If you displayed patience with Cardinal Health's shares (CAH), first discussed here on April 21, 2009, at a pre-spin-off price of $34.22, over the past three months, you've been rewarded. Cardinal has soared past $40 resistance, after meandering in the low $30s for about nine months.

Cardinal probably will post a 3% to 5% 2011 revenue rise, after a 1.4% dip in 2010.

Key operation factors working in Cardinal's favor include increased prescription sales, modest pricing power, better performance of wider-margin generic drugs, lower customer attrition, and more-effective cost controls. Cardinal's medical unit, however, will lag other divisions, due to soft hospital markets.

Analyst Upgrades

• Amgen (AMGN) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Goodrich Petroleum (GDP) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Tutor Perini (TPC) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Covidien (COV) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Sara Lee (SLE) and Comcast (CMCSA) to outperform from market perform at Bernstein.
• Research In Motion (RIMM) to outperform from sector perform at FBN Securities.

Analyst Upgrades

• Citigroup upgraded Mosaic (MOS) to buy from hold and raised its price target to $78 from $64 citing improving ag fundamentals and the potential for BHP (BHP) to issue a higher bid for Potash (POT), which Citi feels would bode well for Mosaic.
• Cowen upgraded VMware (VMW) to outperform from neutral, citing recent share weakness and the company's significant growth opportunity.
• Citigroup upgraded CareFusion (CFN) with a $29 price target, citing valuation and the potential for margin expansion.
• Pfizer (PFE) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Cowen.
• Juniper (JNPR) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Stryker (SYK) was upgraded to buy from gradually accumulate at Soleil.

Option traders are pushing up call option prices in the Security Software & Services industry as well as pushing up put option prices in the Diversified Utilities industry today.

Any time the volatility skews above 1.00, it is an indication that calls are more expensive than puts. Typically, when calls are more expensive than puts, it means the demand for calls is greater than the demand for puts because investors believe the stock is going to rise in the future and they want to take advantage of that movement by buying calls.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Advanced Micro (NYSE: AMD) to Buy from Hold and raised its target to $5.50 from $4.25 citing valuation and expectations for the company's competitive position and gross margins to improve.
• Barclays upgraded American Express (NYSE: AXP) to Overweight from Equal Weight citing long-term earnings growth as the company benefits from declining charge-offs and credit costs. The firm has a $38 target on the stock.
• JPMorgan upgraded Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) to Overweight from Neutral and raised its target to $22 from $19 citing the FTC approval for the acquisition of Jacobs Ranch mine and valuation.
• Bebe Stores (NASDAQ: BEBE) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Stephens.
• Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at Piper Jaffray.
• Ashland (NYSE: ASH) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at KeyBanc.