Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Walmart (WMT) to buy from neutral, citing compelling valuation, margin expansion and expense control. The firm has a $60 target on the stock.
• FBR Capital upgraded Urban Outfitters (URBN) to outperform from market perform on valuation and its belief that sustainable positive comp trends will return in 2010. The firm maintains a $35 price target on shares.
• JPMorgan upgraded Manpower (MAN) to overweight from neutral. The firm cites valuation and improving temp fundamentals in the U.S. and France for the upgrade and has a $70 price target on the stock.
• Arena Resources (ARD) was upgraded to buy from neutral at SunTrust.
• C.R. Bard (BCR) was upgraded to neutral from underweight at Piper Jaffray.
• Cardinal Health (CAH) was upgraded to overweight from market weight at Thomas Weisel.

Continue reading Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades and Initiations: BKC, CAH, DGX, FII, MAN, URBN, WMT ...

Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades and Initiations: BKC, CAH, DGX, FII, MAN, URBN, WMT ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pozen (NASDAQ:POZN) is up 35% on approval of one of its drugs by the FDA.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is up over 7% on a strong forecast for the rest of 2008.

Badger Meter (NYSE:BMI) is up almost 15% on strong Q1 numbers.

Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is up over 3% on anticipation of a strong earnings report.

Stocks may trade differently in the pre-market than they do in the regular session.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Pre-market movers (NOK) (INTC) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Caliper Life Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: CALP) was initiated at Piper Jaffray with an Outperform rating and $8 target. Piper believes the company's collection of acquisitions offers a diverse portfolio targeting a $1.2B segment of the life science tools market.
  
• Credit Suisse resumed coverage of Network Appliance Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) and EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) with Neutral ratings and a $28 target and $20 target, respectively, as they have concerns of near-term demand risk.
  
• Concur Technologies (NASDAQ: CNQR) was started at Jefferies with a Buy rating and $40 target, as they believe the company is changing the landscape of employee expense management by integrating travel and expense reimbursement and feels shares deserve a premium valuation.
  
• Oppenheimer sees limited upside from current levels at TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ: TTGT) and would consider an entry point in the low-to-mid teens. The firm started shares with a Neutral rating and $17 target.

• Banc of America initiated K Swiss Inc (NASDAQ: KSWS) with a Sell rating and $20 target.
  
• Stephens initiated Comverge Inc (NASDAQ: COMV) with an Equal Weight rating and $29 target and Badger Meter Incorporated (AMEX: BMI) with an Overweight rating and $39 target.
  
• JMP Securities resumed coverage of DemandTec Inc (NASDAQ: DMAN) with a Market Outperform rating and $16 target.

Analyst initiations: CALP, NTAP, EMC, CNQR and TTGT originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We all know that malnutrition could affect economic output. Now it seems that obesity can too. In fact, according to a World Bank specialist, obesity could knock as much as 3% off production in the poorest countries, same as malnutrition.

Obesity has tripled in the past two decades. One in 10 children and one in five adults will be obese in Europe and Central Asia by 2010, according to the WHO. And obese people are more likely to be sick, thus be absent from work incurring both direct and indirect cost to the economy. This drain would hurt developing economies most, with obesity prevalence shifting from the rich to the poor.

Interestingly, as I was writing this, CNBC had a segment on generation XL. CNBC gave some startling statistics: 17% of Americans between 2-19 are overweight, 2/3 of Americans have a BMI of over 25 - overweight, 1/3 (more than 60 million) is considered obese with BMI of over 30. And how much does obesity cost? $100 billion of medical expenditures per year are attributed to obesity! More than 10% of health care cost.

RTI gave a few more quick data points: For example normal weight women miss 3 days a year due to health reasons, obese women more than 8. Or a company with over 1,000 employees incurs $285,000 a year due to obesity.

So who's responsible? Ronald Leopold of MetLife, who was interviewed at CNBC, thinks the responsibility should be public, private, and individual. Corporations, for example, could subsidize gym membership, have a healthier cafeteria food, and on-site weight-loss programs.

The question remains, who should pay for obesity caused costs? The argument was made that smokers pay more in life insurance, why not obese people in health insurance? Despite my own "ideal" BMI, I don't think the problem would be solved with dynamic insurance. What we need is education, education, education. Oh, and less advertising.

What do you think, should health insurance be dynamic? Who's to blame? Who should pay the price?

Obesity, productivity and cost - Generation XL originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.