Early Morning Tid-bits:
Courtesy of Notable Calls
– Goldman Sachs downgrades First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) to Sell and adds to their Conviction Sell List
NC: The stock will get hit today in a major way. There is little support for FSLR in this mkt. I would not be surprised to see the stock hit par in the coming months. Note that SPWR gets the boot from GSCO as well. Piper lowers FSLR tgt to $250 from $350.
– Morgan Stanley reits Overweight and $175 tgt on Monsanto (NYSE:MON) noting soft commodity price bearsare lurking around the wrong stock. While they do not foresee a $3 bushel of corn, the firm notes they have always modeled Monsanto’s pricing power as if the farmer was only going to realize $3 corn (and $8 soybeans). The market appears to have a dispositive view (i.e., expecting $3 corn and for it to result in demand destruction for Monsanto’s products)
Firm believes that farmers will earn a 72% ROIC on the triple stack in F09 at $3 corn (and would still earn a 45% ROIC at $2 corn) and therefore see little risk of demand destruction should new crop corn prices decline further from their present position.
NC: I think MON should be on your bounce radar today.
– FBR is upgrading Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc. (NSYE:FCX) to Outperform with a $85 tgt with a view that the stock is oversold and that the risk/reward is now compelling. Valuation multiples have contracted significantly, and free cash generation is strong even if copper prices were to contract further.
NC: This is a major call in my opinion. When was the last time you saw this one upgraded? FBR has been skittish on the space for quite a while. FCX is trading around 5x 2008/2009 EPS. This one could reach $48-$50 level in a jiffy.
– RBC Capital is out with some positive comments on Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) saying the BlackBerry 9530 Storm, RIM’s first widescreen/touchscreen Smartphone, is expected to be announced this week (possibly Wednesday in London) in a joint Verizon/Vodafone/RIM press conference. Launch still expected 1st week November; they expect 850k Storms shipped Q3/Q4, and 3-4M units FTM. Exclusively at Verizon/Vodafone (who do not carry the iPhone), Storm may be aggressively marketed by these carriers and RIM into the holidays.
Maintains Sector Perform and $90 tgt.
NC: I think you should add RIMM to your bounce list. The stock acted very nicely yesterday. We may get some follow-through today.
Hope it helps,
NC
