Wall Street Starting to Smile at Clearwire?
In a recent exclusive interview with Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow, we asked him if the company’s message was getting through to Wall Street. He responded, in part, that “I think they [Wall Street investors and analysts] understand… with more markets launched, they’re getting some good insights and are diving further in.”
Thursday in his excellent blog over at Barron’s, Eric Savitz detailed the report of one Wall Streeter who just gave CLWR an upgrade to Outperform from Neutral, moving his stock price target to $12 a share (up from $7; the stock closed Thursday at $8.26, up 29 cents). So maybe the Street is starting to take notice that Clearwire is actually launching the services they said they would? Or that more big partners (like Time Warner Cable) are touting their plans to resell Clearwire’s WiMAX?
In our most recent CLEARWIRE NTK report, we asked this question: “Could it be that Wall Street is finally getting its hands around Clearwire’s strategy, and that on-time launches in Atlanta and Las Vegas, followed by a somewhat surprising string of smaller market launches… are making folks reconsider writing Clearwire off?” In his blog Savitz quotes a report issued by Macquarie analyst Phil Cusick, who says of Clearwire:
Our confidence is higher primarily due to Clearwire’s shift in the past six months to an experienced wireless team and operational focus, its building momentum, a high likelihood that it will be able to raise additional capital and an attractive valuation and asset base.
If you can decode the “I can haz analyst” prose, you see there is some agreement with the points we made, also in the Clearwire NTK report for October: That Clearwire is starting to look “more like a real service provider,” and that “From a viability standpoint, it’s apparent that Clearwire has moved past ‘will they ever get started’ to a ‘will they have enough to finish’ mode.”
UPDATE: Of course, some Wall Street types were interested in Clearwire early on… but it looks like their trading profits may not stick.
If you want more of our insight, our CLEARWIRE NTK reports cost less than a cheezburger — and are just as tasty! Order yours today and read the analysis that Wall Street is just now catching onto.
