08:49 am Century Aluminum upgraded to Buy from Hold at Cowen; tgt $13: . Cowen upgrades CENX to Buy from Hold and sets target price at $13. They note that by reaching a tentative market-based power agreement for its Hawesville smelter, CENX has removed a major overhang and cleared a path for profitable operations without a potential idling. They expect a similar outcome at newly acquired Sebree, and see meaningful upside into 2014.
08:49 am Plum Creek downgraded to Underperform at DA Davidson: . DA Davidson downgrades PCL to Underperform from Neutral. This is strictly a valuation call and says nothing about their respect for mgmt, their stewardship of their assets, nor the asset class itself. Simply put, Plum Creek is currently trading within pennies of its all-time high of $53.68; established within the past few trading days. While they have no doubt that the near term outlook for Plum Creek's Log, Lumber and Land business is rosy, they do not believe that land values have appreciated beyond pre-recession levels (they think they are about flat) and recent transactions, including last week's purchase of 46,000 acres of Southern timberland (for $1565/acre), seems to support that view.
08:48 am Lexington initiated with a Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann; tgt $14: . Ladenburg Thalmann initiates LXP with a Buy and price target of $14 -- 2013 should be the first year since the recession that Lexington's cash available for distribution (CAD) will grow YoY. Coupled with forecasted declines (post 2013) in straight-line rent, principal amortization, and cap-ex, they believe the REIT can afford to pay out more of its AFFO in dividends. As a result, they project a 22% increase to LXP's dividend/sh in both 2013 and 2014 (raises historically occur in 4Q), which assumes that LXP's AFFO payout ratio drifts up into the low-80% range. However, despite this attractive dividend growth potential as well as near-term catalysts on the horizon, LXP still trades at a highly discounted multiple vs. the net lease sector and the average REIT.
08:48 am Auxilium Pharma upgraded to Buy at Stifel on valuation; tgt $19: . Stifel upgrades AUXL to Buy from Hold and sets target at $19. AUXL reported one of its worst quarterly performances, with 1Q13 revenues of $66.2mn (-10.1 y/y and far below Consensus $81.2mn) from surprisingly weak Testim ($45.5mn vs Consensus $58.2mn) and Xiaflex ($12.0mn U.S. vs. Consensus $16.8mn). On the more positive side was the $585mn acquisition of private urology-focused Actient, bringing growth assets Testopel ($58mn), Edex ($25mn), and opportunities for sales leverage and cost synergies ($20mn). Despite the weakened Testim/Xiaflex outlook, firm believes the selloff makes shares more compelling into 2H13 as Actient accretion and Peyronie's PDUFA (Sept-2013) could drive upside potential.