The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.
Handset and infrastructure vendors
–RBC Capital Markets upgraded Alcatel-Lucent to sector perform from underperform. R.W. Baird lowered its estimates on the company after the company announced a strategic realignment. New estimates are EPS of 37 cents rather than 42 cents for 2008 and 6 cents rather than 34 cents for 2009. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services placed Alcatel-Lucent’s BB- long-term corporate credit rating on CreditWatch with negative implications. “The CreditWatch placement follows Alcatel Lucent’s strategy and outlook update today, including the company’s forecasts of an 8% to 12% drop in its revenues in 2009, at constant currencies,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Patrice Cochelin.
Other
–Barclays Capital upgraded Tellabs to overweight from equal weight and bumped its price target to $6.50 from $5, noting it is positive on the company’s recovery. Estimates, however, dropped to 20 cents from 21 cents for 2008 and to 3 cents from 13 cents for 2009, on macro pressures.
–Barclays Capital lowered its price target on Texas Instruments to $16 from $17 on a challenging near-term outlook. The firm also lowered its 2009 EPS estimate on the company to 20 cents from 55 cents.
–Oppenheimer slightly lowered its estimates on F5 Networks on only slight weakness in channel checks. New estimates are EPS of $1.65 on revenues of $709.3 million instead of EPS of $1.94 on revenues of $719.3 million. R.W. Baird lowered its rating on F5 to neutral and lowered its price target to $23 on the global capex slowdown.