Earnings and Guidance

UBS reiterated a Neutral rating on Chevron (NYSE: CVX), and raised the price target to $95.00 (from $87.00), following the company's 3Q earnings results and guidance. Adjusted EPS was $1.01, above consensus of $0.76. CVX provided a 2016-17 capex guidance range of ~$25-$28bn and $20-$24bn.

Analyst... More

UBS Reiterates Buy on AbbVie (ABBV) Following Conference Call

UBS reiterated a Buy rating and $78.00 price target on Abbvie (NYSE: ABBV) following the company's conference call. Management assumes no biosimiliars before 2022, and low mid-single digit annual price increases. On Humira biosimilar, management believes US biosimilars will likely infringe its dosing patents as they have to demonstrate efficacy at equal dosing.

Analyst... More

Genworth Financial (GNW) Hires New President to Focus on Life Operations; Compass Point Reiterates Buy

Compass Point reiterated a Buy rating and $7.50 price target on Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW) following the company's 3Q earnings results. GNW reported operating EPS of $0.13, below the consensus estimate of $0.22. Life results will continue to be strained given the company's Yo-Yo approach to being in/out/and back in the business until they can successfully separate the Life and US MI operations. A new president has been hired to focus on the Life operations which should add some stability to product line.

Analyst Ken Billingsley commented, "While GNW performed in line with our... More

Leerink Partners Would Buy CVS Health (CVS) on Current Weakness

Leerink Partners reiterated an Outperform rating and $125.00 price target on CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) following the company's 3Q earnings and conference call. Management highlighted that the core business continues to grow at a healthy rate. While 2016E EPS guidance is below consensus expectations, management reiterated that their longterm adjusted EPS growth... More

AbbVie (ABBV) Reports Strong 3Q and Long term outlook; Cowen Reiterates Outperform

Cowen reiterated an Outperform rating and $77.00 price target on Abbvie (NYSE: ABBV) following the company's 3Q earnings results. Q3 EPS of $1.13 was $0.06 above consensus. Full year guidance has been raised to $4.26-4.28 (prior $4.10-4.30). Q3 sales of $5,944MM (+18%) were $54MM above... More

Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) Bull-Bear Debate Rages

The bull-bear battle in beaten up and highly-questioned Valeant Pharma (NYSE: VRX) took center stage again today. Bill Ackman from Pershing Square on the bull side and Andrew Left from Citron Research on the bear side. Currently the bears are winning and the stock is down another 10% today and again below the $100 level.

This morning the company announced that it is severing all ties with Philidor Rx and Philidor has informed Valeant that it will shut down operations as soon as possible. Valeant's controversial... More

Growth Drivers Set For LinkedIn's (LNKD) 2016; SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Raises Price Target to $280

SunTrust Robinson Humphrey reiterated a Buy rating on LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), and raised the price target to $280.00 (from $275.00), following the company's 3Q earnings results. LinkedIn has multiple drivers that are building momentum for growth in 2016, including; Lynda product improvements, Mobile growth, Sales force... More

Bill Ackman said Valeant Pharma (VRX) worth $180-$240 Near-Term, $262-$350 Long-Term

On the Valeant Pharma (NYSE: VRX) call, Bill Ackman said Valeant worth $180-$240 and worth $262-$350 longer term (2020).

Evercore ISI Reiterates Hold Following Expedia's (EXPE) 3Q

Evercore ISI maintained a Hold rating and $145.00 price target on Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) following the company's 3Q earnings results. Bookings and revenues were inline at $15.4B and $1.94B. Expedia also reported solid unit growth and financial performance.

Analyst Ken Sena commented, "Expedia reported solid... More

LinkedIn (LNKD) Reports Upside to 3Q; Needham & Company Reiterates Buy

Needham & Company reiterated a Buy rating on LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), and raised the price target to $300.00 (from $260.00), following the company's 3Q earnings results. Total revenue for 3Q15 was $780M, above expectations of $756M. Adjusted EBITDA of $208M was also well above expectations of $152M.... More

Valeant Pharma (VRX) on Watch as Ahead of Pershing Square Conference Call

Down 7.6% currently, Valeant Pharma (NYSE: VRX) is on watch ahead of Bill Ackman's conference call, which is starting at 9:00AM ET.

During the call, Bill Ackman and other members of the Pershing Square investment team will address questions from investors... More

Chevron (CVX) Tops Q3 EPS by 26c; Plans Job Cuts

(Updated - October 30, 2015 8:32 AM EDT)

Chevron (NYSE: CVX) reported Q3 EPS of $1.09, $0.26 better than the analyst estimate of $0.83. Revenue for the quarter came in at $33 billion versus the consensus estimate of $31.1 billion.

Third quarter earnings were down substantially from a year ago, said Chairman and CEO John Watson. While downstream earnings remained strong, lower overall earnings reflected weaker market prices for both crude oil and natural gas, which depressed upstream profitability. We are focused on improving... More