MORNING COFFEE

LinkedIn Shares Rocket on IPO. 

The LinkedIn (LNKD) IPO began trading yesterday after being priced at $45.00.  This was over 30% above the initial range of $32.00 - $35.00.  Shares took off from there, reaching a high of over $115 per share before closing at $94.25 a 109% increase.  Some analysts are now questioning the company’s $8.9 billion capitalization with shares trading at 584 times 2010 earnings and 37 times revenue.  Some are even comparing the company to the tech bubble of the 1990’s and collapse.  Remember Pets.com? Other social networking companies that are expected to go public include Facebook, Groupon and Zynga amoung others. Pre-market: 97.50 +3.25 (3.45%)

Upgrades

Tyson Foods (TSN): KeyBanc raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $23.00 on the company. Pre-market: 18.66 +0.10 (0.54%)

Resumed Coverage

American Express (AXP): Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $59.00. Pre-market: 51.76 -0.06 (-0.12%)

Downgrades

Gap (GPS): Piper Jaffray lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral and lowered their target price from $25.00 to $19.00. Pre-market: 19.20 -4.09 (-17.56%)

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Aeropostale (ARO): Janney Montgomery Scott reiterated their Neutral rating and lowered their target price from $22.00 to $17.00. Pre-market: 18.34 -3.00 (-14.06%)

Gap (GPS): Janney Montgomery Scott reiterated their Neutral rating and lowered their target price from $24.00 to $21.00. Pre-market: 19.20 -4.09 (-17.56%)

Earning Reports

Aeropostale (ARO): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.20 in-line with estimates on revenue of $469 million, missing estimates by -$9 million. Pre-market: 18.34 -3.00 (-14.06%)

Brocade Communications Systems (BRCD): Reported FQ2 EPS of $0.13 beating estimates by +$0.03 on revenue of $550 million, beating estimates by +$1 million. Pre-market: 6.30 +0.04 (0.59%) 

Foot Locker (FL): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.60 beating estimates by +$0.16 on revenue of $1.5 billion, beating estimates by +$0.1 billion. Pre-market: 24.38 +2.12 (9.52%)

Gap (GPS): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.40 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $3.3 billion, in-line. Pre-market: 19.20 -4.09 (-17.56%)

Intuit (INTU): Reported FQ3 EPS of $2.33 beating estimates by +$0.05 on revenue of $1.84 billion, in-line. Pre-market: 54.28 -1.62 (-2.90%)

Salesforce.com (CRM): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.28 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $504 million, beating estimates by +$21 million. Pre-market: 146.00 +10.19 (7.50%)

·         Futures at 8:21: Dow -0.31%. S&P -0.31%. Nasdaq -0.29%. Crude +0.25% to $98.69. Gold -0.23% to $1492.40.

·         Europe: London +0.53%. Paris -0.23%. Frankfurt -0.09%.

·          Asia, Japan -0.14% to 9607. Hong Kong +0.16% to 23199. China -0.04% to 2858. India +1.02% to 18326.