Analyst Upgrades

• Dominion (D) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Corinthian Colleges (COCO) to outperform from underperform at RBC Capital.
• Canadian National (CNI) to sector outperformer from sector performer at CIBC.
• DragonWave (DRWI) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Infosys (INFY) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• SL Green Realty (SLG), Lexington Realty (LXP) and Taubman Centers (TCO) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Sunstone Hotel (SHO) to buy from neutral and Extra Space Storage (EXR) to buy from hold at KeyBanc.

Analyst Upgrades

• Verizon (VZ), FEMSA (FMX), Vornado (VNO), Duke Realty (DRE) and AvalonBay (AVB) to buy from neutral, as well as Carnival (CCL) to conviction buy from buy, at Goldman.
• Symantec (SYMC) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Copano Energy (CPNO), DCP Midstream (DPM) and Inergy (NRGY) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• SYNNEX (SNX) to strong buy from buy at Needham.
• Eli Lilly (LLY) to hold from sell at Hapoalim.
• World Wrestling (WWE) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.

The battle among iPhone carriers is fierce. Apple's (AAPL) iPhone is the prized device. AT&T (T), Verizon's (VZ) rival, has had the an exclusive hold on the iPhone. Verizon has been trying to play catch up. Now that Verizon will have the iPhone, the playing field will change dramatically. Verizon, with about 93 million subscribers, could grab an estimated 10 million new subscribers with the iPhone, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The move is also a big boost for Apple. Apple has been feeling the pressure from Google (GOOG), with its Android system. Android phones passed the iPhone in sales in the second quarter. This move to Verizon will open up a new expanded base for Apple.

This post is one in a series in which more than 60 newsletter advisors share their Top Stock Picks for 2011. This special report is courtesy of TheStockAdvisors.com.

"The good folks at AT&T (T) have seemingly accomplished what all the kings horse's and all the king's men could not; they have put Humpty Dumpty back together again," says dividend specialist Michael Minney.

The editor Investment Quality Trends explains, "While not a mirror image of the 'old' Ma Bell, the latest incarnation of AT&T is arguably much better.

The wireless communication world is about to receive a new entrant, as the country's third-largest cable company will start a cellular network in three areas today. The company? Cox Communications.

Before you think that this wireless network will be available across the U.S., Cox's wireless offerings will be available in Orange County, California; Omaha, Nebraska; and Hampton Roads, Virginia. These three locales are where Cox is the local cable company, and they hold roughly 1.5 million residents.

The stock of AT&T (T), first written about here on February 11, 2009, at a price of $25.89, recently pushed $30, after meandered near $26 for the better part of a year, and I obviously still like the shares here.

AT&T remains well-positioned to remain a force in the Internet/communications revolution in the years ahead. Look for AT&T's revenue to grow about 2% to 4% in 2011, led by an impressive increase in cell phone customers (which numbered about 93 million as of June 2010) and wireless data service customers. In 2010, revenue should rise 1% to 3%.

Clearwire (CLWR - option chain) shares are rising today on reports that the company will auction some of its wireless spectrum in order to raise $2.5 billion to $5 billion. According to Bloomberg, potential bidders for the spectrum include AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), Deutsche Telekom, Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Sprint (S). If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CLWR.

Analyst Upgrades

• Credit Suisse upgraded AT&T (T) to outperform from neutral and has a $35 target on the stock. Credit Suisse believes the impact from AT&T's loss of iPhone exclusivity will be less than expected and that the stock should benefit from its earnings growth and dividend yield.
• Goldman upgraded Freeport McMoRan (FCX) to buy from neutral and raised its price target to $94 from $79 based on improving copper fundamentals.
• Benchmark Co. upgraded Valueclick (VCLK) to vuy from hold on expectations Google Instant (GOOG) could drive marketing traffic. The firm raised its target price for Valueclick shares to $15 from $11.
• Best Buy (BBY) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Research In Motion (RIMM) was upgraded to buy from sell at Societe Generale.
• CarMax (KMX) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.

You win some you lose some. This story is about one of my less successful investments, which I acquired and sold many years ago. Over the past four years, I have written many times about Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), by far my best stock investment, up 4,500%, give or take, over a ten-year period. I bought in at the bottom and held on for the ride, until last year when the market tanked and took Intuitive Surgical with it.

The other company was Superconductor Technologies (SCON), the makers of high-temperature devices that improve communications transmission quality.

One of the hottest categories in tech is location-based services (LBS). Essentially, this means using your smartphone's GPS capability to show friends your current location. One of the early leaders in the space is Foursquare, which recently snagged a large amount of venture capital. But other players are diving in. For example, Shopkick recently rolled out a pilot of its LBS platform to allow shoppers at Best Buy (BBY) to get discounts. And of course, Facebook recently launched its Places capability.

In fact, now AT&T (T) is getting into the game. The telecom giant has teamed up with an LBS startup, SCVNGR, which has a rewards system for the iPhone and Android. It will be in 50 AT&T stores throughout the Midwest as a trial program.