Analyst initiations 4-05-07: Under Armour, Ford Motor & Cephalon initiated today

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Specialty pharmaceutical companies make up today's most noteworthy list:

The Bank of America initiated Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPGY), Mentor Corp (NYSE: MNT), Alcon, Inc (NYSE: ACL) and Allergan, Inc (NYSE: AGN) with Buy ratings and initiated Cephalon, Inc (NASDAQ: CEPH), Forest Laboratories, Inc (NYSE: FRX), Sepracor Inc (NASDAQ: SEPR) with Neutral ratings. Bank of America's top pick is Shire plc as the firm expects the company to launch six products or product extensions by mid-2008, followed by Mentor Corp, as the conversion to silicone breast implants should drive a period of stronger-than-expected sales and earnings.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F) was initiated at Buckingham with an Underperform rating and General Motors (GM) was started with a Neutral rating.

Nollenberger believes Under Armour, Inc (NYSE: UA), started with a Buy rating, is positioned to outperform the market based on the strength of its brand name and demand through the continued introduction of new products along with European growth.

Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NYSE: BRL) was initiated with an Equal Weight rating and $53 target at Morgan Stanley.

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

Tags: acl, agn, alcon, allergan, analyst, barr pharma, BarrPharma, brl, ceph, cephalon, cepr, ford, forest, frx, initiation, mentor, mnt, rating, sepracor, shire, shpgy, theflyonthewall.com, ua, under armour, UnderArmour

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