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 ...
Here on the cusp of Halloween,
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) investors feel like
kids in a candy store, being treated every day to ever-more
upgrades and earnings uppings as the stroll down Wall Street.
But what about the sick man of the Internet
–
Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO)? Its
paradigm-shifting partnershipwith
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) notwithstanding,
Yahoo's collected fewer prizes than the kid wearing the
bedsheet at the Halloween costume contest.
No longer. This morning, Yahoo! won one of the coveted
upgrades for itself, when
Benchmark Capitalupgraded its shares from "hold" to
"buy." Citing "firming display trends, low
guidance/expectations," and predicting we will hear cautious
optimism from management when it reports third-quarter
earnings, Benchmark thinks now's the time to buy into the
story of a Yahoo! emerged-from-the-grave.
Should you sit in rapt attention as Benchmark tells its
ghost story? Or run away, screaming in horror?
Let's go to the tape
I've got my suspicions ... but rather than rush to
judgment, let's first take a look at Benchmark's record.
Because judging from
this recordin the Media and Internet Software and
Services sectors, Benchmark
doesknow a thing or two about Internet advertising,
and the firms that profit from it:
Stock
Credit Suisse Says:
CAPS says:
Credit Suisse's Picks Beating (Lagging)
S&P By:
Gannett (NYSE: GCI)
Outperform
**
182 points
CBS (NYSE: CBS)
Outperform
**
22 points
Interactive Data (NYSE: IDC)
Outperform
*****
(6 points)
ValueClick (Nasdaq: VCLK) Continued... |