Cisco (CSCO) (NOG) (SNX) (SPRD) (LLY) (DCT) Upgraded

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG), SYNNEX Co. (NYSE: SNX), Spreadtrum Communications (NASDAQ: SPRD), Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) and DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE: DCT) upgraded by analysts.

Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NOG) was upgraded by Global Hunter Securities from a “Neutral” rating to an “Accumulate” rating. They have a price target of $24.00 on the company.

SYNNEX Co. (SNX) was upgraded by Stifel Nicolaus from a “Hold” rating to a “Buy” rating. They have a price target of $32.00 on the company.

Spreadtrum Communications (SPRD) was upgraded by Needham & Company from a “Buy” rating to a “Strong Buy” rating.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) was upgraded by Gleacher & Co. from a “Neutral” rating to a “Buy” rating. They have a price target of $20.00 on the company.

Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) was upgraded by Argus from a "Hold” rating to a “Buy” rating.

DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (DCT) was upgraded by FBR Capital from an “Underperform” rating to an “Outperform” rating.

Ratings on (SPRD) (UPL) (TEVA) (VRTX) Upgraded

Analysts upgraded their ratings on Spreadtrum Communicationss (NASDAQ: SPRD), Ultra Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: UPL), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NASDAQ: TEVA) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRTX) today.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) upgraded Spreadtrum Commications (SPRD) from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating.

Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA) from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating.

Canaccord Genuity upgraded Ultra Petroleum Corp. (UPL) from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating.

ThinkEquity upgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating.

Biggest Losers (BRE) (GGC) (SPRD) (PVH) (KMX) on May 6

Among the big, negative movers on Friday, May 6, were Bre Properties (BRE), Georgia Gulf Corp. (GGC), Spreadtrum Communications (SPRD), Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) and Carmax Inc (KMX).

Bre Properties (BRE) was down $2.17, to close at $48.10, a loss of 4.32 percent.

Georgia Gulf Corp. (GGC) fell $2.15 on the day to close at $31.20, a loss of 6.45 percent.

Spreadtrum Communications (SPRD) dropped $2.12 to close at $19.90, a loss of 9.63 percent.

Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) declined $2.09 to close the session at $67.53, a loss of 3.00 percent.

Carmax Inc (KMX) plunged $2.04 to end the day at $31.81, a loss of 6.03 percent.

Spreadtrum's (SPRD) Hot Performance Continues On

Spreadtrum Communications (Nasdaq:SPRD) took it to the market in their latest quarterly earnings report, even as Marvell Technology Group (Nasdaq:MRVL) was heading in the opposite direction.

The slow move towards cheaper smartphones is costing Marvell, as they lost a large amount of business when Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) decided to move in that direction last quarter.

A disappointing report by Marvell Technology Group put some more weight on the mobile market's burden. But radio-chip specialist Spreadtrum Communications looks as good as can be, jumping briefly to all-time highs and 12.1% gains on a fantastic fourth-quarter report.

The comparison to Marvell is a perhaps little unfair. as Marvell is only just looking to move downstream into cheaper handsets, and Spreadtrum is a giant in the TD-SCDMA chips used in China.

Citing execution and an improved cost structure, CFO Shannon Gao presented 200% year-over-year revenue growth and guided to another record-sales quarter coming right up. Sales of mobile radio chips more than quadrupled, albeit at dramatically lower unit prices.

That's the market environment into which Marvell, Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), and other American chip wranglers are dying to make inroads. The promise of the world's largest consumer market overrides price-war fears.

Spreadtrum closed Friday at $23.07, gaining $1.45, or 6.71 percent.




Source

Agilent (A), Cadence (CADX), Cooper (COO US), LSB (LXU), Spreadtrum (SPRD) Jump on Earnings, Guidance

Shares of Agilent Technologies Inc. (A), Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CADX), Cooper Cos. (COO US), LSB Industries Inc. (LXU), Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) were all hopping today, as they beat expectations and/or gave strong guidance.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) was up over 5 percent, as they boosted their guidance for long-term sales and operating margin forecasts, according to JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM). Agilent was trading at $45.19, gaining $2.37, or 5.53 percent, as of 1:13 PM EST.

Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CADX) was rocking, as the loss for the quarter was a penny less than analysts were looking for. The company was trading at $8.58, up $1.07, or 14.25 percent.

Cooper Cos. (COO) is up on beating analysts' expectation for earnings by 26 percent. Trading at $68.00, up $4.38, or 6.88 percent, the company was on top of the leaders in the Russell 1000 Index.

LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) made its big upward moved based on profits more than doubling over analysts' estimates, coming in at 79 cents a share. They were trading at $35.79, gaining $3.71, or 11.56 percent.

Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) climbed on fourth-quarter sales of $126.5 million, beating the average analyst estimate of $123.4 million. They traded at $22.78, up $1.16, or 5.37 percent.

Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM), Broadcom (Nasdaq:BRCM), Atheros (Nasdaq:ATHR), Altera (Nasdaq:ALTR), Omnivision (Nasdaq:OVTI), Spreadtrum (Nasdaq:SPRD) and Semiconductor Rally

Commenting on a number of companies in the semiconduction industry, FBR Capital openly questioned how long companies like Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM), Broadcom (Nasdaq:BRCM), Atheros (Nasdaq:ATHR), Altera (Nasdaq:ATHR), Omnivision (Nasdaq:OVTI) and Spreadtrum (Nasdaq:SPRD), among others, can continue to move up as they have.

FBR said Our latest 4Q production start checks were largely stable versus our prior month checks in aggregate, with slight production improvements by Qualcomm; Broadcom, and Atheros fully offset by production cuts from Altera and Mediatek. On a sequential basis, we still think 4Q production starts will grow by roughly 3%-4% QOQ due to production increases from Qualcomm, Broadcom, Omnivision, and Spreadtrum, and largely offset by sequential production decreases from AMD (NYSE:AMD), Atheros, Marvell (Nasdaq:MRVL), Silicon Labs (Nasdaq:SLAB), Nvidia (Nasdaq:NVDA), and others. Clearly Qualcomm is prepping its basebands for the launch of the CDMA iPhone, and possibly the rest of Apple's (Nasdaq:AAPL) iPhone and iPad product lineup. Our first look at 1Q'11 production starts is surprisingly resilient, with 1Q starts set to grow about 1% QOQ in aggregate. For 1Q'11, a large sequential increase in production starts from Qualcomm and modest production increases from PC chip suppliers AMD, Nvidia, and Marvell are more than fully offsetting traditional seasonal declines in production starts from others. Regarding the sector, we note that chip stocks have had a powerful rally since September 1 with meaningful rallies in stocks like BRCM, QCOM, Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), MXIM (Nasdaq:MXIM), Fairchild Semi (NYSE:FCS), Int'l Rectifier (NYSE: IRF), Microsemi (Nasdaq:MSCC), and others. So, while chip stocks seem to want to rally into the end of the year, we wonder how long a straight move higher can continue."

Altera closed Monday at $37.40, down $0.31, or 0.81. Qualcomm closed at $48.32, falling $0.50, or 1.02 percent. Broadcom finished at $45.57, losing $0.19, or 0.42 percent. Atheros finished the day at $34.33, gaining $0.52, or 1.54 percent. Omnivision ended Monday at $31.49, up by $0.37, or 1.19 percent. Spreadtrum closed at $17.39, losing $0.08, or 0.46 percent.

Spreadtrum Communications (NASDAQ:SPRD) Facing Pricing Pressure and Slow China Growth

Even though Spreadtrum Communications (NASDAQ:SPRD) reported solid sales and earnings per share for the third quarter, Canaccord isn't convinced the guidance given by management is necessarily in line with how it'll turn out for them.

"Spreadtrum reported Q3/10 sales of $96.2M and pro forma EPS of $0.43 versus our $91.7M/$0.34 estimates. Spreadtrum management guided to revenue of $118M-125M and gross margin of 42.5-43.5% for Q4/10, well above our $97.6M/41.8% estimates. Due to continued slow growth of China TD-SCDMA unit sales and pricing pressure, we are raising our price target to $17 but maintaining our rating."

Spreadtrum closed slightly in positive territory Thursday, rising by $0.03, or 0.20 percent, to $15.39. Canaccord has a price target of $17 on them, along with a "Hold" rating.