MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• BMO Capital initiated the North American Pipeline sector with a Market Perform rating. El Paso Corp (NYSE:EP), Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) and Spectra Energy (NYSE:SE) were initiated with Outperform ratings and CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) and AGL Resources (NYSE:ATG) ATG were assumed with Market Perform ratings.
  
• Friedman Billings believes Aeropostale (NYSE:ARO) has an impressive back-to-school floorset and that momentum should carry into the fall. Additionally, the firm, which initiated shares with an Outperform rating and $38 target, expects the company to buyback shares.
  
• Thomas Weisel believes ImClone (NASDAQ:IMCL) is attractively valued as Erbitux is positioned to capitalize on a number of label-expanding opportunities and that concerns of KRAS-related revenue loss in colorectal cancer and the clinical utility of FLEX lung cancer data are overstated. Shares were assumed with an Overweight rating and $50 target.

• JMP Securities initiated Website Pros. inc. (NASDAQ:WWWW) and GSI Commerce (NASDAQ:GSIC) with Outperform ratings and target of $12 and $19, respectively.
  
• McAfee (NYSE:MFE) was assumed at Baird with an Outperform rating and $44 target.

Analyst initiations: North American pipeline sector, ARO and IMCL originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Bernstein upgraded Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Outperform from Market Perform, citing margins on 3rd party transactions that are close to eBay's (EBAY) and that the overseas merchants initiative will increase 3rd party units to 25% of sales. The move is expected to increase operating margins to 6.2% by 2011, above the previously expected improvement of 4.6% by the same time.

• JMP Securities said Luminent Mortgage's (NYSE: LUM) $64.9M emergency financing from Arco Capital may preserve some value for shareholders, and upgraded shares to Market Underperform from Sell.

• JP Morgan added Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) to its Focus List, and expects the Wild Oats (NASDAQ: OATS) acquisition to be a catalyst for shares.

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) to Hold from Sell.

• Matrix USA raised Pediatrix Medical (NYSE: PDX) to Buy from Hold, citing valuation...

• AGL Resources (NYSE: ATG) and Atmos Energy (NYSE: ATO) were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Calyon.

• Rowan Co (NYSE: RDC) was upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.

• Goldman raised O'Reilly Automotive (NASDAQ: ORLY) to Buy from Neutral.

• BMO Capital upgraded General Mills (NYSE: GIS) to Outperform from Market Perform.

Analyst upgrades 8-27-07: AMZN, GIS and WFMI originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.