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Analysts upwardly revised their ratings on CRM, JBLU, and WSM
Analysts are weighing in today on cloud concern Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), airline issue JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU), and home furnishings specialist Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on CRM, JBLU, and WSM.
- CRM was met with a mixed bag of brokerage notes, after offering up lower-than-expected current-quarter and fiscal 2016 revenue outlooks. Both Canaccord Genuity and Pivotal Research followed in the recent footsteps of D.A. Davidson, and upped their respective price targets to $70 and $74 -- while underscoring their "buy" ratings. Wedbush, meanwhile, cut its price target to $58 from $61, while reiterating its "neutral" rating. Ahead of the bell, Salesforce.com, inc. is pointed 3% lower, which should please one group of traders. Specifically, short interest jumped nearly 5% over the last two reporting periods, and now accounts for a healthy 6.5% of the stock's available float. What's more, it would take eight sessions to cover these bearish bets, at CRM's average daily pace of trading. Last night, the stock closed at $61.02 -- 10.6% above its year-to-date breakeven line.
- JBLU received a handful of bullish brokerage notes, after the company announced a number of income-adding strategies yesterday. Included in the bunch was an upwardly revised price target to $17 from $13 at Deutsche Bank, which also reiterated its "buy" rating, and an upgrade to "neutral" from "underperform" at Credit Suisse. Thanks to Wednesday's 4% pop, the stock is now sitting more than 55% higher in 2014. Plus, the equity is positioned to hit another multi-year high out of the gate, with the shares flirting with a 3% lead in pre-market trading. Should JetBlue Airways Corporation continue to make its way up the charts, an unwinding of skepticism could help propel the shares higher. At present, the majority of analysts covering the shares maintain a "hold" or "sell" suggestion. Additionally, one-fifth of the security's float is sold short, representing more than a week's worth of pent-up buying demand, at typical daily trading levels.
- WSM is pointed 6% higher ahead of the bell, after the company's stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings report was met with no fewer than eight price-target hikes. The most optimistic outlook came from SunTrust Robinson, which boosted its target price by $2 to $85 (and maintained its "buy" rating), representing expected upside of more than 22% to the stock's current perch at $69.42 -- and a move into uncharted territory. On the sentiment front, option traders were optimistic heading into last night's announcement. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.44 ranks in the 97th percentile of its annual range. Simply stated, calls have been bought to open over puts with more rapidity just 3% of the time within the past year.