Tobacco

Stifel Nicolaus is out with its report today on Altria Group (NYSE: MO), upgrading MO from Hold to Buy. In a note to clients, Stifel Nicolaus writes, "We are upgrading Altria to Buy from Hold and establishing a $29 target price. The foundation for our upgrade is the strong pricing environment in...

Stifel Nicolaus has upgraded the following companies: Altria Group (NYSE: MO) from Hold to Buy, $29 PT Highwoods Properties (NYSE: HIW) from Hold to Buy, $38 PT Lorillard (NYSE: LO) from Hold to Buy, $122 PT

by Geoffrey Seiler, editor BullMarket.com Strong volume growth out of Asia along with higher prices enabled Recommended List selection Philip Morris International (PM) to top the consensus Wall Street analyst estimate. This was an exceptionally strong quarter from Philip Morris. The company also...

Stocks trading at or near 52-week highs and lows provide excellent trading opportunities, as volatility tends to increase at such levels and exit/entry points become more clearly defined. The following stocks hit new 52-week highs in Tuesday's trading session (listed from highest total volume to...

Cusick's Corner The sellers were out this morning and while the selling has tapered off, it still cannot be overlooked. Longs are looking like they are getting nervous, potentially taking some profits as the Debt debate continues and the Chinese are signaling some mixed data. Market players on the...

Citi reiterated its Buy rating on Lorillard (NYSE: LO). At the same time, the rating agency left its price target on the company's stock unchanged at $122. In today's trading, LO lost 1.7% of its value to stand around $110.38.

Baker Hughes Inc (NYSE: BHI) reported a strong rise in its second-quarter net profit. Baker Hughes reported its quarterly net profit at $338 million, or $0.77 per share, up from $93 million, or $0.23 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding items, the company's earnings came in at $0.93 per...

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Monday, July 25, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Monday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading lower after Congress failed to work out a deal to raise the debt ceiling over...

Lorillard Inc (NYSE: LO) reported a 10.7% rise in its second-quarter profit. Lorillard's quarterly profit surged to $291 million, or $2.05 per share, from $263 million, or $1.73 per share, in the year-earlier period. Its sales increased 11% y/y to $1.69 billion from $1.52 billion. However,...

Morgan Stanley made a number of updates in a research report published today. Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE: BK) had its rating reiterated at Equal-weight. At the same time, its price target was left unchanged at $30. On Friday, BK lost 0.43% of its value to end the week at $25.76. Northern...

Bank of America has lowered the price target on Reynolds America (NYSE: RAI) from $40 to $38 and maintains its Neutral rating.

US stock futures are lower this morning, as the nation's debt ceiling talks failed to progress. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 88 points to 12,533.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 8.60 points to 1,331.40. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 12.25 points to 2,415.75. US stocks...

Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE: KMB) is expected to report its Q2 earnings at $1.15 per share on revenue of $5.13 billion. Broadcom Corp (NASDAQ: BRCM) is estimated to post its Q2 earnings at $0.63 per share on revenue of $1.80 billion. Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE: BHI) is expected to report its...

Some of the stocks that may grab investor focus today are: Wall Street expects Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) to post its Q2 earnings at $1.11 per share on revenue of $791.48 million. NFLX shares dropped 0.39% to $275.50 in after-hours trading. Analysts are expecting Texas Instruments Inc (NYSE: TXN...

We took a look at a few high-yielders with the ability to maintain strong dividend payouts. Intel (INTC) paid an annual dividend of $0.63 in the FY2010, making its current dividend yield 2.8%. The company has been able to maintain its dividend payout for the last 73 quarters. The payout has...