Analyst Upgrades

• Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Nvidia (NVDA) to outperform from market perform at JMP Securities.
• Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), Leap Wireless (LEAP) and MetroPCS (PCS) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Illumina (ILMN) to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Sun Bancorp (SNBC) to neutral from sell at Janney Capital.
• American Tower (AMT), SBA Communications (SBAC) and Freeport McMoRan (FCX) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.

Analyst Upgrades

• Xilinx (XLNX) to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Orion Energy (OESX) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.
• Goodyear Tire (GT) to buy from fair value at CRT Capital.
• RadioShack (RSH) to neutral from underperform at Wedbush.
• Novo Nordisk (NVO) to buy from neutral at Goldman.

Analyst Upgrades

• Cisco (CSCO) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Cognizant (CTSH) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Polypore (PPO) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Elan (ELN) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Millicom (MICC) and NuStar GP Holdings (NSH) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Teekay LNG (TGP) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• American Railcar (ARII) to outperform from market perform at Morgan Keegan.
• Texas Instruments (TXN) to buy from neutral at Sterne Agee.

"The hands-down choice for growth in the insurance sector is in China, where the industry is just getting off the ground." says says growth stock expert Timothy Lutts.

In The Cabot Stock of the Month Report, he suggests, "CNinsure (CISG) is the king of the Chinese insurance industry. We believe the stock most attractive insurance industry investment in China today.

"When properly managed, a property and casualty insurance company is an excellent vehicle for participating in a region's growth. However, the average age of top insurance companies in the U.S. is 108 years and their assets of the U.S. are growing slowly.

As of last year, the Chinese insurance industry was ranked #3 in Asia. But, with the surging economic growth, I'm sure it will ultimately become #1. After all, life insurance premiums represent only about 1.7% of China's GDP (this compares to about 4% in the US).

In fact, there are more than 1,600 insurance agencies in China. But, one of the standouts is CNinsure. And, this week, the company filed to go public.

The company has roughly 11,000 sales reps and a distribution network that extends into key affluent areas, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The company provides property/casualty and life policies.

Growth has been stunning, averaging about 169.4% over the past three years. For the first six months of 2007, revenues were about $22.7 million.

The lead underwriter on the IPO is Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and the proposed ticker is "CISG."

You can find the prospectus at the SEC website. Also, if you want to check out other IPOs, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.