Analyst Update: 3D Systems, Salesforce, Time Warner

Major market indexes continue to flirt with record-high territory. Meanwhile, among equities attracting the attention of analysts are 3-D printing firm 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD), cloud concern Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), and entertainment issue Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX).

• Imperial Capital chimed in on DDD, following yesterday's third-quarter earnings report. Specifically, the brokerage firm cut its price target on the shares to $42 from $50 -- while reiterating its "outperform" rating -- although the new outlook still represents expected upside of 21.4% to the stock's current perch at $34.59. It's been a tough year for 3D Systems Corporation, with the shares shedding nearly two-thirds of their value, including today's 4.7% drop. Not surprisingly, sentiment around the Street has been tilted toward the bearish side. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), for instance, the stock's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.01 ranks in the 76th annual percentile. Elsewhere, 32.2% of the security's float is sold short, and would take almost 11 sessions to cover, at average daily trading levels.


• Wedbush followed in the footsteps of Oppenheimer, and raised its price target on CRM to $61 from $58, while reiterating its "neutral" recommendation. The stock is failing to capitalize on this upwardly revised target, though, and was last seen 0.9% lower at $63.85. However, Salesforce.com, inc. has rallied 25% from its mid-October low of $51.04, and as such, its 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) of 67 is teetering dangerously close to overbought territory. Simply stated, a near-term pullback may have been in the cards. On the sentiment front, short-term speculators have shown a distinct preference for puts over calls of late, as evidenced by the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.22, which ranks just 5 percentage points from a 52-week peak. Drilling down reveals that not all of this put activity has been of the traditional bearish variety. At the ISE, CBOE, and PHLX, in fact, speculators have sold to open 1.18 puts for each one they've purchased over the past 50 sessions.


• Unlike other media companies that are selling off in the wake of President Barack Obama's statements on net neutrality, TWX is up 0.8% at $77.91. Sparking today's burst of buying power is a price-target hike to $90 from $84 at Goldman Sachs, as well as a spot on the brokerage firm's coveted "Conviction Buy" list. Year-to-date, the shares have tacked on a respectable 16.5%, yet option traders are unconvinced of the equity's ability to sustain this momentum. At the ISE, CBOE, and PHLX, the equity's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 3.07 ranks higher than 98% of similar readings taken in the past year. Echoing this put-skewed bias is Time Warner Inc's SOIR of 0.97, which ranks in the 83rd percentile of its annual range.