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MOST NOTEWORTHY: Citizens Republic Bancorp, Hess Corp and Sanderson Farms were today's noteworthy upgrades:
- Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of Citizens Republic Bancorp (NASDAQ: CRBC) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation following yesterday's sell-off, which they attribute in part to its removal from the Dow Jones Select Dividend Index. Shares were also raised to OUtperform from Perform at Oppenheimer following the sell-off.
- Goldman upgraded Hess (NYSE: HES) to Buy from Neutral citing the company's leverage to higher oil prices. The firm said oil is likely to hit $150-$200/bbl in the next 6-24 months.
- Stephens upgraded shares of Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ: SAFM) to Overweight from Equal Weight as they expect industry fundamentals to improve in FY09.
OTHER UPGRADES:
- Baird raised Stellent (NASDAQ: STEL) to OUtperform from Neutral.
- Friedman Billings upgraded Preferred Bank (NASDAQ: PFBC) to Market Perform from Underperform.
- Agco (NYSE: AG) was upgraded at Goldman to Buy from Neutral.
- Lehman upgraded SLM Corp (NYSE: SLM) to Overweight from Equal Weight.
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