Analyst upgrades: COT, HIG, ALL and VLO

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cott Corp, Hartford Financial, Allstate and Valero Energy were today's noteworthy upgrades:

Lehman upgraded Cott Corp (NYSE: COT) to Equal Weight from Underweight citing recent management changes, a focus on CSD business, and new product discipline.
Bernstein believes the entire non-life insurance group is oversold and that it is time to buy; the firm upgraded Hartford Financial (NYSE: HIG) and Allstate (NYSE: ALL) to Outperform from Market Perform.
Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank on valuation with the stock trading at a -30% discount to NAV while the asset market for U.S. refineries is strong.

OTHER UPGRADES:

Goldman added Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) to its Conviction Buy List.
RBC Capital upgraded BJ Services (NYSE: BJS), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) and Patterson-UTI Energy (NASDAQ: PTEN) to Outperform from Sector Perform.
Friedman Billings upgraded the Semiconductor Capital Equipment sector to Overweight from Market Weight.

Tags: all, allstate, analyst, bj services, bjs, BjServices, cisco, cot, cott, csco, hal, halliburton, hartford, hig, patterson, patterson-uti energy, Patterson-utiEnergy, pten, upgrade, valero, vlo

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Joseph Lazzaro	51	0
2	Connie Madon	47	0
3	Steven Mallas	45	0
4	Mark Fightmaster	42	0
5	Steven Halpern	42	0
6	Zac Bissonnette	39	0
7	Tom Taulli	37	0
8	Tom Johansmeyer	25	0
9	Brian White	25	0
10	Sheldon Liber	24	0
11	Trey Thoelcke	22	0
12	Jim Cramer	21	0
13	Melly Alazraki	21	0
14	Paul Foster	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	17	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?	Q2 to be tough on earnings, but some improvement My Activision Blizzard trade Cramer on BloggingStocks: The post-mark-up could sting industrials
Apple Stores will replace broken iPhone displays iPod touch, nano might get cameras Driving along in my automobile, with an iPhone or iPod	How to try Google Android on x86 computers with a LiveCD Limewire gets improved torrent support in new beta thanks to LibTorrent Hulu begins rolling out ABC shows
New Carson City Cigar Bar Offers 4,000 Sticks AQUA in Cancun Put Stress Relief Within Reach The Classicist: $3 Million Jaguar Racer, 26 Ferraris & More on Offer in Monterey	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?