Key Stocks To Watch The Week Ahead, The Unusual Suspects (AMD, BKU, BAMM, BPI, CA, CLH, DWA, ERTS, ETFC, F, GLD, SLV, LNKD, Z, P, LULU, NWS, WFT)

24/7 Wall St. usually looks for the companies with upcoming events in the week ahead.  During earnings season, we generally feature companies only with non-earnings events.  This is our list of “The Unusual Suspects” for the week ahead and we have outlined the events for the following companies: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD); BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE: BKU); Books-A-Million Inc. (NASDAQ: BAMM); Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI); CA Inc. (NASDAQ: CA); Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH); DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NASDAQ: DWA); Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS); E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC); Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F); SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD); iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV); LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD); Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z); Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE: P); Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU); News Corp. (NYSE: NWS); and Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT).

Many events are ongoing and some are carryover events to consider, and we have added color on each if applicable.  On a separate note, we did compile what is a detailed preview of the top earnings this coming week as well as the top ten analyst calls of this last week.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) was one of the top gainers on Friday after it reported positive earnings.  The 19%+ gain to $7.75 puts it back in the middle of its 52-week trading range of $5.53 to $9.58. The 85+ million shares traded appears to be the biggest one-day share volume back to November of 2009.  Forbes is calling for a run to $10 even with its CEO overhang issues.

BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE: BKU) has been public for just about six-months and its IPO lock-up period from insiders and 10% owners is set to end this week. At $25.61, its post-IPO range is $24.88 to $29.90.

Books-A-Million Inc. (NASDAQ: BAMM) may have thin trading volume and may only be worth $53 million in market capitalization, but we believe that this small cap offers a stealthy road to winning from the Borders bankruptcy liquidation.  We featured this as the stealth winner, and for some reason the shares were up 10% on Friday ahead of a Bizjournals.com report that the company submitted bids for 30 of the Borders locations.

Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI) took it on the chin after the close on Friday with a drop of about 6%. The company filed with the SEC to register the resale of 34,589,220 shares of common stock held by Warburg Pincus Private Equity VIII, L.P.  The company has about $1.6 billion in market cap, but at the $30.50 price that comes to a combined share sale of $1.037 billion before the effects of the sell-off.  Can you say dilution to the free float?

CA Inc. (NASDAQ: CA) is slated to have an investor meeting this coming Friday.  With shares trading around $22.60, let’s just go even deeper on record noting that this one has been dead money for about 7 years or so whether it has a $11.5 billion market cap or not.

Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH) is set to trade ex-split on July 27 to reflect its 2-for-1 split.  The stock trades north of $112 and shares hit a high of $114.09 on this last Thursday.  This stock is up about 50-fold in the last ten years and it looks like it is the first split for the $3 billion environmental remediation outfit.

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NASDAQ: DWA) is in discussions over a streaming movie video rights deal with Netflix.  The move could open up its distribution even more and at $21.05 it is at the bottom of a 52-week range of $19.76 to $37.74.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) has its annual meeting of stockholders this coming Thursday.  The social gaming move will be of focus, and we would expect shareholders to discuss the multi-year lag in shares even if the stock has handily recovered.

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) was up on the week after Citadel wanted to press for a more active role in creating value.  E*TRADE has rejected the call for a special meeting as it believes it is not in its best interest, but the online broker announced after the close on Friday that it had hired J.P. Morgan Securities for a review that ended in Q4-2010 noting that a sale would not maximize value at the time.  The new news is that E*TRADE formed a special committee of the board’s independent directors to retain Morgan Stanley to conduct another broad review of strategic alternatives.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) may have earnings this week but this last week and this weekend there was news of a recall of more than 26,000 F-series Excursion SUVs and Ranger trucks over a switch fault that could allow malfunctions of turn signals, tail lights, and brake lights.  The question is simple… Is 26,000 really all that was affected?

Gold & Silver…. if the debt talks have broken down.  We will be paying attention to SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) to hit new highs above the $156.68 year-high and then iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) to challenge $40 again.

LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) was listed as grossly overvalued this weekend in Barron’s as part of a social media valuation review.  It noted the J.P.Morgan analyst downgrade this last week and said the stock is 15% overvalued even if you discount a 9-year growth rate.  For that matter, Barron’s also bashed Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z) for trading at 30-times expected revenues and bashed Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE: P) for trading at about 16-times expected revenues.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) has already had its stock split, and its stock was again the #1 position on the IBD-100 this weekend for stock charts.  Lululemon has rallied so much since its split was announced that it should have declared a 3-for-1 split rather than a 2-for-1 split.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) will likely have an ongoing spotlight again this week on its news fiasco in England, along with its policies possibly being more widespread than some hoped.  Still, shares recovered this last week after the Murdochs’ testimony this last week in England.

Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT) was featured positively in Barron’s over the weekend for “Why the stock could be a gusher.”  At $19.82, Weatherford was listed in the report as being worth $25 to $30 on assets alone and being worth closer to $30 by the end of 2013 on its turnaround.  For whatever it is worth, Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target objective of just over $25.00.

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JON C. OGG