General Merchandise Stores

Piper Jaffray is reiterating its UW rating and $38 PT on Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO) following a filing from the Trian Group last night after close stating they will offer $55-60 per share cash for FDO. At the mid-point of the bid, the multiple on EV/F11 EBITDA would 9.2x. Given the high multiple and...

Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) gained about 3.6% after the company reported its Q1 net earnings at $513.7 million, or $1.20 per share, compared with $243.2 million, or $0.57 per share, in the year-ago period. The company's quarterly sales increased 27% to $6.12 billion. However, analysts...

Gleacher & Company Inc (NASDAQ: GLCH) was downgraded by BofA/Merrill from "neutral" to "underperform." GLCH's shares closed at $2.10 yesterday. Gleacher's PEG ratio is 1.85. Bernstein downgraded Analog Devices Inc (NYSE: ADI) from "outperform" to "market perform." ADI's shares closed at $41.00...

ValueClick Inc (NASDAQ: VCLK) rose 12.50% to $16.65 in the pre-market session. VCLK issued upbeat Q1 projections and reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings. Fred's Inc (NASDAQ: FRED) added 7.41% to $13.77 in the pre-market session. Analysts at JP Morgan upgraded FRED from “neutral” to “...

JP Morgan has upgraded Fred's Inc. (NASDAQ: FRED) from Neutral to Overweight and has raised the price target from $12 to $17.

Analysts at JMP Securities downgrade Family Dollar Stores Inc (NYSE: FDO) from “outperform” to “market perform.” FDO shares gained 0.30% to close at $43.96 yesterday. More Analyst Ratings here

Analysts at JP Morgan upgrade Fred's Inc (NASDAQ: FRED) from “neutral” to “overweight.” The target price for FRED has been raised from $11 to $17. FRED shares fell 0.85% to close at $12.82 yesterday. More Analyst Ratings here

US stock futures are higher this morning, as Sanofi-Aventis SA (NYSE: SNY) agreed to purchase Genzyme Corp (NASDAQ: GENZ). Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) reported upbeat quarterly earnings. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 30 points to 12,232.00 and S&P 500 futures rose 4.20 points...

Some of the stocks that may grab investor focus today are: Wall Street expects Genzyme Corp (NASDAQ: GENZ) to report its Q4 EPS at $0.86 on revenue of $1.17 billion. Sanofi-Aventis SA (NYSE: SNY) has agreed to purchase GENZ for around $20.1 billion in cash. SNY will pay $74 per share in cash plus a...

Stocks eased today with the declines ranging between 0.3% and 0.5% on the DJIA (DIA), S&P 500 (SPY), and Nasdaq Composite (QQQQ). Investor participation picked up and market breadth turned negative. The losses weren't enough to adversely change the support/resistance levels materially. In...

It was announced after the close tonight that Family Dollar Stores (symbol: FDO) a stock on our watch list is being acquired (taken private) for between $55-$60 per share. As a result, we are removing it from the watch list at tomorrow's market open price. This will represent between a 23.2% to 34....

Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) and $99 Cents Only (NYSE: NDN) are trading higher on Nelson Peltz' potential $60/share private equity offer for Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO).

This morning is another day where commodities seem to be making new all time highs. Cotton futures(March contract) are surging higher this morning by another $4.70 to $190.75. This is another new high for the year. Coffee for March delivery is making another new 52 week high this morning soaring by...

Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) was downgraded by UBS from "buy" to "neutral." PSA's shares closed at $111.00 yesterday. Public Storage's PEG ratio is 5.88. Barclays downgraded Family Dollar Stores Inc (NYSE: FDO) from "overweight" to "equal weight." FDO's shares closed at $43.83 yesterday. Family...

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) was upgraded by Jefferies from "hold" to "buy." CRM's shares closed at $142.22 yesterday. CRM's trailing-twelve-month revenue is $1.55 billion. JP Morgan upgraded Analog Devices Inc (NYSE: ADI) from "neutral" to "overweight." ADI's shares closed at $40.99 yesterday....