Analysts’ opinions on stocks in the news Monday

From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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S&P REITERATES STRONG BUY OPINION ON SHARES OF APPLE (AAPL; 93.66):

AAPL CEO Steve Jobs posts some open letter describing a corporal illness, a weight-loss condition attributed to hormonal imbalance that should be readily treatable. He expects to regain the lost weight by slow proceed and plans to carry on with CEO duties. The board posts a letter of support for Jobs. We believe this unusually frank specification should help converging-point investor attention absent from leadership succession and towards AAPL’sitting keynote address at MacWorld this week and possible product introductions. We support our EPS estimates and 12-month target worth of $127. -T. Smith-CFA

S&P REITERATES SELL OPINION ON SHARES OF SYNOVUS FINANCIAL (SNV; 7.07):

Ahead of Q4 detail, SNV preannounces that its Q4 net chargeoff fixed relation will subsist 3.2% and that it will post $350 million of loss eatables. This is well above our estimate and is likely the result of declining home values combined with SNV’session high level of non-performing assets, a near match high 2.91% of totality assets. We are lowering our ‘08 and ‘09 EPS estimates by $0.48 and $0.12, respectively, to a loss of $0.30 and EPS of $0.04. Based forward these reductions, we now think SNV may have to cut its share. Our target excellence remains $6, a below-historical 0.7X tactile book account. /S. Plesser

S&P REDUCES OPINION ON SHARES OF PEABODY ENERGY TO HOLD FROM BUY (BTU; 25.75):

On a lower volume anticipate, we cut our 2008 EPS rate by $0.12 to $3.15 and 2009’s $0.84 to $4.38. We see lower projected production volumes, based on reduced coal shipments to steel producers, based on weakening demand, slowing shipments out of Australian coal ports, and slightly weaker thermal coal volumes. Though we keep our 2009 pricing forecast, we note that new spot compensation declines may pose a risk for both unpriced 2009 metallurgical coal extension and for 2010 contract pricing. On lower estimates, we cut our target price by $12 to $28 based on relative peer worth. -M. Christy, CFA

S&P REITERATES HOLD OPINION ON PFIZER SHARES (PFE; 18.30):

PFE tells the Financial Times it is constantly looking at small and large acquisition opportunities. We believe PFE’s need to do a large trade has become more pressing, with the manifest on $13 billion Lipitor expiring in 2011. While meanly all big pharma firms are chasing deals, we think PFE has an edge, given its size, global reach and cash resources of $26 billion. We believe PFE may be especially focusing on growing biotech firms, distinctly on larger participants in that sector. We keep our $21 target price, which applies a discount-to-peers p-e of 8.3 times our 2009 EPS estimate. -H. Saftlas

S&P MAINTAINS HOLD RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF ROHM & HAAS (ROH; 63.41):

We are raising our 12-month target recompense for ROH to $65 from $50. While the cancellation last week of a undecided joint venture between Dow Chemical (DOW; 15.50, sell) and Kuwait created doubt concerning DOW’s pending thing acquired of ROH at the $78 per share agreed upon price, we be persuaded DOW wants to go ahead with the deal, though it may seek a lower price. DOW had planned to use $7 billion of after-tax internode venture proceeds to pay a abundant part of the $18 billion purchase price for ROH. Our target price reflects risks that the buyout could both be not completed or may be revised lower. -R. O’Reilly-CFA

S&P REITERATES BUY RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR (VSEA; 17.61):

VSEA trims December-quarter revenue guidance to $105-$110 million from $115-$125 million, and sees gross margin of 37%-38%, cut from 40%-40.5%. It attributes the miss to a greater-than-expected decline in sales of semiconductor rigging and spare parts. We think VSEA continues to win marketshare and is executing well on murky expenses. As a result, we believe it will outperform peers while the industry begins to turn. We lower our fiscal year 2009 (September) appraise to every operating loss of $0.24 from $0.04 EPS, and give entrance to fiscal year 2010 at $0.65 EPS. We trim our target price by $1 to $23, a excellence/sales above peers. -A. Zino-CFA

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2009/pi2009015_899785.htm?campaign_id=rss_null