symc

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) shares rose even though it reported a wider loss for the quarter.
• American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) posted better-than-expected Q1 results but warned of challenges.
• Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) reported a net loss and slumping revenues for the first quarter.
• Center Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: CLFC) was downgraded following its Q1 earnings report.
• Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) posted lower Q3 earnings that still topped analysts estimates.

Fed Chairman Bernanke gave an outline of regulation for banks and financial institutions today, and the weekly jobless claims gave some hope that tomorrow's unemployment might come in under expectations. There is a "sell the news" mentality that is going around ahead of the stress test and there was some tech profit taking after John Chambers was less optimistic. It looks like at least some profit taking is actually possible to see again.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,376.64 -135.64 (-1.59%)
S&P 500 907.28 -12.25 (-1.33%)
Nasdaq 1,716.24 -42.86 (-2.44%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC - option chain) stock is falling today after the company reported a first-quarter loss of $249.4 million, or 30 cents per share. SYMC's adjusted profit of 38 cents per share met analysts' forecasts of 38 cents per share, but the company's revenue of $1.47 billion missed projections of $1.52 billion. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on SYMC.

This morning, SYMC opened at $16.04. So far today the stock has hit a low of $14.48 and a high of $16.09. As of 11:35, SYMC is trading at $15.00, down $2.59 (-14.7%). The chart for SYMC looks neutral and S&P gives SYMC a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

Analyst upgrades:

• Morgan Stanley said Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) capital needs are largely known and shares are trading "cheaply despite reduced downside risk." The firm upgraded shares to Overweight from Underweight and raised the price target to $25 from $16. Shares were also upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird citing manageable capital needs and attractive risk/reward.
  
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation as it views the stock as inexpensive despite the recent rally. The firm has an $8 target on the stock.
• Banc of America/Merrill upgraded Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) to Buy from Neutral as it believes fewer hedging losses could bring upside over the next few quarters.
• Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Barclays.
  
• EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC) was lifted to Buy from Neutral at Janney Montgomery.
  
• Westpac Banking (NYSE: WBK) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Analyst upgrades:

• RBC Capital believes software stock fundamentals have bottomed and that the next several quarters should see reduced earnings risk, easier comps, stimulus spending benefits, and lower FX headwinds. The firm upgraded Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO), Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) to Outperform from Sector Perform.
  
• Rodman & Renshaw upgraded Provectus (OTC: PVCT) to Outperform from Market Perform. The firm has increased conviction in the success of the company's ongoing trial of PV-10 in melanoma.
  
• Citigroup upgraded shares of American Express (NYSE: AXP) to Hold from Sell as it believes the risk/reward is balanced at current levels and that there are signs of potential credit market stabilization. The firm raised its price target on shares to $16 from $9.
• Brinker (NYSE: EAT) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.
  
• PG&E (NYSE: PCG) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  
• Federal-Mogul (NASDAQ: FDML) was lifted to Conviction Buy from Buy at Goldman.

President Obama is now searching for a third candidate to fill the Commerce Secretary position now that Senator Judd Gregg has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position. Scouring the Intrawebs, it seems that the word that most people are using for this rebuff is "embarrassment." While I am a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, I don't know if I would go as far as saying this is an embarrassment - the President tried to reach across party lines and got bit. In fact (and I am watching out for lightning here), Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel hit the nail on the head when he said, "It's better we discovered it now than later ... If I said it wasn't a disappointment, that would lack credibility."

Forget about Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)'s Jerry Yang being pushed out. His firm is an internet company. CEOs in the heart of the tech industry may begin losing their jobs in greater number as the recession takes hold and boards seek new management that can contain costs and hold investors.

Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC)'s CEO stepped down yesterday. He said the move had been planned. Maybe. Maybe not.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Symantec Corp. said Chief Executive John W. Thompson will retire at the end of the company's fiscal year in April."

Not mentioned in the announcement was the fact that the company's stock is off 45% in the last three months. SYMC's direct competitor McAfee (NYSE: MFE) is only down 25%, about the same as the DJIA. Symantec recently announced net profits lower than those in the two immediately previous quarters.

The sacking of execs may be moving from finance to tech.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and Chrysler LLC and the head of the United Auto Workers union will testify at a Senate Banking Committee hearing as they seek $25 billion in aid. While the democrats generally support their request, the Bush administration and Republican are against the proposed bailout. GM shares traded about 7.5% lower by midday.

The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) reported better-than-expected quarterly financial results Tuesday -- 45 cents per share profit vs. estimates of 38 cents per share according to Thomson Reuters. Sales, however, continued to decline -- 6.2% in the quarter -- amid ongoing weakness in the housing, construction and retail sectors and the home improvement retailer warned that sales could plunge 8% for the year. HD shares are up 2.25% in premarket trading (8:04 am). HD shares traded about 6.5% lower by midday.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) founder and CEO Jerry Yang has finally decided to step aside as chief executive. Apparently, he's too emotionally involved to run the struggling internet portal properly. The new CEO will face the same problems Yang faced when Semel left and he was made CEO, boosting earnings and facing skeptic investors. But now the job will be that much harder in the current economic downturn. This could clear the way for Yahoo selling to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). YHOO shares are jumping nearly 12% in premarket trading (8:04 am). Shares of MSFT are up 1.2% in premarket trading as well (8:08 am). YHOO shares gained nearly 13% by midday.

[Added 8:32: Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) shares are soaring 12.75% in premarket trading (8:17 am) after the company said it expects fiscal fourth-quarter results above Wall Street's expectations due to its global reach, diverse customer base and cost-cutting measures, and despite the bad economy.] HPQ shares gained 12.75% by midday.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) posted a large-than-expected earnings decline due to bad investments.
• AmeriCredit Corp.(NYSE: ACF) was downgraded despite topping Q1 expectations.
• BP (NYSE: BP) Q3 earnings and revenue soared due to surging energy prices.
• CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) Q3 results included some big charges and no free cash.
• Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) posted strong Q1 results that easily topped Wall Street expectations.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) posted better-than-expected Q3 profits lifted by price increases.
• DivX Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX) topped earnings expectations and offered revised guidance.
• Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) narrowed its net loss in Q2 and matched expectations.
• First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Q3 revenue more than doubled, results easily topping estimates.
• Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: HIG) posted its first quarterly loss in five years.
• Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) topped Q3 earnings estimates and offered full-year guidance.
• Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) solid Q3 results were helped by higher prices and offered neutral guidance.
• McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE) reported that it topped earnings estimates, sending shares higher.
• Nintendo Co. (OTC: NTDOY) posted solid results driven by popularity of the Wii and DS systems.
• Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) topped Q1 expectations but lowered its full-year forecast.
• Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) Q3 earnings tumbled on the recession and exchange rate issues.
• Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) earnings were affected a loss of market share and currency issues.
• U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) reported the most profitable quarter in its history and beat estimates.
• Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) Q3 earnings matched expectations but shares rose.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Adam Katz.

Regarding Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) earnings, the company is having a tough time in this environment for several reasons. First, its consumer business saw a massive slowdown starting in September. Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV) reported earnings a day before SYMC and tipped the hand of SYMC's consumer business stating that its core business grew 27% sans SYMC, yet the business overall grew at 17% YoY.

Secondly, currency helped SYMC over the past two years and the strength in the dollar has created a stiff headwind.

Third, the company is losing market share in the enterprise to McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE) which, due to more efficient R&D as well as smart acquisitions, can now outstack SYMC.

So what to do here? The stock is cheap, and given the amount of recurring revenue that it has, along with the number of pure play software companies that have technology SYMC needs, the company will likely assemble a competitive response. Then it becomes a function of management execution. Ultimately, I think MFE presents the better risk reward for growth investors, while SYMC is more appropriate for a value investor looking to buy discounted cashflow.

Despite a negative GDP report coming in at -0.3% to begin that start of the recession, stocks actually spent most of the day in the black. The Treasury has finally started paying TARP funds out to large banks, and the second tier banks are next in line. Oil is contained, and an old and haggard looking T. Boone Pickens gave an interview this morning saying he was out of oil but thinks oil will go back to $100.00 next year.

Here are today's closing bell levels:
DJIA: 9,180.69 (+2.11%)
NASDAQ: 1,698.52 (+2.49)
S&P 500: 954.09 (+2.58)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) shares were down over 5% at $39.68 right before the close, but that is better than the -1% at one point after yesterday's close. The biotech giant disclosed a US-case of PML that was detected early via MRI in one of its TYSABRI patients.

With virtually no IPOs, tech companies have little choice but to sell out. Just take a look at MessageLabs, which has agreed to a $695 million deal from Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC).

The main focus of MessageLabs is on securing email and messaging. OK, this is not particularly exciting – or groundbreaking. However, the company had the foresight to build a web-based platform, which is certainly attractive to customers.

Symantec has been trying to build its own web-based systems but this has proven difficult. So, why not buy up some operators in the space?

Over the past year, MessageLabs has generated $145 million in revenues, which is a 20% growth rate. Thus, the transaction comes to 4.8X trailing revenues. Compared to just a year ago, this is a fairly cheap deal. For example, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) paid 9X revenues for Postini (a leading messaging security company).

In other words, it looks like the global slowdown is taking a toll on scrappy tech companies and providing some nice opportunities for bigger players.

According to Paul Roberts, who is a senior analyst of the enterprise security practice at the 451 Group:

"As Symantec points out, software sales are growing in the single digits, appliance sales in the teens and services in the range of 20% or more. Shelling out for MessageLabs shows that Symantec is in a hurry to tap into that higher growth for services, but has doubts about its ability to get there with SPN, Brightmail, IMLogic and whatever else it has in-house. Consider this: Symantec's SPN is hosted from a single datacenter in the US; MessageLabs has 14 located worldwide. Sure, Symantec's still playing catch-up, but its huge channel and sales force, coupled with the failure of players like Google to execute within the enterprise space, gives it the opportunity to jump to the head of the pack in security SaaS all the same."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says false correlations can lead you to despair -- you need to see through them.

At moments like this, you have to figure out what will be affected and what won't be, and you need to recognize that the interrelation of all stocks to these events is a false one.

There is no doubt that anything mortgage is troubled. So even though I like Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) a great deal, it is unlikely that WFC can stay anywhere near up here now that Lehman (NYSE: LEH) (Cramer's Take) collapsed. I don't want to hazard a guess, because it would be a guess, about where that stock can trade. Obviously it is a buy at some price, but that's a difficult issue.

Stocks like Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) (Cramer's Take) and Capital One (NYSE: COF) (Cramer's Take) are difficult to figure out, too. Schwab has nothing to do with this mess, but maybe trading will slow. People might look at the numbers Capital One put out about defaults, and while they seem pretty darned good, does anyone care? That stock had been on a rampage; probably stops today.

But how about the stocks on the Nasdaq? The Nazz futures are indicating down huge. Does that make sense? Just because it is happening, does that make sense? Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) (Cramer's Take), positive article this weekend -- a buy? If the futures take it down, yes. Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) (Cramer's Take) with new data coming up? Yes. Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) (Cramer's Take), which wouldn't come down last week? Yes.

Analyst upgrades:

• Goldman upgraded shares of Novartis (NYSE: NVS) to Buy from Neutral as they believe the Alcon (NYSE: ACL) acquisition has diversified the company's business.
  
• Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight on valuation.
  
• JP Morgan raised Albermarle (NYSE: ALB) to Overweight from Neutral.
  
• BMO Capital upgraded Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) to Outperform from Market Perform.
  
• Synovus Financial (NYSE: SNV) was lifted to Buy from Hold at Sterne Agee.

Analyst downgrades:

• Morgan Stanley downgraded Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) to Underweight from Equal Weight based on the impact from Altria's (NYSE: MO) purchase of competitor UST (NYSE: UST), which may result in pricing pressure.
  
• Goldman downgraded AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) to Sell from Neutral as they believe shares do not support near-term fundamentals.
• Max Capital (NASDAQ: MXGL) was downgraded to neutral from Buy at Banc of America.
  
• AudioCodes (NASDAQ: AUDC) was lowered at Merrill to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Pinnacle Financial (NASDAQ: PNFP) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Symantec, Cardinal Financial and BP Plc were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• ThinkPanmure upgraded Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) to Buy from Accumulate based on improved execution, stable growth in core business, and ramping competitive position in some high-growth businesses.
  
• Baird upgraded Cardinal Financial (NASDAQ:CFNL) to Outperform from Neutral based on valuation, the company's favorable credit risk profile in Northern Virginia, and its excess capital position.
  
• Societe Generale raised BP Plc (NYSE: BP) to Hold from Sell as it believes the bad news is priced into shares and earnings could be better than expected.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) was upgraded at Merrill Lynch to Neutral from Underperform.
  
• Jefferies lifted Hunsman (NYSE: HUN) to Hold from Underperform.
  
• Teva Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:TEVA) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at HSBC.