Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Toyota Motor, ConocoPhillips, Facebook, Morgan Stanley and NASDAQ
CHICAGO, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM) as the Bull of the Day and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Facebook (Nasdaq:FB), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and NASDAQ (Nasdaq:NDAQ)
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Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM) continues to play a pivotal role in the global market for fuel-efficient and environment-friendly vehicles. It also expects to benefit from its cost reduction measures and continued focus on the emerging markets.
However, the company reported a 30.5% drop in profits to Y283.56 billion ($3.7 billion) or Y90.20 ($1.17) per share, and a 2% dip in revenues to ?18.58 trillion ($241.59 billion) in fiscal 2012. For fiscal 2013, it expects higher consolidated revenues of Y22.00 trillion, operating income of ?1.00 trillion yen and profits of Y760.0 billion, compared with fiscal 2012.
Therefore, we have upgraded our recommendation on shares of the company to Outperform from Neutral and set a target price of $93.00. This amounts to 14.4X our 2013 EPS estimate, and reflects our upgraded recommendation.
We are downgrading our recommendation for ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) to Underperform from Neutral, reflecting lackluster first quarter results on account of lower production volume. The company's performance in the coming months is expected to be weighed down by unpredictable global economic conditions, erratic supply/demand fundamentals of oil and gas, and international business risks.
Furthermore, the company's future earnings will be decided by execution capability on the recently concluded acquisitions of two deepwater blocks in Angola, as well as receipt of 74 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, with the planned appraisal of Tiber and Shenandoah wells later in 2012.
Thus, we believe there are no positive catalysts for ConocoPhillips and expect it to underperform the broader market. Our $47 price objective reflects a P/E of 7.1 on our 2012 EPS estimate, which is well within the historical trading range.
Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:
Who Should Be Blamed for the Facebook Fiasco?
Facebook (Nasdaq:FB) shares are currently trading at $28.10, more than 25% below their IPO debut price. The most hyped IPO in history actually turned out one of the worst for the investors.
Who do you think should be blamed for the fiasco?
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS): The underwriters, in particulars the lead underwriter Morgan Stanley should be held responsible for the IPO mispricing. Just days before the IPO, the underwriters agreed to increase the size and price of the IPO. Further, the company's revenue forecasts were revised downward during the road-show and the underwriters failed to properly disclose the resulting changes to analysts' financial forecasts. It appears that the revised figures were only passed along verbally to certain large institutional investors.
NASDAQ (Nasdaq:NDAQ): The technical problems on the first day of trading, starting with the delay in start of trading to delay/failure in confirmation of clients'' trades led to unprecedented confusion and later chaos. A number of investors dumped shares on the first day due to the confusion which send the shares plummeting below their IPO price, when the underwriters had step in.
Mark Zuckerberg: As the CEO of the company, Zuckerberg should share the blame for the IPO's unreasonably high valuation and large size. Further, the reports about Zuckerberg buying Instagram for $1 billion without consulting the board, lead to great concerns about the corporate governance at the company and the ability of the CEO to protect the interest of the investors.
Investors: Facebook investors deserve little sympathy. As Tracey pointed out in her post yesterday, many inexperienced investors invested in the IPO due to its hype. It was well known that the company's revenues were going to be volatile. GM had pulled its advertising campaign from Facebook, just days ahead of the IPO. So, why did they invest in Facebook?
Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=2649.
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