Specialized Finance

KBW has an Outperform rating and a $140 price target on shares of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE). In a note to clients, KBW writes, "We caught up with Jeff Sprecher, CEO, and David Goone, Chief Strategic Officer when we visited their expanding Chicago office where ICE is building its...

Piper Jaffray reiterated its Overweight rating on Encore Capital (NASDAQ: ECPG). At the same time, Piper Jaffray left its price target on the company's stock unchanged at $38. On Friday, ECPG plummeted 14.91% to finish the week at $26.53.

While Associated Press Economics writers like Christopher Rugaber and Paul Wiseman, as seen in a post this morning (at NewBusters; at BizzyBlog), talk of “baffled economists” and a job market that is “defying history,” one AP writer, in discussing stocks which have done well in this economy, has...

Despite the fact that it is a Friday, there are a number of names that are moving higher in late trade on decent volume. Among them are Titan International (NYSE: TWI), Janus Capital (NYSE: JNS), Life Partners Holdings (NASDAQ: LPHI), Legg Mason (NYSE: LM), Knight Capital Group (NYSE: KCG) and...

Shares of Encore Capital Group (NASDAQ: ECPG) are trading lower on the session by 16.84%, at $25.93. Shares were trading as high as $30.98 earlier in the session, but have cascaded lower within the three hours of trading. Volume is running extremely high, at 800,000 shares traded; the 10-day...

Sterne Agee has initiated coverage on the following companies: Ocwen Financial (NYSE: OCN), Buy, $16 PT PHH Corporation (NYSE: PHH) Buy, $26.25 PT

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Friday, July 8, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Friday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures and the U.S. dollar are trading slightly higher as traders wait for employment data later...

The S&P 500 (SPX) gained 14 points, or 1%, in today's session to close at 1353.22. The index is nearing its 52-week high of 1370.58, which was set on May 2nd. The Sector breakdown for Thursday's session is as follows: The S&P 500 was led by the Basic Materials Sector in Thursday's session...

Shares of IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) are higher on the session by 2.03%, currently trading at $130.43. The stock has been moving largely higher over the past six weeks and is currently trading above the 50-day moving average. Options traders are buying puts on the name today. Though...

NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) today announced that its shareholders have approved the adoption of the business combination agreement with Deutsche Boerse AG (XETRA: DB1) and related proposals. The proposals, which required approval by a majority of the outstanding shares or in some cases majority of...

Goldman Sachs is raising its PT on shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTX) from $25 to $27. MarketAxess Holdings closed Wednesday at $25.70.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today announced that CIT Healthcare served as Lead Arranger in a $44 million senior secured credit facility that enabled a newly formed joint venture between Bickford Senior Living and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC to acquire a portfolio of six assisted living...

KBW is out with its report today on PHH (NYSE: PHH), maintaining Outperform. In a note to clients, KBW writes, "Given weak volumes and modest margin pressure, we expect continued weak mortgage banking revs in 2Q. The main driver of the QoQ improvement is an increase in interest rate lock...

Piper Jaffray is boosting its estimates on shares of Moody's Corp. (NYSE: MCO). “Based on the strength in 2Q issuance we are boosting our 2Q EPS estimate to $0.58 from $0.53 (consensus is $0.57),” Piper Jaffray writes. “Our full year estimate moves to $2.36 from $2.34 as we make slightly more...

BlueOrchard Finance SA, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based BlueOrchard Microfinance Investment Managers, has announced that it will provide a local-currency loan of XAF 500 million (USD 1.1 million) to Advans Cameroun, a microfinance institution (MFI) operating in Cameroon. The loan is being...