Analyst initiations 12-4-06: Chipotle Mexican Grill initiated with Buy

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) and Douglas Emmett (DEI) topped today's list of initiations.

• Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE:CMG) was initiated at Morgan Joseph with a Buy and $70 target, citing the restaurant's fast food unit growth, strong revenue growth and attractive valuation.
• Following its recent IPO, Douglas Emmett Inc. (NYSE:DEI) was initiated by several firms: at Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, with Neutral ratings; at A.G. Edwards and Citigroup, with Hold ratings; and at Lehman Bros., an Overweight rating.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Credit Suisse initiated Charles Schwab Corp. (NASDAQ:SCHW) with an Outperform rating and $24 target; the firm said Schwab's transformation is complete and growth should be driven by continued asset gathering, expense control and active capital management.
• Cowen started Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) with an Outperform rating, saying it believes Akamai dominates the CDN and ADN market and expects the company to continue to beat and raise guidance.
• RF Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:RFMD) was initiated with an Underweight rating and Palm Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) was initiated with an Equal Weight rating at Morgan Stanley.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).