Active Buzzers: Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY), NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP)

Lakeway, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/20/2013 -- ThePennyStockProfiler.com, an investment community with a special focus on updating investors with recent news on the U.S. stock market, issues news alert on the following stocks:-

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) received two upgrades from Barclays Capital’s Alan Rifkin to Overweight from Equal Weight, and from Stifel Nicolaus’s David Schick, from Hold to Buy.

Also lifting shares, the company has said it will “make permanent its holiday price-matching policy” with Amazon.com (AMZN) and others, as reported today by Chris Burritt.

Is BBY Still a Buy After The Solid Gains in Past Few Weeks? Don’t Miss Out Special Trend Analysis Here

Schick, setting a $23 price target, writes that 2013 is a “transitional year,” and that ” in the nearer term this call is about a much clearer plan & dialogue thereof with the Street – with a stronger belief in $2-3 EPS stream than at any time since 2009.”

David Schick notes “much-improved management” by CEO Hubert Joly and CFO Sharon McCollam and the electronics landscape, the sales tax issues for Amazon.com “continue to ramp in BBY’s favor” are the reasons behind this upgrade.

“Management turnarounds can get the benefit of improved valuation and estimates. We believe the Android platform continues to gain momentum as AAPL trends stabilize. Competition for Apple is very important here – it suggests consumer shopping for alternatives, vendors wanting to make markets (need floor space), and perhaps Apple even needing BBY a little more.”

Barclays’s Rifkin, raising his target to $20 from $13, writes that despite “an intensifying group of e-commerce competitors, a challenging real-estate environment, a high operating expense structure, and a weak product cycle,” the risk and reward on the stock are more balanced than in past.

Rifkin raised his estimate for 2014?s profit per share from $1.97 previously to $2.17, reflecting what he thinks will be $100 million in cost savings “over the next two years.”

The announcement by Total Systems Services Inc to acquire NetSpend Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NTSP) for about $1.4 billion sends its share up by $3.51 or 28.56% to $15.80 in the afternoon session.

Is NTSP a Buy After Today’s Solid News? Don’t Miss out Out Special Trend Analysis Here

Total Systems Services Inc will pay $16 per share for NetSpend which is a 26% premium over NetSpend's closing price on Monday.

The acquisition is expected to close by the middle of the year.

Sterne Agee & Leach analyst Greg Smith cut his rating on NetSpend to "Neutral" from "Buy" saying he does not expect any higher bids for NetSpend from another company.

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