Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE: CS), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), EnCana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) and Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB).
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Here are highlights from Monday's Analyst Blog:
Ford Overhaul to Take Some Time
On July 24, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) reported a second quarter net loss of $8.7 billion or $3.88 per share, compared to a net profit of $750 million or $0.31 per share in the year-ago quarter.
The company aims to reduce $5 billion in annual cost in North America by 2008. The ongoing negotiation with the labor union will also be helpful to the company. However, rising gas prices is affecting the company's operations. Ford dropped its plans of becoming profitable by 2009 due to difficult operating environment including uncompetitive cost structure. Hence, we reiterate our Hold recommendation and set a six-month target price of $5.00.
Credit Suisse Tracks Industry
We are continuing our Hold on Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS). CSG posted CHF1.2 billion in second quarter net earnings, down 62% from year-ago earnings and below our estimate, largely due to lower-than-expected net interest income. Despite this shortfall, we are retaining our EPADS estimates at $2.50 for 2008 and $5.95 for 2009, as we now expect lower write-downs in investment banking.
In the second quarter, CSG had only CHF22 million in net valuation adjustments compared to CHF5.3 billion in the first quarter and CHF2.4 billion in 2007's fourth quarter. Going forward, results should continue to reflect decent performance in private banking and asset management, partly offset by weakness at investment banking in underwriting and fixed income trading.
Conoco Joining Super-Majors
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) reported significantly better-than-expected second-quarter 2008 earnings, reflecting commodity-price driven upstream strength. The impact of weakness in upstream volumes and higher costs was more than offset by significantly higher realizations. The company has significantly strengthened its upstream portfolio through its Burlington and LUKOIL transactions and remains a premier domestic refining player.
We believe that acquisitions, alliances and joint ventures in the recent past have made ConocoPhillips a strong contender to join the super-majors' league of global oil companies. Growing appreciation of this fact will lower its valuation discount to that group. The joint partnership agreement with EnCana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) will enhance the company's upstream and downstream prospects further.
