In a published report Tuesday, Bank or America analyst Justin Post downgraded LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) from Buy to Neutral. The price target has been decreased to $240 from the prior $270.
Post comments on the downgrade, "While we are not early with our call, based on slowing job postings and usage growth in 4Q we think 14/15 estimates may be aggressive."
The report noted, "While we continue to believe in LinkedIn's long-term enterprise opportunities (recruiting, HR, sales) and are positive on lack of competitive platforms, we think recent data suggest more caution on tough 2014 comps against a slew of successful products released in late 2012, potential investment in products like Sales Navigator (LinkedIn added a lot of headcount in 3Q and 51% headcount growth was close to revenue growth) that could lead to below-Street profit guidance, and the company's ability to consistently deliver meaningful revenue upside."
Risks of the downgrade were also highlighted in the report; including Sales Navigator enterprise fast sales, mobile ad pricing growth, new social products, and improving economy, all of which could lead to an optimistic outlook on 2015 revenues.
Top 5 Regional Bank Stocks For 2015: First Interstate BancSystem Inc.(FIBK)
First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for First Interstate Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services. Its deposit products include checking, savings, time, and demand deposits; and repurchase agreements primarily for commercial and municipal depositors. The company?s loan portfolio consists of a mix of real estate, consumer, commercial, agricultural, and other loans, including fixed and variable rate loans. Its real estate loans comprise commercial real estate, construction, residential, agricultural, and other real estate loans. The company also provides a range of trust, employee benefit, investment management, insurance, agency, and custodial services to individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. These services include the administration of estates and personal trusts; management of investment accounts for individuals, employee benefit plans, and charitable foundations; and insurance planning. It serves indi viduals, businesses, municipalities, and other entities in various industries, including energy, healthcare and professional services, education and governmental services, construction, mining, agriculture, retail and wholesale trade, and tourism. The company operates 72 banking offices in 42 communities located in Montana, Wyoming, and western South Dakota. First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Billings, Montana.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Zacks]
Some better-ranked Midwest banks include First Interstate Bancsystem Inc. (NASDAQ: FIBK), Wintrust Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: WTFC) and PrivateBancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: PVTB). All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Oppenheimer Holdings Inc.(OPY)
Oppenheimer Holdings Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a middle-market investment bank and full service broker-dealer. It offers full-service brokerage services covering various investment alternatives, such as exchange-traded and over-the-counter corporate equity and debt securities, money market instruments, exchange-traded options and futures contracts, municipal bonds, mutual funds, and unit investment trusts. The company also provides financial and wealth planning services; margin lending; securities lending; and online equity investing and discount brokerage services. In addition, it offers asset management services for equity, fixed income, large-cap balanced, and alternative investments offered through vehicles, such as privately managed accounts, and retail and institutional separate accounts. Further, the company provides strategic advisory services and capital markets products; institutional equity sales and trading; equity research; equity options and derivatives; convertible bonds; and event driven sales and trading services. Additionally, it trades in non-investment grade public and private debt securities, mortgage-backed securities, sovereign and corporate debt, and distressed securities; provides fixed income research, public finance, and municipal trading services; and is involved in proprietary trading and investment activities. The company also participates in loan syndications and operates as underwriting agent in financing transactions; trades syndicated corporate loans in the secondary market; offers various trust services; and provides mortgage services to developers of commercial properties. It serves high-net-worth individuals and families, corporate executives, small and mid-sized businesses, endowments and foundations, and institutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and South America. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Hilary Kramer]
With this news, some Wall Street firms finally ��albeit a bit late ��jumped on the ICPT bandwagon.� Citigroup (C) raised its target to $400, stating that its market cap (at the time $5.4 billion) didn�� reach the opportunity for these liver disease treatments.� They estimated that the OCA could exceed a $5 billion sales level.� Oppenheimer (OPY) also raised its target to $360 while Bank of America/Merrill’s (BAC) target is set at $872, the only one not yet exceeded with the most recent move.
- [By Ben Rooney]
Tamayo then handed that information over to Vladimir Eydelman, a stock broker at Oppenheimer (OPY) and Morgan Stanley (MS). Eydelman in turn used it to trade stocks for Tamayo and other customers.
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Wartsila Oyj Abp (WRT1V.HE)
Wartsila Oyj Abp is a Finland-based company. Its operations are divided into four segments: Power Plants, Ship Power, Services and PowerTech. The Power Plants segment offers multi-fuel solutions for power generation markets, such as gas power plants, dual-fuel power plants, oil power plants and liquid biofuel power plants, among others. The Ship Power segment offers a range of products and services to both shipyards and ship owners, such as medium-speed and low-speed engines, seals and bearings, automation systems, ship design and ballast water treatment systems, among others. The Services segment offers solutions, such as basic support, installation and commissioning, performance optimization and upgrades, among others. The PowerTech segment comprises research and development for medium-speed engines and other operations, with a focus on gas, environmental solutions and Smart Power Generation drives. It has operations in more than 160 locations in over 70 countries around the world. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Robert Wall var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach(fu]
The British company tried to strengthen its maritime engine business through a $10 billion takeover of Finland�� W盲rtsil盲 Oyj (WRT1V.HE) which rebuffed Rolls-Royce’s preliminary approach. The attempted acquisition of a company of that size surprised investors who hadn�� realized expansion was on management�� agenda so soon after its full takeover of Tognum, a German engineering company originally acquired in partnership with Daimler.
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE)
Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Energy Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index (the Index). The Index includes companies that primarily develop and produce crude oil and natural gas, and provide drilling and other energy-related services.
The Fund utilizes a passive or indexing investment approach to invest in a portfolio of stocks that seek to replicate the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is SSgA Funds Management, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) has gained 1.5% to $82.34 today, by far the best performance of any sector in the S&P 500. It’s lost 0.1% in August, but that too counts as a victory when every other sector has lost between the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF’s (XLB) 0.2% loss and the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR’s (XLP) 5% drop. The S&P 500 has fallen 2.9%.
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Vantiv Inc (VNTV)
Vantiv, Inc., formerly Advent-Kong Blocker Corp., incorporated on March 25, 2009, is a holding company that conducts its operations through its majority-owned subsidiaries, Vantiv Holding, LLC (Vantiv Holding) and Transactive Ecommerce Solutions Inc. (Transactive). The Company held 50.9% interest in the subsidiaries. The Company operates in two segments: Merchant Services and Financial Institution Services. The Company provides electronic payment processing services to merchants and financial institutions throughout the United States of America. The Company markets its services through diverse distribution channels, including a direct sales force, relationships with a range of independent sales organizations (ISOs), merchant banks, value-added resellers and trade associations as well as arrangements with core processors. In December 2012, the Company acquired Litle & Co.
The Company provides small and mid-sized clients with the solutions. In addition, it takes a consultative approach to providing services that help its clients enhance their payments-related services. The Company is also providing payment solutions for markets, such as prepaid, ecommerce and mobile payment offerings, because it processes payment transactions across the entire payment processing value chain on a single platform. The Company distributes its services through direct and indirect distribution channels. Its direct channel includes a national sales force that targets financial institutions and national merchants, regional and mid-market sales teams that sell solutions to merchants and third-party reseller clients and a telesales operation that targets small and mid-sized merchants. Its indirect channel to merchants includes relationships with a range of ISOs, merchant banks, value-added resellers and trade associations that target merchants, including small and mid-sized merchants. Its indirect channel to financial institutions includes relationships with third-party resellers and core processors.
M! erchant Services
The Company provides a suite of payment processing services, including acquiring and processing transactions, value-added services and merchant services for banks and credit unions. The Company authorizes, clears, settles and provides reporting for electronic payment transactions for its merchant services clients. Its client base includes over 400,000 merchant locations. The Company enables merchants of all sizes to accept and process credit, debit and prepaid payments and provide them supporting services, such as information solutions, interchange management and fraud management, as well as vertical-specific solutions in sectors, such as grocery, pharmacy, retail, petroleum and restaurants, including, quick service restaurants (QSRs).
The Company competes with Bank of America Merchant Services, Chase Paymentech Solutions, Elavon Inc., First Data Corporation, Global Payments, Inc., Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. and WorldPay US, Inc.
Financial Institution Services
The Company provides integrated card issuer processing, payment network processing and value-added services to financial institutions. Its services include a suite of transaction processing capabilities, including fraud protection, card production, prepaid cards and automated teller machine (ATM) driving and allow financial institutions to offer electronic payments solutions to their customers on a technology platform. The Company serves a diverse set of financial institutions, including regional banks, community banks, credit unions and regional personal identification number (PIN) debit networks. The Company focuses on small to mid-sized institutions. It provides a turnkey solution to such institutions to enable them to offer payment processing solutions. Its client base includes over 1,300 financial institutions. Its bank clients include Capital One Bank, Fifth Third Bank and First Niagara.
The Company competes with Fidelity National Information Services, ! Inc., Fir! st Data Corporation, Fiserv, Inc., Total System Services, Inc. and Visa Debit Processing Service.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Vantiv (NYSE: VNTV ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Vantage Drilling Company(VTG)
Vantage Drilling Company, through its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services to oil and natural gas companies in the United States and internationally. The company offers drilling units, related equipment, and work crews under contract to drill oil and natural gas wells; construction supervision services; and operates and manages drilling units owned by others. Its customers primarily include multinational oil and natural gas companies, government owned oil and natural gas companies, and independent oil and natural gas producers. The company owns and manages four jackup rigs and three drillships. Vantage Drilling Company was founded in 2007 and is based in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Despite the recent pain for offshore drilliers like Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO), Noble (NE), Transocean (RIG) and Vantage Drilling (VTG), RBC Capital Markets’ Robert Pinkard and team don’t think it’s time to buy their stocks. They explain why:
- [By Dimitra DeFotis]
Global Hunter also lowered its rating on Natural Gas Services Group (NGS) and Vantage Drilling (VTG). Global Hunter writes:
The market seems to be showing fatigue particularly with positive onshore oil service data points that may no�longer seem incremental. Investors have become especially focused on potential issues and macro concerns. We believe this phase�of enhanced risk perceptions will pass and still recommend owning selective stocks based on attractive valuations and healthy�fundamentals. Of the 16 oilfield services companies having reported their quarters to date, the share price changes have at times�been difficult to tie to specific results. �… Five of the 12 companies who have beaten earnings expectations have seen their share prices drop on the day, including Basic Energy Services (BAS) (-9.0%), Baker Hughes (BHI) (-2.5%), National Oilwell Varco (NOV) (-1.5%), Oceaneering (OII) (-4.2%), and Schlumberger (SLB) (-2.0%). Other stocks beating expectations have traded higher as expected, including Cameron International (CAM) (+4.1%), FMC Technologies (FTI) (+3.1%), Mitcham Industries (MIND) (+3.8%), Nabors Industries (NBR) (+1.2%), Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN) (+1.8%), RPC (RES) (+8.4%), and Weatherford International (WFT) (+2.3%). Companies which have missed have universally seen their share prices decline, including Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO) (-4.3%), Gulfmark Offshore (GLF) (-0.1%), and Hercules Offshore (HERO) (-6.9%). Halliburton (HAL) was in line and flat on the day.
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Waste Connections Inc. (WCN)
Waste Connections, Inc., an integrated solid waste services company, provides solid waste collection, transfer, disposal, and recycling services. The company also offers intermodal services, including repositioning, storage, maintenance, and repair of cargo containers for international shipping companies for the rail haul movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest. In addition, it provides container and chassis sales and leasing services to its customers. Further, the company offers residential, commercial, and industrial solid waste collection services; and provides recycling services for various recyclable materials, including cardboard, office paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals. Its transfer stations receive, compact, and load solid waste to be transported to landfills via truck, rail, or barge. As of December 31, 2010, the company owned or operated a network of 135 solid waste collection operations, 54 t ransfer stations, 39 recycling operations, 44 active landfills, and 7 intermodal facilities, as well as one exploration and production waste treatment and disposal facility. It serves approximately two million residential, commercial, and industrial customers from a network of operations in 27 states in the United States. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Folsom, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Marc Bastow]
Integrated municipal solid waste services company Waste Connections (WCN) raised its quarterly dividend 15% to 11.5 cents per share, payable on Nov. 19 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 5.
WCN Dividend Yield:�1.04% - [By Rich Smith]
Treasure in trash
Markets are up modestly in early trading Monday, and one company leading the way upwards is trash collector Waste Connections (NYSE: WCN ) . Up nearly 39% over the past year, and up nearly twice as much as the S&P 500, Waste Connections got a further boost today when analysts at Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock to $47 a share.
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