MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• 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.

• 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.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

• DJIA 12,549.00 (+69.37)
• S&P500 1385.47 (+9.54)
• NASDAQ 2480.51 (+35.84)
• 10 YR T-Note 3.921%, +0.09%.
• 52-WEEK LOWS saw 3 DJIA components today.
• TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

EMC (NYSE:EMC) Cut To Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein, according to 24/7 Wall St. The financial website also reports that Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) Raised to Overweight at Lehman.

Thomas Weisel initiates Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) as "overweight" according to Briefing.com. Friedman Billings has taken Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) off its "best picks" list.

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

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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

• Activision Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) posted stellar results on the popularity of Guitar Hero and Transformers.
• Airgas Inc. (NYSE: ARG) beat Q4 estimtates with record earnings and raised its guidance.
• Amkor Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: AMKR) beat Q1 expectations on strong demand for wireless.
• Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) reported strong Q1 results that beat Wall Street estimates.
• Barnes Group Inc. (NYSE: B) beat Q1 expectations on its "global reach" and raised its 2008 guidance.
• Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) beat Q1 expectations and raised its full-year guidance.
• DirecTV Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DTV) posted better-than-expected results and announced share buybacks.
• Double-Take Software (NASDAQ: DBTK) beat Q1 expectations and raised its Q2 and 2008 guidance.
• Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) profits surged in the first quarter on record high gold prices.
• ICON plc (NASDAQ: ICLR) beat Q1 expectations and raised its full-year guidance.
• Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL) easily beat Q1 estimates and raised its full-year guidance.
• Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) reported a surge in Q1 profits that beat Wall Street estimates.
• Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) beat Q1 expectations and lifted its Q2 and 2008 forecasts.
• Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) beat Q4 expectations and raised its Q1 outlook.
• Transocean Inc. (NYSE: RIG) Q1 profits more than doubled due to soaring oil prices.
• Unilever (NYSE: UL) posted strong results, with revenues beating estimates for the first time in six years.
• UTStarcom Inc. (NASDAQ: UTSI) released a preliminary guidance well above expectations.
• Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) posted better-than-expected results on success of its theme parks.

Also, Jim Cramer is pleased with Anadarko and other, similar energy players; Anadarko hit an all-time high on Thursday. A lack of earnings guidance from Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS) had investors skittish as the company began trading this week. And Steven Mallas takes issue with Disney's dividends in light of the good earnings report.

Upcoming results to watch for include Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), XM Satellite Radio Holdings (NASDAQ: XMSR), Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI), Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE), Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), JC Penney (NYSE: JCP), Macy's (NYSE: M), Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) provides software and services that address risks to computer security, information availability, policy compliance and system performance. Its programs protect against viruses, establish firewalls, filter content, detect intrusions, manage remote access and provide virtual private networking. The firm also offers security assessment, consulting and outsourced security management. Symantec has operations in more 40 countries. McAfee (NYSE: MFE) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are major competitors.

The company pleased investors last week, when it reported fiscal Q4 EPS of 36 cents and revenues of $1.55 billion. Analysts had been expecting 34 cents and $1.53 billion. Management also guided Q1 EPS to 34-36 cents (31 cent consensus) and Q1 revenues to $1.555-$1.595 billion ($1.5B consensus).

SYMC shares popped into a bullish "flag" consolidation pattern on the news. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Brokers recommend the issue with six "strong buys", six "buys", twenty "holds" and one "sell". The SYMC Price to Sales ratio (2.80), Price to Book ratio (1.50), Price to Cash Flow ratio (8.84), Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (10.66) and EPS Growth rate (71.43%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions own about 90% of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 500 Index and the AMEX Internet Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $14.54 and $21.32. A stop-loss of $16.65 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com. He does not hold positions in any of the stocks mentioned above.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Double-Take Software (NASDAQ: DBTK) products and services enable customers to protect and recover computer files. Its software helps users to reduce or eliminate data loss and recover applications, through automatic or manual means. Customers include law firms, financial institutions, hospitals, school districts and government entities. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are among the firm's strategic partners. EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) are major competitors.

The company surprised the Street last week, when it reported Q1 EPS of 13 cents and revenues of $23 million. Analysts had been looking for 11 cents and $22.2 million. Management also guided Q2 EPS to 15-16 cents (14 cent consensus), Q2 revenues to $24.4-$25 million ($24.44M consensus), FY08 EPS to 65-67 cents (65 cent consensus) and FY08 revenues to $101.7-$103.5 million ($102.29M consensus).

DBTK shares popped into a bullish "flag" consolidation pattern on the news. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Brokers recommend the issue with four "strong buys" and five "buys". Analysts see a 33% growth rate, through the next year. The DBTK P/E ratio (17.52), Price to Book ratio (4.09), Price to Cash Flow ratio (14.69), Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (15.42), Sales Growth rate (28.49%), Operating Margin (20.01%), Net Profit Margin (21.97%), Return on Assets (19.90%), Return on Investment (28.24%) and Return on Equity (30.30%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutional investors hold about 65% of the outstanding shares. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $9.90 and $26.54. A stop-loss of $12.60 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com. He does not hold positions in any of the stocks mentioned above.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

NetManage (NASDAQ:NETM) is up 66% on word of a buy-out from Micro Focus.

Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) is up almost 5% on good earnings.

Network Equipment (NYSE:NWK) is off 17% on poor earnings.

JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ:JDSU) is down 13% after missing Wall St. estimates.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) is off 10% due to a poor quarter.

Stocks may traded differently in the pre-market than they do in the regular session.

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

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

For companies like Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) and McAfee (NYSE: MFE), the antivirus software industry is quite lucrative - and still growing quite nicely. So, it should be no surprise that competitors want a piece of the action.

One of the latest entrants: Haute Secure. Basically, the company has a plugin that blocks dangerous websites (which may have malware, phishing and so on).

More importantly, the service is free. Although, there are some exceptions (there is a paid service for business customers).

I had a chance to interview Nick Selby, who is the director of research operations of the enterprise security practice at The 451 Group. According to him:

"As drive-by downloads and malicious code appears on increasing numbers of websites, these kinds of technologies are proliferating. Companies such as Grisoft (formerly AVG) recently acquired Exploit Prevention Labs, which works in a similar fashion, for what we reckon was under $10m, and others, such as Finjan, McAfee and Symantec are pushing their entries in this space. Another UK-based start-ip, Prevyx, shares malware information with its global network of users to identify and block malicious code from running on protected machines."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

The earnings crunch is in full swing, and here are a few of the highlights of this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Allegheny Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATI) posted lower fourth-quarter profits but record full-year sales.
• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) posted strong results and offered bullish guidance (see transcript).
• Concur Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: CNQR) revenue soared and it offered revised guidance.
• Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) posted a bigger-than-expected loss for the fourth-quarter.
• Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) beat earnings expectations but fell short of revenue estimates.
• EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) beat estimates but shares were dragged down by VMware results.
• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shocked investors and missed earnings expectations (see transcript).
• Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) beat estimates as revenue soared.
• Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) sidestepped the subprime mess and fourth-quarter earnings soared.
• MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) reported a $2.3 million loss due to mortgage write downs.
• Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) posted a $1.6 million loss and lowered its full-year guidance.
• Monster Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: MNST) posted strong results despite weakness in North America.
• ScanSource Inc. (NASDAQ: SCSC) beat earnings estimates but matched revenue forecasts.
• Somanetics Corp. (NASDAQ: SMTS) beat estimates and offered revised guidance.
• Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) beat expectations on revenue growth from overseas.
• UBS (NYSE: UBS) reported a record loss for the fourth quarter due to the subprime crisis.
• VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) missed revenue forecasts, sending shares tumbling.
• Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) posted unimpressive results, but beat earnings expectations (see transcript).

For additional BloggingStocks earnings highlights, see Exxon, Boeing, Halliburton, Sony, UPS, Honda, and others and McDonald's, Kraft, P&G, Verizon, MasterCard, 3M, and others.

Also, in the wake of Yahoo!'s and Google's reports, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) made a move for Yahoo! Rumor has Google going after AOL in response. Meanwhile, Timothy Sykes has some advice for buying stocks ahead of earnings reports.

Upcoming results to watch for include Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM), Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM), Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), and PepsiCo. (NYSE: PEP).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Stanford believes Software companies could be better positioned to withstand an economic slowdown than most believe, but feels demand is positioned to slow in 2008. They are "somewhat cautious" on the sector and initiated coverage of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and McAfee (NYSE:MFE) with Buy ratings and Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) with a Hold rating.
  
• Oppenheimer initiated NewMarket (NYSE:NEU) with an Outperform rating and $68 target, as they believes it is an underfollowed specialty chemical company with improving fundamentals and low investor expectations. They think the company's free cash flow could fuel large share buybacks and strategic acquisitions.
  
• Great Plains Energy (NYSE:GXP) was started with an Outperform rating at Wachovia, as they are positive on the company's strong rate base growth and valuation.

• Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) was initiated with a Neutral rating at Cowen.
  
• Nokia (NYSE:NOK) was initiated with an Above Average rating at Caris.
  
• Broadpoint started Take-Two (NASDAQ:TTWO) with a Buy rating and $20 target.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) provides software and services that address risks to computer security, information availability, policy compliance and system performance. Its programs protect against viruses, establish firewalls, filter content, detect intrusions, manage remote access and provide virtual private networking. The firm also offers security assessment, consulting and outsourced security management. Symantec has operations in more 40 countries. McAfee (NYSE: MFE) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are major competitors.

The company pleased investors last week, when it reported fiscal Q3 EPS of 33 cents and revenues of $1.52 billion. Analysts had been expecting 29 cents and $1.45 billion. Revenues grew fastest in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, popping 26% year over year. Management also guided Q4 EPS to 33-35 cents (30 cent consensus) and Q4 revenues to $1.51-$1.55 billion ($1.48B consensus). The stock popped into a bullish 'flag' consolidation pattern on the news. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Brokers recommend the issue with four 'strong buys', seven 'buys', 19 'holds' and one 'underperform'. Recent price targets fall in the $19-$24 range. The SYMC Price to Sales ratio (2.49), Price to Book ratio (1.29), Price to Cash Flow ratio (11.86) and Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (9.92) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions own about 93 percent of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 500 Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $14.54 and $21.32. A stop-loss of $14.25 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com. He does not hold positions in any of the stocks mentioned above.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) shares are trading higher this morning on news of two buyouts in the software industry. Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) announced this morning that it has agreed to buy open-source software maker MySQL AB for $1 billion, and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) reported this morning that it has agreed to buy BEA Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS) for about $8.5 billion. Investors might think that SYMC could be an eventual buyout target. If you think that the company won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on SYMC.

After hitting a one-year high of $21.32 in October, the stock hit a one-year low of $15.15 last week. SYMC opened this morning at $15.16. So far today the stock has hit a low of $15.57 and a high of $16.16. As of 11:00, SYMC is trading at $16.12, up $0.72 (4.7%). The chart for SYMC looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a July bull-put credit spread below the $12.50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 11.1% return in six months as long as SYMC is above $12.50 at July expiration. Symantec would have to fall by more than 21% before we would start to lose money.

SYMC hasn't been below $15 at all in the past year and has shown support around $15.35 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings next week miss expectations, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might from bargain hunters who have so far kept the price above $15.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in SYMC, BEAS, ORCL, or JAVA.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

• John Thompson of Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC): This was a tough one, because I like him personally as a CEO and thought the diversification strategy was not as far out as Wall Street did. But Wall Street talks, here's the full piece on it.
• Hector Ruiz of Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD): This was simple, and we think even though he wants to stay that he won't be allowed to. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) isn't just winning, it's running away with the processor prize. Here's the full data why he's toast, even if he won't admit it.

• BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND)'s Amir Bassan-Eskenazi: BigBand has been one of the crummiest IPOs of 2007, and the management of the company has alienated everything that would yield any trust. Here's why the founder needs to go become a full-time golf hobbyist.
• Circuit City (NYSE: CC)'s Philip Schoonover: Can we count a retailer as a tech? He figured out the best way to stop selling technology there. He's so bad he might even think about shutting down the web store and hire door-to-door salespeople. Here's why employees of Circuit City put this on the Circuit City employee intranet.
• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Patricia Russo: She isn't here because we needed to be an equal opportunity offender. She is only still there because she is American and there to keep CIFIUS at bay, since the French now own so many American patents from that merger. Alcatel needs a new token American.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Genentech, Digital River and Entercom Comm were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Jefferies downgraded Genentech (NYSE: DNA) to Hold from Buy and lowered their target to $67 from $85 following the panel vote against Avastin approval for first-line metastatic beast cancer. They believe an FDA approvable letter with request for more data is the most likely outcome on the 2/23/08 PDUFA date and lowered their estimates.
• Deutsche Bank downgraded Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) to Hold from Buy, as they expect shares to remain range-bound in the near-term given expectations or slower growth in 2008 and a lack of diversification away from Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC).
• Entercom Comm (NYSE: ETM) was lowered to Market Perform from Outperform at Wachovia following a revision in the firm's long-term growth rate for radio.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Wachovia downgraded the REIT office sector to Market Weight from Overweight, downgrading Corporate Office Properties (NYSE: OFC), Maguire Properties (NYSE: MPG) and Parkway Properties (NYSE: PKY) to Market Perform from Outperform.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

With recent weakness in its stock Checkpoint Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP), the leader in internet security, has become a very attractive play in the security space. A space incidentally, that IBM has indicated it plans on making an acquisition. After about a year of slow growth the company has managed to integrate past acquisitions and is starting to fire on all cylinders. It saw revenue soar 29% to $184 million in Q3. Earnings jumped 21% to 41 cents a share. Analysts were looking for 38 cents.

With operating margins of 52.3% in Q3, Check Point has better margins than many of its competitors, like Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC). By conducting its R&D in Israel it limits its costs as Israeli engineers, while world class in skill, don't get paid like they are world class.

With the recent market sell-off, the stock is now trading under $22 a share which gives it a PE of under 18. This makes for a very intriguing play for the coming year. Checkpoint continues to launch new products designed to ensure organizations receive the highest levels of integrated application security without impeding network traffic and degrading an end user's internet experience. The traction these new products get will ultimately determine if Checkpoint will continue its revival.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer holds stock in CHKP. He holds no position in any other stock mentioned as of 11/15/07.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Public key encryption - which allows for securing information - has been around since the mid-1980s. However, it's been tough to implement.

But that's starting to change, as seen with the success of Voltage Security. In fact, this week the company snagged $12 million in venture capital. The investors include Trident Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Cipio Partners and JAFCO Ventures.

"Voltage is the result of a technology spin-off from Stanford," Sathvik Krishnamurthy, the CEO of Voltage, said in a BloggingStocks.com interview. "At first, we focused on providing secure email to mid-size and enterprise customers. But by delivering our technology on-demand, we can now serve any customer."

And Voltage has been growing briskly. For example, revenues have spiked 80% over the past year and the company is cash-flow positive. There are more than 400 enterprise customers and 1.2 million licensed users. As seen with other big-time security operators - such as EMC (NYSE: EMC) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) - there is certainly much more room for growth.

"With the venture round," said Krishnamurthy, "We plan to invest more into R&D. We have three new products to launch."

Visit DealProfiles.com if you want to check out other recent VC fundings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

After hitting a one-year high of $22.19 in October 2006, the stock fell to a one-year low of $16.20 in March. Over the past two months, the stock has been trending generally upward. SYMC opened this morning at $19.59. So far today the stock has hit a low of $19.49 and a high of $19.98. As of 10:35, SYMC is trading at $19.77, up $0.39 (2.0%). The chart for SYMC looks bullish but deteriorating slightly, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a January bull-put credit spread below the $17.50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 13.6% return in just 4 months as long as SYMC is above $17.50 at January expiration. Symantec would have to fall by more than 11% before we would start to lose money.

SYMC hasn't been below $17.50 since April and has shown support around $19 recently. This trade could be risky if PC (and therefore anti-virus) demand drops in the coming months, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the strong support the stock formed around $18 in August, plus its 200 day moving average, which is steady around $19.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in SYMC.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• NutriSystem (NASDAQ: NTRI) was upgraded to Strong Buy from Buy at Broadpoint on valuation, as they believe all concerns are overdone.
  
• Think Equities upgraded Under Armour (NYSE: UA) to Buy from Accumulate on valuation.
  
• Wachovia upgraded CME Group (NYSE: CME) to Overweight from Market weight, as they expect fed income volumes to benefit from a more active Federal Reserve.
  
• Goldman added Air France (NYSE: AKH) to its Pan-European Conviction Buy List citing valuation following the recent sell-off.
  
• Citigroup upgraded shares of Kilroy Realty (NYSE: KRC) to Buy from Hold on valuation, as they believe concerns are overblown and the company's underleveraged balance sheet can drive growth.

• UBS raised SXC Health Solutions (NASDAQ: SXCI) to Buy from Neutral.
  
• Think Equities upgraded Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) to Accumulate from Source of Funds.
  
• DA Davidson & Co upgraded Texas Industries (NYSE: TXI) to Buy from Hold.
  
• Lehman upgraded Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL) to Equal Weight from Underweight.
  
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded SEI Investments (NASDAQ: SEIC) to Outperform from Market Perform.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

When it comes to protecting your firm's computer network, you want to do business with a security software company experienced at dealing with complex corporate systems. There is an outfit in Israel that knows those ropes. Among the thousands of businesses on its customer list are all of the Fortune 100 companies.

Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ: CHKP) provides security software used to protect corporate networks. Products verify remote users, control access, block viruses and allow firms to establish virtual private networks (VPN) for secure communications, bandwidth management and enhanced performance. Competitors include Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR) and Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC).

The company received some good news last week, when Friedman Billings upgraded the shares from "market perform" to "outperform" and boosted its price target to $28. The broker noted that Check Point was starting to see a re-acceleration in business from its strengthened VPN/firewall product portfolio and believed the company was positioned to benefit from an anticipated surge in endpoint security spending over the next year.

Altogether, brokers now recommend the stock with three "strong buys," six "buys," 13 "holds" and two "sells." The CHKP Price to Book ratio (3.05), Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (15.32), Sales Growth rate (26.83%), EPS Growth rate (40.74%), Operating Margin (41.04%), Net Profit Margin (41.55%) and Net Income per Employee ($170.1k) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions own about 61% of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the Nasdaq 100 Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $18.53 and $25.99. A stop-loss of $21.45 looks good here. Note that the firm is expected to announce Q3 results in mid-October.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments