Seagate (STX) (VRTX) (TYC) (AREX) (EPAY) (AKAM) Ratings, Price Targets

Seagate (NYSE: STX), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX), Tyco International Ltd (NYSE: TYC), Approach Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: AREX), Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) and Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM) ratings and price targets.

Seagate (STX) had its “Buy” rating reiterated by Auriga.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) had its “Hold” rating reiterated by Brean Murray.

Tyco International Ltd (TYC) had its “Neutral” rating reiterated by Nomura (NYSE:NMR).

Johnson Rice initiated coverage on Approach Resources Inc. (AREX). They placed an “Overweight” rating on the company.

Bottomline Technologies (EPAY) had its price target raised by Needham & Company from $29.00 to $33.00. They have a “Buy” rating on the company.

Akamai Technologies (AKAM) was downgraded by B. Riley from a “Buy” rating to a “Neutral” rating.

Molex (MOLX) (MRVL) (ITUB) (JOE) (BPFH) (MOH) Ratings, Price Targets

Molex (NASDAQ: MOLX), Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL), Itau Unibanco Holding Sociedade (NASDAQ: ITUB), The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE), Boston Private Financial Holdings Incorporated (NASDAQ: BPFH) and Molina Healthcare (NYSE: MOH) ratings and price targets.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) reiterated its "Underperform" rating on Molex (MOLX). They have a price target of $19.00 on the company.

Nomura (NYSE:NMR) reiterated its "Neutral" rating on Marvell Technology Group (MRVL).

Itau Unibanco Holding Sociedade (ITUB) was downgraded by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) from an “Overweight” rating to a “Neutral” rating.

The St. Joe Company (JOE) was downgraded by Raymond James (NYSE:RJF) from an “Outperform” rating to a “Market Perform” rating.

Boston Private Financial Holdings Incorporated (BPFH) was upgraded by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from a “Market Perform” rating to an “Outperform” rating.

Molina Healthcare (MOH) had its price target raised by UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) from $22.00 to $31.00. They have a “Neutral” rating on the company.

Allstate (ALL) (RF) (SMBL) (TSCO) (ACAS) (AMX) Ratings Reiterated

Allstate (NYSE: ALL), Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF), Smart Balance Inc. (NASDAQ: SMBL), Tractor Supply Co. (NASDAQ: TSCO), American Capital (NASDAQ: ACAS) and America Movil S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: AMX) had ratings on them reiterated by analysts.

Nomura (NYSE:NMR) reiterated its "Buy" rating on Regions Financial Corp. (RF).

Canaccord Genuity reiterated its "Hold" rating on Smart Balance Inc. (SMBL).

Nomura reiterated its "Buy" rating on Tractor Supply Co. (TSCO).

Zacks Investment Research reiterated its "Neutral" rating on American Capital (ACAS). They have a price target of $7.50 on the company.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) reiterated its "Sell" rating on Allstate (ALL).

Goldman Sachs reiterated its "Neutral" rating on America Movil S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX).

Amazon.com (AMZN) Ratings, Price Targets

Updates on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) ratings and price targets.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) had its “Neutral” rating reiterated by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS).

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) reiterated its “Overweight” rating on Amazon.com. They have a price target of $260.00 on the company.

Piper Jaffray (NYSE: PJC) reiterated an “Overweight” rating on Amazon.com. They have a price target of $256.00 on the company.

Morgan Keegan initiated coverage on Amazon.com. They placed an “Outperform” rating and a price target of $210.00 on the company.

Canaccord Genuity initiated coverage on Amazon.com. They placed a “Hold” rating and a price target of $225.00 on the company.

Nomura (NYSE: NMR) reiterated its “Neutral” rating on Amazon.com.

Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) reiterated its “Buy” rating on Amazon.com. They have a price target of $240.00 on the company.

Qualcomm's (QCOM) Earnings Preview Mixed from Nomura, Cowen

Analysts at Nomura and Cowen expect Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) to report solid earnings next week, but there appears to be some concern over guidance for the current quarter, as uncertainty surrounds existing market conditions.

Nomura analyst Sidney Ho noted, “We expect Qualcomm to report a strong quarter next week, driven by growing 3G adoption, share gains in wireless and Apple. While Qualcomm is clearly well positioned, we foresee pockets of inventory in handsets, lower ASPs and weak tablet sales pressuring the stock during the next six months. As such, we maintain our Neutral rating and $51 price target based on 17x CY11E EPS of $3.00.”

Cowen & Co. analyst Matthew Hoffman said, “We expect a strong March quarter report; however, market conditions have clouded somewhat in our most recent checks and we now see the company being more cautious with its F3Q11 (June) outlook,” he wrote. “We still see multiple longer-term drivers for QCOM shares: (1) QCOM’s Android traction is growing with more high-ASP Snapdragon tablet wins on deck, (2) likely Apple wins drive better chip volumes over the next several quarters, (3) Nokia likely begins buying Snapdragon chips for its Windows Phone 7 portfolio before YE11, and (4) Windows 8 on ARM will open up the low tiers of the notebook PC market to QCOM in FY12. On that basis we would add to positions on weakness; we see QCOM shares appreciating 30% rel. to market over next 12 months.”

Qualcomm was trading at $53.27, up $0.67, or 1.27 percent, as of 1:10 PM EDT.

Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), UBS (UBS), Bid on Petrom Sale

Six financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), UBS AG (NYSE:UBS), Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604) and Renaissance Capital have made bids for managing the sale of a 9.8 percent stake in OMV Petrom SA (SNP).

They have partnered with brokerages in Romania and other banks in an effort to win the business.

Romania, which values the stake in the country’s largest oil company at $698 million, plans to sell the shares by the end of June, to raise money for investment, Economy Ministry official Victor Cazana said today in Bucharest. The Balkan nation also plans to sell stakes in utilities Transelectrica SA (TEL) and Transgaz SA by the end of 2011 and will select managers to handle the sales after completing the Petrom transaction, Cazana said.

Expectations are a decision on who will manage the sale will be made within two weeks.

Verizon (NYSE:VZ) Finds Support in Wireless Margins, Postpaid Additions

In their fourth quarter report, Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) was found to have had support from their postpaid additions and wireless margins.

Nomura said, "Postpaid net additions and Wireless margins in 4Q were all better than both our and consensus expectations. Key to the initial read of investors will be 872K wireless net additions on stronger margins vs. our expectations for 724K and consensus of 634k. We expect the shares to react positively to the news today given outperformance virtually across the board. Nonetheless, we believe investors will be potentially more focused on the upcoming iPhone launch and the overall level of iPhone dilution in 2011 as well as the potential for a reversal of the dilution in 2012, a dynamic we are growing more skeptical on.

"The one area of softness was FiOS net additions and continued weakness in the DSL market. We continue to believe that Verizon manages FiOS net additions based on margin capacity, and is content to allow continued DSL defections...we expect the company will address network capacity issues, but leave financial and subscriber metric guidance largely untouched. Nonetheless, we hope to get some broad commentary on revenue and margin trends for 2011 and 2012."

Nomura Securities reiterates a "Neutral" rating on Verizon Communications (VZ), which was trading at $35.79, gaining $0.55, or 1.56 percent, as of 1:57 PM EST.

News Corp (Nasdaq:NWS-A), CBS (NYSE:CBS), Disney (NYSE:DIS), Viacom (NYSE:VIA) Top Major Media Companies in 2011 Say Nomura

News Corp (Nasdaq:NWS) continues to be the top media pick of Nomura Securities in 2011, which also likes CBS (NYSE:CBS), Disney (NYSE:DIS) and Viacom (NYSE:VIA).

Media companies expected to continue to struggle in 2011 are Scripps Networks (NYSE:SNI) and Discovery (Nasdaq:DISCA), although in the short term Discovery may get a boost for their fourth quarter results, which Nomura raised their estimates on, as well as they did with Disney.

Nomura said, "For calendar 4Q10 earnings, we are raising our EPS estimates for Disney (DIS) and Discovery (DISCA) (lower EBITDA offset by lower marked-to-market equity-based comp) and lowering our estimates. We continue to rate News Corp (NWSA) our top pick for 2011 and reiterate our Buy ratings for CBS Corp (CBS), Disney (DIS) and Viacom (VIA)."

"Since the beginning of 2011, Discovery and Scripps Networks, the two pure-play cable network companies, have underperformed the market and their closest media peers. Year-to-date, DISCA and SNI have lagged the S&P 500 by 603 bps and 1,150 bps, respectively. Conversely, Time Warner and Viacom have performed markedly better - Time Warner currently lags the market by 12 bps while Viacom has outpaced the market by 470 bps."

"This month’s slide appears to have been triggered by comments made at a recent industry conference at which Scripps Networks' management noted 4Q10 advertising would unlikely match the prior quarter’s growth rate due in part to ratings softness at its networks. Scripps Networks, which posted impressive mid-to-high teen growth ex-Travel Channel through the first three quarters of 2010, seems to finally be slowing down. We are lowering our underlying advertising growth estimate for 4Q to a still-respectable +13.4% down from our last published estimate of +19.6% (see the end of this report for a detailed 4Q preview). Due primarily to that change, we are reducing our estimates by $0.03 and now project SNI will report 4Q10 EPS of $0.68 vs. consensus of $0.70.

"Disney will report F1Q11 earnings after the market close on Tuesday, February 8th. We anticipate Disney will start its fiscal year strongly and are increasing our F1Q11E EPS to $0.58, $0.02 ahead of consensus and our prior $0.56 estimate.

"Discovery Communications will report 4Q10 earnings before the market opens on Friday, February 11th. We believe Discovery will have an in-line quarter, as some ratings weakness should limit the usual outperformance investors expect from the company. We project EPS of $0.51, a penny below consensus driven by +8% revenue growth (vs. +9% previously) and +19.5% EBITDA growth (vs. +21.8% previously).

News Corp. was trading at $17.53, gaining $0.62, or 3.67 percent, as of 2:02 PM EST. CBS was at $20.80, up $0.10, or 0.48 percent. Disney was trading at $39.89, gaining $0.15, or 0.38 percent. Viacom was trading at $48.45, up $0.24, or 0.50 percent.

Why Citigroup (NYSE:C) Missed on Earnings

Earnings for Citigroup (NYSE:C) in their latest quarter were extremely disappointing, missing analysts' expectations by twice what they were looking for.

Nomura analyst Glenn Schorr gave his take on Citigroup's performance, and said most of it can be attributed to slow trading and expenses at the giant bank.

Nomura had been looking for earnings of $0.07 a share, with consensus at $0.08 a share. Citigroup was only able to generate $0.04 a share for the quarter.

The expense portion cited by Schorr is what he believes when the hit related to the CVA took away the tax benefit.

Citing a 10.7 percent Tier 1 Common ratio and reserves standing at $40.7 billion, along with loan, deposit and investment banking growth internationally, Schorr sees Citigroup continuing to improve.

Normura maintains a "Buy" rating on Citigroup, which closed Tuesday at $4.80, losing $0.33, or 6.43 percent. Schorr has a price target on Citigroup of $5.50 a share.

Buy News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA) on Weakness Says Nomura, Catalysts Coming

Nomura Securities recommends buying News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA) on any weakness before expected catalysts in 2011 drive the stock up.

Nomura says, "We believe investors should be buying NWS on any weakness as we anticipate these levels present an attractive entry point before a number of catalysts emerge over the year. The growth of Cable Networks is being hurt by tough compares at the other divisions which should subside by the end of the March quarter. Assigning an 8.5x multiple for the Cable Networks would imply the remaining assets are trading at less than 2x.

"As we start cycling through the tough Avatar compares in Filmed Entertainment over the next couple of quarters, the Cable Networks’ operating profit will start to have an even greater impact. In addition, we anticipate losses at MySpace will be reduced either organically or through disposition, which will also improve overall profit growth. Lastly, clarity for NWS’ potential acquisition of BSkyB, which we assume will occur in summer 2011, should also help the share price as well as lift the company’s growth and profit predictability. We would be buyers in advance of these catalysts."

Nomura Securities maintains a "Buy" rating on News Corp., which was trading at $15.91, down $0.06, or 0.38 percent, as of 1:35 PM EST. Nomura raised their price target on Nomura from $18.50 to $20.

Disney EPS Led by Cable Expansion, 2011 Films

Nomura Securities raised their EPS estimates on Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) for 2011, citing the growth of profits a their cable networks and a strong slate of films over 2010's offerings.

Nomura said, "Over the next year, Disney is poised to grow EPS by 20% driven by continued profit expansion at cable networks, a stronger FY2011 film slate, improving consumer products licensing and lower Interactive losses...As a result, we are raising our FY11 EPS estimate from $2.43 to $2.47 - $0.03 ahead of the current consensus EPS estimate.

"This growth profile includes modest profit contributions from domestic parks, which we expect will continue to post moderate profit growth despite the lift of a new Disney cruise ship in 2011. A quicker Park’s recovery is gravy to the story...While assets are in place for a multi-year growth story, the biggest risk we see at Disney is the sustainability of its premium at a 10-35% multiple relative to its media conglomerate peers."

Nomura Securities maintains a "Buy" rating on Walt Disney, which closed Monday at $37.13, up $0.47, or 1.28 percent. They have a price target of $43 on them.

Viacom (VIA-B) Gaining on Increased Advertising Revenue

Advertising revenue is again driving results for Viacom (NYSE:VIA-B), as new client money enters the fold and current advertisers raise their spend.

Nomura Securities said, "Our analysis of Viacom’s advertiser base in CY3Q:10 shows that the improvement in growth was fueled by a combination of strong increases by Viacom’s endemic advertisers and the introduction of new client money...In FY2011, we now estimate domestic ad growth of 7.5% skewed more to the early half of the fiscal year. As mentioned above, Viacom is benefitting from the return of core ad clients and the arrival of new ones. Given the relative attractive valuation of Viacom vs. cable network pure plays, we believe investors will continue rotating into Viacom if ad growth meets our forecast."

Earnings per share for full year 2011 was increased from $3.28 to $3.35 and for full year 2012 from $3.64 to $3.76. Nomura maintains their "Buy" rating on the entertainment company.

Viacom closed Friday at $38.39, falling by $0.06, or 0.16 percent. Nomura has a price target of $46 on them.