TSC Ratings' Updates: Freeport-McMoRan

The following ratings changes were generated on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

We've upgraded energy services holding company AGL Resources(ATG Quote) from hold to buy, driven by its revenue growth, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income, notable return on equity and relatively strong performance when compared with the S&P 500 during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally poor debt management on most measures that we evaluated.

Revenue rose by 46.1% since the year-ago quarter, outperforming the average industry growth of 33.5%. AGL also reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared with the same quarter a year ago. Stable EPS over the past year indicate the company has sound management over its earnings and share float. We anticipate these figures will begin to experience more growth in the coming year. Net income increased by 400% compared with the year-ago quarter, from $13 million to $65 million, and ROE improved slightly. ...