Analyst Actions: Google, Aflac
From Standard & Poor’sitting Equity Research
STIFEL RAISES ESTIMATE, REITERATES BUY ON GOOGLE
Stifel analyst George Askew says Google’s (GOOG) fourth quarter revenues excluding traffic acquisition costs were sound at $4.2179 billion, up 24.5% year-over-year, beating his estimate and Street forecast.
Askew notes that EPS, excluding $1.1 billion in equity impairments according to investments in AOL (TWX) and Clearwire (CLWR), were well in advance of estimates with diluted cash EPS of $5.10 and GAAP EPS of $4.66.
He says GOOG is excelling in a recession by 1) focusing on highest margin revenue — its owned sites; 2) cutting costs where potential; 3) eliminating non-core bizs; 4) partially hedging currency impact on cash flows.
He raises $22.25 2009 money EPS valuation to $22.79. He keeps $475 price target.
RAYMOND JAMES UPGRADES AFLAC TO STRONG BUY FROM OUTPERFORM
Raymond James analyst Steven Schwartz says he believes that the fears concerning a competitor’s mention on Aflac’s (AFL) holdings of hybrid securities is overblown.
He nnotes AFL shares fell nearly 37% yesterday following a promulgate by a competitor pointing out that prices of cross securities issued by European banks had plummeted following news of solid losses at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and fears that it might be nationalized by the agency of Britain.
Schwartz maintains $4.82 2009 non-GAAP operating EPS estimate and $5.46 for 2010. But he notes fears are unpromising to go away any time in the near term, thus he drops his $51.50 target to $40.
Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2009/pi20090123_156510.htm?campaign_id=rss_null
