Analyst upgrades: NMX, ICI, QCOM and IFX

Posted Nov 19th 2007 11:15AM by Eric Buscemi

MOST NOTEWORTHY: NYMEX, Imperial Chemical, Qualcomm and Infineon were today's noteworthy upgrades:

Citigroup upgraded shares of NYMEX (NYSE: NMX) to Buy from Hold following the recent share weakness, as they believe record high oil will bring a period of extended energy volatility. Citigroup also believes NMX is the most likely takeover candidate among U.S. exchanges.
JP Morgan raised its rating on Imperial Chemical (OTC: ICIYY) to Neutral from Overweight, as they believe the deal with Akzo Nobel (OTC: AKZOY) will go through and is positive for shareholders.
JP Morgan also raised Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) to Overweight from Neutral to reflect the strong outlook for the QCT chip business as well as Qualcomm's product pipeline.
Merrill Lynch upgraded shares of Infineon (NYSE: IFX) to Buy from Neutral on valuation, as they believe the current share price factors in no value for the company's 77.5% stake in Qimonda (NYSE: QI).

OTHER UPGRADES:

Citigroup upgraded the bank sector to Overweight from Market Weight.
UBS upgraded Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) to Neutral from Sell.
Credit Suisse upgraded VASCO Data Security (NASDAQ: VDSI) to Outperform from Market Perform.
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.