Today's noteworthy upgrades include: Asbury Automotive (ABG) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill... Baker Hughes (BHI) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Argus... Brookline Bancorp (BRKL) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Compass Point... CIT Group (CIT) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie... Datalink (DTLK) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Craig-Hallum... Energy Recovery (ERII) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse... Heritage-Crystal Clean (HCCI) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird... Lonmin (LNMIY) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan... MarketAxess (MKTX) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette... Oclaro (OCLR) upgraded on positive preannouncement at Stifel... Pretium Resources (PVG) upgraded to Speculative Buy from Hold at Canaccord... Realty Income (O) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill... Senior Housing (SNH) upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Wells Fargo... Seres Therapeutics (MCRB) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill... TrueBlue (TBI) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird... United Community Financial (UCFC) upgraded to Outperform at Keefe Bruyette... Western Digital (WDC) upgraded to Neutral from Sell at UBS.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.  1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.  1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

These names in the biotech sector are seeing a substantial increase in search activity today, as determined by InvestingChannel. They include: Heron Therapeutics (HRTX),... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Baird raised the firm's price target on Western Digital to $100 from $65 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm said in addition to a return to sustainability in HDD fundamentals notably from a gross margin standpoint, emerging from over a decade of overcapacity in the HDD industry, Western Digital is poised to benefit from incremental SSD demand around training and inference, in addition to AI driving HDD capacity needs medium-term.

Benchmark upgraded Western Digital to Buy from Hold with an $85 price target.

Sees Q4 revenue $3.6B-$3.8B, consensus $3.69B.

Reports Q3 GAAP EPS 34c. Reports Q3 revenue $3.46B, consensus $3.36B. "As evidenced by our excellent third quarter results, Western Digital continues improving through-cycle profitability and dampening business cycles by leveraging our strategy of developing a diversified portfolio of industry-leading products across a broad range of end markets," said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO. "We are in the early innings of unlocking the full potential of this company, and as industry supply and demand dynamics continue to improve, we will remain disciplined around our capital spending and focused on driving innovation and efficiency across our businesses. We are confident in our strategy and the actions we have taken to-date, which successfully position us to capitalize on the promising growth prospects that lie ahead."

Pre-earnings options volume in Western Digital is 1.4x normal with calls leading puts 7:5. Implied volatility suggests the market is anticipating a move near 6.2%, or $4.32, after results are released. Median move over the past eight quarters is 2.1%.

Reports Q1 revenue $4.2B, consensus $4.26B....Reports Q1 operating margin of 6.3%... "We delivered a strong first quarter, crossing over $4 billion in revenue for the first time in our company's history," said David Hult, Asbury's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our performance was driven by the hard work of our team members, our focus on the same store operations and the strength and strategic fit of our acquisitions - we are accelerating the results of our integration efforts. We delivered on our ongoing commitment to profitably grow same store preowned volume by retailing over 2,700 more units sequentially, even in a tight inventory market, and new vehicle profits performed well against brand mix driven volume challenges. As we anticipated, margins continue their return to a more normalized level. Our results demonstrate how our strategic investments have enabled us to deliver strong results despite challenging market conditions. The strong performance of our business enabled us to repurchase 240,000 shares in the quarter as part of our capital allocation approach within our multi-year growth strategy."

The ratio of stockholders' equity to total assets was 10.35 percent at March 31, 2024, compared to 10.53 percent at December 31, 2023, and 10.11 percent at March 31, 2023. The ratio of tangible stockholders' equity to tangible assets was 8.25 percent at March 31, 2024, as compared to 8.39 percent at December 31, 2023, and 7.94 percent at March 31, 2023. Tangible book value per common share decreased $0.03 from $10.50 at December 31, 2023 to $10.47 at March 31, 2024, and increased $0.39 from $10.08 at March 31, 2023. Paul Perrault, Chairman and CEO, commented on the Company's first quarter earnings, "Our Company, along with the rest of the banking industry, continues to face margin pressure. As we look ahead to the second quarter we are optimistic about the overall economic outlook in our markets. We remain active in our communities and our dedicated team of bankers continues to provide our customers with the exceptional service they have come to appreciate."