Retailers like Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) are campaigning to force Amazon.com (AMZN) to pay sales taxes. While these retailers headline the effort and would certainly gain from any such decision, other large players like Costco (COST) have (relatively) flown under the radar. Could Costco see the same benefit? Costco traditionally competes with warehouse club operators like BJ's Wholesale Club (BJ) and Sam's Club, in addition to companies like Walmart, Best Buy (BBY) and Target.

Our price estimate for Costco's stock stands at $64.67, a roughly 10% discount to the stock's current market price.

Facebook primarily competes with Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) and Aol (AOL) in the display and search advertising markets. Here we highlight three major revenue streams that contribute to Facebook's value.

We currently peg Facebook's intrinsic value at $45.1 billion.

Akamai's (AKAM) most important division is its media content delivery, constituting around 34% of its stock value by our estimates. The high value attributed to this division in our analysis comes from expectations of rapid growth in Akamai's revenue per media customer. As a content delivery company providing web content to its customers, Akamai competes with other players like InterNAP Network Services (INAP), Limelight Networks (LLNW) and Level 3 (LVLT).

Our price estimate for Akamai stands at $37.11, which is roughly in line with market price.

Shares of retail giant Best Buy (BBY) traded higher Thursday morning after the company posted better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Going into the earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see Best Buy report earnings of $1.84 per share for the quarter. Best Buy topped estimates by posting earnings of $1.98 per share.

Best Buy (BBY) captures one third of U.S. consumer electronics sales, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). That's the good news.

But now Best Buy is losing market share. You are probably wondering why this has happened. After all since Circuit City evaporated into bankruptcy, you would think that Best Buy would be king of the hill. Not so. Other trends are developing that are eroding Best Buy's territory. Here are a few them:

Analyst Upgrades

• Medicis (MRX) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray, to outperform from market perform at Bernstein, to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital and to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Wellpoint (WLP) to buy from neutral at Davenport.
• Humana (HUM) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Frontier Oil (FTO) to equal weight from underweight and Resources Connection (RECN) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.

We've oft heard the saying: "We must reinvent ourselves." This is the new mantra at eBay. According to chief executive John Donahoe: "Clearly, I hope you see that we are starting to play offense."

EBay (EBAY) has long been a dominant player in the e-commerce industry. Started in 1995, it has brought together buyers and sellers in an auction format. Now, 16 years later and highly successful, the company finds a new competitor in Amazon.com (AMZN), which is grabbing market share. In the meantime, eBay has acquired Paypal, as a wholly owned subsidiary. Paypal, an online payment service, helped to propel eBay's business transactions.

Analyst Upgrades

• Athenahealth (ATHN), Ensco (ESV), Pride International (PDE) and Sinclair Broadcast (SBGI) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• CIRCOR (CIR) to buy from hold at BB&T.
• Urban Outfitters (URBN) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Shaw Group (SHAW) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• MGM Resorts (MGM) and Boyd Gaming (BYD) to buy from neutral, as well as Intrepid Potash (IPI) to neutral from underperform, at BofA/Merrill.
• Carlisle (CSL) to buy from neutral at SunTrust.

There's a new industry in the making. It's in the way we buy and read books. Electronic books, or e-books, are taking the book market by storm. Here's a mind blowing statistic. Barnes & Noble (BKS) announced that in December its e-book sales exceeded print books, as reported in MSNMoney.

The two big leaders in the e-book market are Amazon.com (AMZN) and Barnes & Noble with the Kindle and Nook readers respectively. Both companies said that e-readers are their best-selling product of all time.

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Amazon.com (AMZN) is launching a bulk email sending service aimed at businesses and developers. The goal is to expand its Web server services.

Amazon already has huge servers. The new email service is a way to gain added revenue. The service is called Amazon Simple Email Service (SES). The program offers a free usage tier, after which customers pay 10 cents per thousand email messages sent.

CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) rises 24% to 20.03 on antigovernment protests in Egypt.

United States Oil Fund (USO) closed up 4.3% as WTI Crude futures have traded up 4.37% to $89.38, according to Bloomberg. Traders were focused on short-term February 38 calls. February put option implied volatility of 29 is below its 26-week average of 31 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option volume leaders are Apple (AAPL), Citigroup (C), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX), according to Track Data.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Like millions of other Christmas shoppers, I ran-up a big bill on Amazon.com (AMZN). Actually, I do this throughout the year. The fact is that Amazon's selection and pricing are top-notch. Shipping is also quick.

But these things aren't cheap. On the latest quarterly report, Amazon.com showed a big increase in expenses, which put a crimp in margins. Friday morning trading, the stock was off 8% to $170.

JCPenney (JCP) January 32 and February 30 puts are active with total call volume of 18K calls, 10K puts. Pershing Square reported a 16.5% stake in the company on October 8th. Overall option implied volatility of 37 is below its 26-week average of 41 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Amazon (AMZN) February put option implied volatility is at 38, July is at 37; near its 26-week average of 36 into Q4 EPS on January 27, suggesting slightly larger price movement.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

One of the top growth companies over the past couple years has been Netflix (NFLX). The company has effectively transitioned from its DVD delivery business to streaming. However, the competition is heating up, and it is getting more expensive to license content.

Actually, one of the biggest competitive threats is Amazon.com (AMZN). Thursday the company announced that it has purchased LoveFilm, which is an online video rental service that's based in Europe.

Analyst Upgrades

• Diamond Offshore (DO) to conviction buy from sell and Baker Hughes (BHI) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Frontier Communications (FTR) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Syntel (SYNT) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo, to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank and to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC) and Fiserv (FISV) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• 3M (MMM) to neutral from underweight and Tyco (TYC) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Collective Brands (PSS) and Nordstrom (JWN) to overweight from equal weight, as well as Foot Locker (FL) to equal weight from underweight, at Morgan Stanley.
• Amazon.com (AMZN) to buy from hold at Lazard Capital.
• Yamana Gold (AUY) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.