Analyst Update: General Electric, B/E Aerospace, Salesforce

U.S. markets are higher this afternoon, as Wall Street responds positively to the latest round of economic data. Meanwhile, among equities in focus are blue chip General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), aircraft specialist B/E Aerospace Inc (NASDAQ:BEAV), and cloud concern Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), which have all received the attention of analysts.

• GE is up 0.4% at $26.13, after Goldman Sachs boosted its price target on the shares to $28 from $27 -- but underscored its tepid "neutral" rating. Today's positive price action marks a change of pace for GE, which is down 6.8% year-to-date. Option traders have been rolling the dice on additional losses, too, as evidenced by the equity's 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 0.61, which ranks just 7 percentage points from an annual bearish peak. Echoing this put-skewed trend is General Electric Company's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.96, which sits higher than 83% of similar readings taken in the past year.


• Ahead of tomorrow's inaugural trading of when-issued shares of its spin-off, KLX Inc., BEAV received price-target cuts from J.P. Morgan Securities (to $85) and Oppenheimer (to $91), while Credit Suisse raised its target price to $94. All three brokerage firms maintained their equivalent of an "outperform" rating. On the charts, BEAV has struggled since topping out at an all-time high of $101.13 in early May, with the shares off 22% to trade at $78.87. More recently, the equity has encountered a stern level of resistance at its 80-day moving average -- currently located at $80.14 -- with this trendline containing today's advance. Amid this longer-term downtrend, option players have been quick to place bearish bets. In fact, B/E Aerospace Inc's 50-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX put/call volume ratio of 1.02 ranks in the 95th percentile of its annual range. Simply stated, puts have been bought to open over calls with more rapidity just 5% of the time within the past year.


• J.P. Morgan Securities weighed in on CRM -- calling the company a "trailblazer," and initiating coverage of the stock with an "overweight" rating and a $74 price target. Not only does this represent expected upside of almost 26% to the stock's current perch at $58.75, but sits in territory yet to be charted. With CRM boasting a roughly 14% year-over-year gain, today's bullish brokerage note echoes the general consensus seen on the Street. Of the 27 analysts covering Salesforce.com, inc., 23 maintain a "buy" or better rating, versus three "holds," and just one "sell." Meanwhile, the average 12-month price target of $70.49 stands at a nearly 20% premium to present trading levels.