The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.
Click here for wireless ratings from past weeks from RCR Wireless News.
Carrier
- RBC Capital Markets started coverage on Dobson Communications with a sector perform rating and a $10 price target. Positives include solid prospects for improvement in the company’s major operating metrics, less competitive suburban/rural markets and prospects for increased roaming revenues from T-Mobile USA. Concerns include the controlling stake by the Dobson family, relatively high exposure to roaming and possible lack of operating scale due to noncontiguous operating clusters.
Handset and infrastructure vendors
- RBC Capital Markets increased its estimates on Nokia Corp. on better demand for mobile devices. EPS estimates for 2006 increased to $1.40 from $1.36 and for 2007 to $1.47 from $1.42.
Other
- Harris Nesbitt lowered its rating on Andrew Corp. from outperform to neutral after ADC Telecommunications announced plans to acquire the company. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services put Andrew’s BB corporate credit rating and other ratings on the company on CreditWatch with positive implications on news of the merger plans. First Albany Capital lowered its rating on Andrew following the acquisition news, from buy to neutral, saying shares will now trade in accordance with the deal and not on other merits. R.W. Baird lowered its price target on ADC to $22 and reduced 2006 EPS estimates to $1.08 from $1.33 on the announcement.
- First Albany Capital raised its estimates on InterDigital Communications Corp. to reflect new guidance and the impact of InterDigital adding Panasonic as a paying 3G licensee. For 2006, it raised its estimates to $477.7 million from $212.7 million. EPS estimates increase to $3.90 from $3.78. First Albany rates InterDigital at strong buy.
- Cowen and Co. L.L.C. initiated coverage on Openwave Systems with a neutral rating. RBC Capital Markets raised its rating on Openwave to sector perform from underperform and maintained its $18 price target on the company, saying the company’s risk-reward profile has improved.
- Piper Jaffray upgraded its opinion on SiRF Technology from market perform to outperform, saying a recent sell-off of SiRF shares is overdone and that the company has several trends going for it including growth in demand for chipsets for personal navigation devices and potential for mobile handset design wins to ramp during the second half of this year and next year.
