Analysts’ opinions on public securities in the news Monday

From Standard & Poor’sitting Equity Research

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S&P MAINTAINS SELL OPINION ON SHARES OF DOW CHEMICAL (DOW; 19.34):

The Kuwaiti government has canceled the unsettled constitution of a joint venture between DOW and Petrochemical Industries Co., which would have existence the subject of consisted of DOW’s ethylene chain products lines; PIC was to pay Dow $7.5 billion for its 50% stake. The failure of the divide calls into question DOW’s pending purchase of Rohm & Haas (ROH; 63.56), as DOW planned to use venture proceeds to means a part of the $18 billion purchase price. If DOW can withdraw from the deal, it would have to requite a $750 very great number breakup fee to ROH. With questions regarding DOW’s overall strategy, we abide to recommend sell. -R. O’Reilly-CFA

S&P MAINTAINS HOLD RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF ROHM & HAAS (ROH; 49.39):

We think the cancellation of the pending joint venture between Dow Chemical and Kuwait calls into question DOW’sitting depending purchase of ROH at $78 a share. DOW had planned to use $7.5 billion of venture proceeds to pay a large organ of $18 billion purchase price. If DOW were to withdraw from the ROH deal, it would have to pay $750 million breakup feud. A greater foreign chemical company was reportedly also interested in ROH before its July 2008 agreement with DOW, but economic and credit conditions find us doubt some revised deal close at hand DOW’s offer. We cut our ROH target price by $28, to $50. -R. O’Reilly-CFA

S&P MMAINTAINS HOLD RECOMMENDATION ON ADSS OF SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES (SAY; 8.33):

SAY shares are up this morning after it postpones its board meeting until Jan. 10 to give its directors additional time to heed steps to boost investor confidence, what one. may include board expansion or a change in its composition. SAY has it hired DSP Merrill Lynch to help review strategic options. We think a new slate of directors could assistant teacher in a change in elder management, what one. we would view favorably given the events of the past few weeks. We raise our target price by $2 to $9, though uniform at that level, SAY shares would have being at a attentive discount to peers. -D. Cathers, Z. Bokhari

S&P REITERATES HOLD RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF WESTERN DIGITAL (WDC; 11.02):

An unconfirmed Reuters report says that Fujitsu President Kuniaki Nozoe has told the Nikkei financial diurnal in Japan that in that place is no chance of a deal to put up to sale its hard drive business to WDC. Meanwhile, we believe WDC is focused on running its business amid the weak global economic environment. We view its weighing sheet as solid, with $1.2 billion in cash and investments and a debt-to-capital ratio of 15% as of September 2008. We are maintaining our 12-month target price of $13, based on a peer-discount p-e of 4.7 periods our fiscal year 2009 estimate of $2.76. -R. Khalid, CFA

S&P MAINTAINS HOLD RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF SL GREEN REALTY (SLG; 25.84):

SLG cuts its quarterly dividend by 52%, to $0.375, which power of choosing save the crew about $95 million in 2009. It says the savings will be used to pursue future investment opportunities and to pay down debt maturing in the near term. Although we believe SLG’s previous dividend condition was adequately covered, we view the company’s decision to jam cash and strengthen its balance sheet in the same proportion that a positive amid difficult emporium terms. We keep our 12-month target compensation of $26. -R. Shepard, R. Pandya

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/dec2008/pi20081229_318083.htm?campaign_id=rss_null