At The Motley Fool, we poke plenty of fun at Wall Street
analysts and their endless cycle of upgrades, downgrades, and
"initiating coverage at neutral." So you might think we'd be
the last people to give virtual ink to such "news." And we
would be -- if that were all we were doing.
But in "This Just In," we don't simply tell you what the
analysts said. We'll also show you whether they know what
they're talking about. To help, we've enlisted
Motley Fool CAPS, our tool for rating stocks and analysts
alike. With CAPS, we track the long-term performance of Wall
Street's best and brightest -- and its worst and sorriest,
too.
And speaking of the best ...
Ever wonder what sound "one hand clapping" makes?
Judging from the reaction to yesterday's upgrade,
Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) investors seem to think
it resembles a "barbaric yawp" of victory. They're wrong.
As you've probably heard,
Barclays Capitalupgraded Palm shares yesterday, removing
its "Under Weight" rating and replacing it with one of "Equal
Weight." In essence, the upgrade amounts to advising
investors not to risk selling Palm short -- but not rush out
and buy the stock, either. Is that good advice?
Survey says: Probably yes
Now admittedly, Barclays is best known for its
energy picks. Barclays spends more time advising on
energy stocks than on any other sector in the market -- and
it does well at it. For example, the banker picked both
Suncor (NYSE: SU) and
Peabody (NYSE: BTU) to outperform
earlier this year. Both of 'em have done just that --
trouncing the S&P 500's performance by 42 and 57
percentage points, respectively.
But while very much an "energy shop," Barclays is also no
slouch when it comes to Tech. Four of the five
Computers and Peripheralsstocks Barclays picked over the
past year have beaten the market:
Stock
Barclays Says:
CAPS says:
Barclays' Picks Beating S&P
By:
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)
Outperform
***
90 points
Lexmark Int'l (NYSE: LXK)
Underperform
*
35 points
EMC (NYSE: EMC)
Outperform
**** Continued... |