Analyst Upgrades

• Oracle (ORCL) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Accenture (ACN) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Advanced Energy (AEIS) and Applied Materials (AMAT) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Spreadtrum (SPRD) to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Healthcare Realty Trust (HR) and Tortoise Energy Capital (TYY) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Global Payments (GPN) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• CBS (CBS) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Sonic (SONC) to outperform from neutral at Cowen.

If you are looking for clues telling you which stocks have a good chance of increasing in value, you might want consider watching what insiders are doing. After all, talk is cheap, but when insiders put their own money on the line, you should sit up and take note.

Alliance Healthcare Services (AIQ) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending July 9 with insiders snapping up 3,707,136 shares of company stock at a market value of $14,683,653. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by 0.31% and now own 6.23% of AIQ stock.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) profits rose 30%, easily beating analysts' expectations.
• AMETEK Inc. (NYSE: AME) beat Q1 estimates on global strength and recent acquisitions.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) easily beat Q2 expectations but offered a weak outlook.
• AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) posted strong Q1 results thanks to the popularity of the iPhone.
• Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) beat earnings and saw an upgrade from Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C).
• Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) Q1 profit soared, and it raised its guidance.
• Cymer Inc. (NASDAQ: CYMI) beat Q1 estimates and announced a share million buyback program.
• Electronic Data Systems Inc. (NYSE: EDS) posted Q1 profits on cost cutting and new contracts.
• EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) Q1 earnings fell on on acquisition-related charges.
• Hexcel Corp. (NYSE: HXL) beat Q1 estimates on increased commercial aerospace sales.
• Huaneng Power ADS (NYSE: HNP) earnings plunged on coal prices, but the stock went higher.
• Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) narrowed its loss on higher sales of networking services.
• McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE) Q1 profit plunged on product development and marketing costs.
• MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) missed analysts' estimates for the first quarter.
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) beat earnings expectations and raised its full-year guidance.
• Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) profit soared in the first quarter on increase in subscriptions.
• Nintendo Co. (OTC: NTDOY) posted record results due to the popularity of the Wii system.

Cymer (Nasdaq: CYMI) makes excimer light sources for manufacturers of photolithography tools in the semiconductor equipment industry. It offers field support products, customized to support chipmaker customers in their advanced wafer patterning processes. It also provides deep ultraviolet light sources to lithography tool makers, who integrate the sources into their wafer steppers and scanners for subsequent sale to chipmakers. Cymer has installed more than 3,000 light sources around the world, in plants run by the likes of Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN).

Investors were pleased earlier in the week, when the firm announced a $100 million buyback program and then issued a solid quarterly summary. Cymer reported Q1 EPS of 41 cents and revenues of $124 million. Analysts had been looking for 35 cents and $119.3 million. Management also said Q2 revenues would be comparable to the Q1 total of $124 million ($116.6M consensus) and that gross margins would hold at approximately 48%.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: First Financial, TriZetto and General Electric were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette downgraded shares of First Financial (NASDAQ: FFBC) to Underperform from Market Perform on valuation, as they believe the stock trades at a premium to the group despite limited upside to normalized earnings and near term revenue headwinds.
  
• TriZetto (NASDAQ:TZIX) was cut at Jefferies to Hold from Buy based on Friday's go-private announcement, as they view the $22 deal price as fair.
  
• General Electric (NYSE: GE) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns and to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer following the company's earnings miss and reduced guidance.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Deustche Bank downgraded SPX Corp (NYSE: SPW) to Hold from Buy.
  
• Morgan Stanley cut British Airways (OTC:BAIRY) to Underweight from Equal Weight.
  
• Cymer (NASDAQ: CYMI) was lowered at Credit Suisse to Underperform from Neutral.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Some of today's more notable downgrades included Apartment Investment & Management Co (AIV), Weyerhaeuser Company (WY) and Edwards Lifesciences Corp (EW).

• RBC downgraded Apartment Investment & Management Co (NYSE: AIV) to Underperform from Sector Perform based on valuation and concerns regarding the company's transaction focus.

• Weyerhaeuser Co (NYSE: WY) was downgraded at BMO to Underperform from Market Perform based on valuation.

• Morgan Stanley downgraded Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) to Underweight from Equal-Weight based on increased competition and aggressive Street estimates for the downgrade.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• William Blair downgraded TiVo Inc (NASDAQ: TIVO) to Market Perform from Outperform citing slowing customer growth, competition, rising subscriber acquisition costs and valuation.

• Canccord cut Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: HEPH) to Hold from Buy following the cancellation of the ARS contract.

• Morgan Stanley downgraded Cymer, Inc (NASDAQ: CYMI) to Underweight from Equal-Weight.

• Baird cut Genesco Inc (NYSE: GCO) to Neutral from Outperform following lowered guidance.

• Merriman cut Distributed Energy Systems Corp (NASDAQ: DESC) to Neutral from Buy following the company's lower-than-expected Q4 revenues.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).