Stocks to Watch: HP, Rambus, Guess?

Deutsche Bank lowered its price target to $15 from $20 on HP following the report, while keeping a sell rating on the stock.

"Overall, EPS quality this quarter was poor with ~$10B in charges and we remain cautious on HP's weakening fundamentals, challenging macro conditions & deteriorating cash flow," the firm said.

The stock was last quoted Wednesday at $18.26, down 4.9%, on after-hours volume of 6.71 million, according to Nasdaq.com.

Steel Stocks:

Dahlman Rose was out with a bearish call on the steel sector early Thursday, forecasting future pricing weakness for domestic steel producers.

"Recent domestic price increases have not been matched internationally, potentially inviting increased imports later this year and placing a de facto ceiling on domestic prices," said the firm, which added later: "Since bottoming in late July, steel stocks in our coverage have rallied in a range of 9% to nearly 30% versus an increase of roughly 6% for the S&P. We believe the move was justified, given the increase in quoted steel prices (currently at $670/st versus early July lows of $590/st), but think that industry fundamentals point to a move lower from current levels."

Among the stocks downgraded by Dahlman were AK Steel(AKS) , cut to sell from hold with a $5 price target; ArcelorMittal(MT) , cut to hold from buy; Nucor(NUE) , lowered to hold from buy; Steel Dynamics(STLD) , cut to hold from buy; and U.S. Steel(X) , dropped to hold from buy.

Rambus(RMBS) :

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based technology licensing company said after Wednesday's close that it plans to lay off 15% of its workforce as part of a restructuring. The company, which has roughly 450 employees, expects the restructuring to begin in the next few weeks and be completed in the fourth quarter.

It anticipates recording related severance charges totaling roughly $6 million over the next two quarters and sees an overall net cash savings of $30 million to $35 million annually from the restructuring program.

"After reviewing our expenses in detail, we have concluded that the support infrastructure can be reduced to improve profitability," said Dr. Ronald Black, the company's CEO. "While we have refined some of our R&D investments, we are preserving all of our strategic initiatives as we believe they will drive significant growth in the future."

The stock closed Wednesday at $4.76, down more than 55% in the past year.

Guess?(GES) :