Analyst initiations 4-18-07: EBAY, CA, CAH, CKR & FIRE initiated today

MOST NOTEWORTHY: CKE Restaurants (CKR), Cardinal Health (CAH), eBay (EBAY) and CA Inc (CA) topped today's noteworthy initiation list today:

Nollenberger believes the Hardee's franchise is entering a period of accelerated growth and initiated shares of CKE Restaurants (NYSE: CKR) with a Buy rating and $27 target.

Goldman views Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) as a as a high quality, focused franchise with strong fundamental outlook driven by margin expansion and improvements in non-drug wholesale businesses and restructuring efforts, reinstating its Buy rating on the company.

American Technology initiated eBAY Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY) with a Buy rating and $43 target, believing the company is the top play on growth of U.S. e-commerce and they expect upside to numbers tonight.

Needham believes CA Inc (NYSE: CA) Inc remains in transition as it continues to work on the repackaging of its vast product array into five solution sets and started the company with a Hold rating.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

Lazard initiated F5 Networks Inc (NASDAQ: FFIV) with a Buy rating and $100 target.

Citigroup started Clearwire Corp (NASDAQ: CLWR) with a Hold rating and $23 target.

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage of Vornado RealtyTrust (NYSE: VNO) with an Equal Weight rating.

Roth Capital initiated shares of Vivus Inc (NASDAQ: VVUS) with a Buy rating and $15 target.

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

Tags: analyst, ca, cah, cardinal, cke, ckr, clearwire, clwr, ebay, f5, ffiv, fire, initiation, rating, sourcefire, theflyonthewall.com, vivus, vno, vornado, vvus, wet seal, WetSeal, wtsla

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Joseph Lazzaro	52	0
2	Connie Madon	49	0
3	Steven Mallas	46	0
4	Steven Halpern	43	0
5	Mark Fightmaster	42	0
6	Zac Bissonnette	40	0
7	Tom Taulli	37	0
8	Sheldon Liber	27	0
9	Brian White	25	0
10	Tom Johansmeyer	25	0
11	Trey Thoelcke	22	0
12	Melly Alazraki	21	0
13	Paul Foster	21	0
14	Jim Cramer	21	0
15	Jamie Dlugosch	19	0
16	Eric Buscemi	19	0
17	Jon Ogg	18	0
18	Elizabeth Harrow	18	2
19	Brent Archer	18	0
20	Michael Fowlkes	11	0

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:

Investors pressure private equity funds to cut fees Will an IPO bring more transparency to KKR? Will FDIC's new rules for buying failed banks deter private-equity investors?	Microsoft must be innovative with Hohm to avoid being an also-ran Q2 to be tough on earnings, but some improvement My Activision Blizzard trade
Manage your iPhone's clipboard with Snippets Shoot steady iPhone video with Zgrip iPhone PRO White iPhone discoloration: Not just heat	Enthusiast posts source code for 13 Atari classics...legally? New threat targets DirectShow component via Internet Explorer Nice Translator add-on for Firefox makes short work of foreign text
Jean-Georges Steakhouse Opening In Washington DC Saguaro Road, Estate of the Day Pita Oceana Will Be 'Bargain' Platinum Metal Watch	Q2 to be tough on earnings, but some improvement Google argues that it isn't really that big after all Dell developing a pocket Web pal?

www