Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
Notable Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
China Biologic Products Inc. (NASDAQ:CBPO), Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) are three notable analyst upgrades and downgrades during today’s session.
China Biologic Products Inc. (CBPO), a biopharmaceutical company operating in China, faced some criticism from a short-seller claiming that the firm may have been started with stolen money and that management possibly has ties to convicted criminals. However, Rodman & Renshaw maintained their Outperform rating saying that the allegations should not impact business, and point out that the company addressed most of the issues in the past.
Baidu, Inc. (BIDU), which operates a popular search engine in China, has been seeing a lot of upside as its chief competitor, Google Inc. (GOOG), appears set to exit the market amid freedom of speech concerns. Deutsche Bank joined the optimism by maintaining its Buy rating and raising its price target to $604 from $544, saying that the departure of Google from the market could mean lower traffic acquisition costs for the search engine.
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), a popular online retailer in the U.S., is expected to report solid earnings this quarter by several brokers and analysts. Janney Montgomery raised its fourth quarter estimates to 90 cents and its price target to $160 from $135, citing stronger-than-expected holiday spending and Zappos. Other analysts that are bullish on the stock today include MKM Partners and Kaufman Bros. who now both have Buy ratings on the stock.
Other analyst upgrades and downgrades:
- Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) was added to Deutsche Bank’s short-term buy list.
- Zions Bancorp (ZION) was downgraded by Miller Tabak to a Strong Sell.
- St. Jude Medical (STJ) was mentioned favorably by JP Morgan for the long-term.
Written by Simon Monger
