TNS Shares Jump After Upgrade

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of TNS Inc. advanced Friday with help from an upgrade at Raymond James, which boosted its earnings and sales forecast for the company.

TNS, which provides secure data and voice communications for the financial services industry, saw shares climb 78 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $19.23 in afternoon trading.

Raymond James analyst Wayne Johnson raised his rating on the stock to "Strong Buy" from "Outperform," in a note to clients Friday and boosted his price target to $27 from $24.

He said "we now think our 2010 estimates were too low because we had been too conservative in our revenue and expense outlook."

Johnson said the company's recent $230 million acquisition of VeriSign Inc.'s communication services group could provide unaccounted for revenue or cost savings.

And TNS could be moving to pay down debt more quickly, "which would lower interset expense more than our model," he added.

Johnson lifted his 2010 profit estimate to $2.23 per share from $2.05 per share on sales of $560 million, up from $543 million.

On average, analysts expect earnings of $2.09 cents per share on sales of $574.8 million, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.