The Unusual Suspects for the Week Ahead (ABT, ADBE, AAPL, ALTH, BBY, LNG, CQP, CSCO, SOLR, INTU, KV-A, NBG, NFLX, ORCL, RIMM, SKX, VMW, XRX, ID, CASY)

There are many key stocks to watch for The Unusual Suspects for the week ahead.  Barron’s was rather influential, we have several carry-over issues from last week that are unresolved, there are several in-play names and we have earnings to look for.  The cast of characters in this week’s Unusual Suspects will feature Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), Adobe Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTH), Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), Cheniere Energy, Inc. (AMEX: LNG), Cheniere Energy Partners LP. (AMEX: CQP), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU), KV Pharmaceutical Co. (NYSE: KV-A), National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL), Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM), Skechers USA Inc. (NYSE: SKX), VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX), L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. (NYSE: ID), and Casey’s General Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: CASY) are all ongoing issues to watch.

We have compiled the news or the catalyst for each, as well as offered additional color and an expected move for the week ahead.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is already worth almost $80 billion so we’d normally not care so much about one upcoming drug.  The issue coming this Wednesday is a FDA panel review of its Meridia drug, which is to treat obesity.  As the obesity class is largely unmet and as there have been many FDA roadblocks on this indication for others, this could easily be a new blockbuster drug if ultimately approved.

Adobe Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are one issue.  It appears as though Steve Jobs decided that he was being too much like some other Technocrats in his heavy-handed and severely limiting blockage of Flash.  This last week Apple relaxed some App restrictions and requirements, and Wall Street’s vote was that this means that Adobe’s Flash will now get to run on iPhone and iPad platforms. While Adobe closed down 2% at $32.20 Friday, its shares closed up 9.5% for the week and its 52-week range is $26.01 to $38.20.  With Samsung apparently bringing a tablet earlier than expected, Steve Jobs may have waited too long to stop his heavy-handed tricks.

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTH) was up 6.8% at $4.25 on Friday after it was floated out there are as one of the possible takeover candidates in the sector.  Frankly, the argument sounded weak but there was over 300% normal share volume and the low call option volume was actually well above normal trading levels.  The 52-week trading range is $3.58 to $8.79.

Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) has earnings this coming Tuesday.  With all the technology warnings seen and with the building of inventories, we have been critical of the lack of any guidance from the company.  It has to be expected that Best Buy will talk down the yearly results when it reports, but there is a lot of that warning already baked into the cake now.  At $33.88, its 52-week range is $30.90 to $48.83.

Cheniere Energy, Inc. (AMEX: LNG) saw a large pop of Friday night after it already closed up almost 6% at $2.66 Friday because of a Department of Energy approval allowing it to sell LNG all over the world.  But then came more than a 10% pop after Jim Cramer talked it up on CNBC’s MAD MONEY.  The 52-week trading range is $1.77 – $5.40, but investors may also not want to forget about the Cheniere Energy Partners LP. (AMEX: CQP) in there also.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has its analyst meeting on Tuesday.  You know the routine and it is not an uncertain outlook.  Chambers needs to address this dividend.  Cisco is a tech growth leader, but the stock has been dead money and by the looks of it all the share buybacks conducted to date have just been to keep employee stock options from diluting the stock too bad.  Chambers always talks about “Caishe-flow” and he needs to start paying a dividend.

GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR) was hit rather hard for its secondary offering of 11 million shares at $7.39.  Shares closed down 17% for the week at $7.28, and that seems too much of a drop from a secondary offering of this size versus a $1.1 billion market cap even if all of the shares sold were sold by its largest holder rather than by the company.  Its 52-week range is $4.51 to $8.80.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was given a very positive write-up in Barron’s over the weekend, although the praise actually seemed late.  At $43.47, its 52-week range is $27.20 to $45.10.  Barron’s noted that its small business offerings and TurboTax and Quicken and web-based services make it perfectly positioned ahead.  We’d look for a 2% or higher pop in a market-neutral scenario.

KV Pharmaceutical Co. (NYSE: KV-A) had a monster rise of almost 74% to $2.87 on Friday and its 52-week range is $0.61 to $5.36.  KV received FDA approval to return its first product to market a quarter ahead of plan after no sales for some time.  This used to be a $20+ stock.

National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) needs to be continually watched as this last week’s news flow brought up concerns that it would raise up to 2.8 billion Euros in new capital and that it would possibly spin off 20% of its Finansbank in Turkey that was instrumental in its recent earnings report being as strong as it was.  The ADRs fell from $2.79 to $2.36 for a drop of 15% in the last week.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is again the #1 stock of the IBD 100 from the weekend, followed by ARUN, PCLN, JKS, PPO, and BIDU.  Netflix on the IBD 100 is becoming the Department of Redundancy Department.  Shareholders have to be expecting a share split at some point very soon.

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) is expected to report earnings on Thursday. We’ll be giving a full earnings preview as it gets closer, but investors will want to hear more than just about hiring Mark Hurd…. Oracle is after much of the same spending enterprise dollars as Cisco and other enterprise players.  Analysts have not really adjusted the $0.36 EPS figure any lower nor the $0.45 EPS expected at the next report.  It had a big week on the Hurd hire and closed out at $25.05, and its 52-week range is $20.10 to $26.63.

Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) is set to announce earnings this coming Thursday and Thomson Reuters estimates are $1.35 EPS and $4.48 billion in revenues.  Based upon how poorly the shares have done, $44.12 at the week’s end versus a 52-week range of $42.53 to $88.08, let us boldly say that only an idiot would not expect an earnings miss or at least another unit sale warning ahead.  Android and iOS phones are taking the lion’s share of the business.  What could act as a catalyst though is a fresh report from Gartner, which showed that RIM could actually have a slower bleed of its mobile operating system market share than what the loudest skeptics are saying.

Skechers USA Inc. (NYSE: SKX) may have been overly punished on an analyst downgrade this last week showing discounting fears.  Shares went from above $26 to under $23 before Friday’s close could stop the bleeding.  At $22.84, its 52-week range is $16.39 to $44.90 and this stock trades at less than 6-times a normalized 2010-2011 earnings estimate blend.  Unless it is having to give shoes away, value investors could save this one.

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) is likely to get hit pretty hard on Monday morning.  Barron’s said the company is overpriced at 61-times expected earnings and that it has  already achieved market dominance that is now under threat by by competition and by cloud computing.  Of course, VMware would say that this is its opportunity rather than its challenge.  You could see more than a 35 or 4% drop on the news in a market-neutral scenario Monday morning.

Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) is going to see a nice pop on Monday morning after it was given the Barron’s front-page cover story called “Just Try to Copy That” where the article said it could go to $14 or $15 in the next year.  Barron’s outlined the transformation from copiers to data services for business and government ahead.  At $9.11, its 52-week trading range is $7.19 to $11.72.  In a market-neutral scenario, Xerox could easily be up more than 3% at Monday’s open.

We have two updates for mergers and acquisitions.  L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. (NYSE: ID) rose more than 6% Friday on word that Safran is in the lead to acquire it as it is up for sale.  Casey’s General Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: CASY) may still be above the real buyout prices, but Seven-Eleven is now in the buyout mix along with the existing offer from Couche-Tard.  Casey’s is likely to drag on a while longer.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG