Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded shares of Genentech (NYSE: DNA) to Buy from Hold and raised its target to $100 from $95 on increased likelihood of an acquisition after Roche (OTC: RHHBY) reaffirmed commitment to its $100/share offer.
  
• Baird expects Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) to gain market share in 2009 in mobile phones, IPTVs, and digital TVs. Shares were upgraded to Outperform from Neutral.
  
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of Torchmark (NYSE: TMK) to Outperform from Market Perform as they see limited earnings risk and an attractive risk/reward.
• Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) was raised to Buy from Add at Calyon.
  
• Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS and to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.
  
• Goldman upgraded AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) to Neutral from Sell and Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ: STLD) to Buy from Neutral.

Analyst downgrades:

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Nova BioScience, Saba Software and Darling were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Jefferies initiated Nova BioSource Fuels (NYSE: NBF) with a Buy rating and $3.75 target, and finds the risk/reward attractive for biofuels investors as the company has more than 100M gallons of biodiesel capacity slated to come onstream by 2009.
  
• B. Riley expects Saba Software's (NASDAQ: SABA) renewed focus on profitability to drive substantial EPS and free cash flow expansion in FY09. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $6 target.
  
• Stephens believes Darling International (NYSE: DAR) shares offer a solid commodity cycle and an attractive renewable fuels opportunity and initiated shares with an Overweight rating and $17 target..

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Elizabeth Arden (NASDAQ: RDEN) was initiated with a Market Perform rating at Wachovia.
  
• Goldman initiated Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) with a Neutral rating and $20 target.
  
• Morgan Stanley initiated ARM Holdings (NASDAQ: ARMHY) with an Equal Weight rating.

On May 2 of this year, I blogged about Darling International (AMEX: DAR), a Texas rendering company that is now poisd to make lots of money off the growing demand for biofuels. To refresh your memory, this traditional rendering company takes animal fats, hides, and other byproducts from slaughterhouses, butchers, and restaurants, and recycles them into tallow (used for everything from soap to paint to cosmetics), protein meal (used for livestock feed and pet food), and hides, among other things. It also cleans restaurants' grease traps, converting the dirty cooking oils into greases that can be reused in other ways, as well as sells equipment to restaurants. It sells the useable by-products to agricultural, oleo-chemical, leather and bio-diesel manufacturers.

At the time, I was modestly bullish about Darling but found it a well-run compnay and a compelling business model, but as time goes on, I'm increasingly so. Darling has a smart business model of making money at both ends of the equation -- both getting paid for picking up restaurant grease and slaughterhouse by-products, and getting paid for creating useable recycled product from the grease and by-products. As we move ahead, we see an increase in government regulations involving waste disposal, a growth in restaurant services, and most importantly, the demand for biofuels going through the roof. All of these trends are great news for Darling, and
it is poised to capitalize on them.

Darling has been around since 1882 and is now the largest publicly traded food by-product rendering company in the U.S. After the release of excellent first quarter 2007 results, Randall Stuewe, Darling's Chairman and CEO commented, "With a strong balance sheet and a management team committed to growing and improving our earnings stream, we have significant momentum going forward into 2007." I agree.

Last week, Darling fiscal year consensus EPS estimate was upped from $0.40 to $0.43.

Type of stock: A traditional rendering company that is more than 130 years old but still finding new ways to recycle animal byproducts and restaurant grease, including now into bio-fuel.

Price target: When I blogged about Darling in May, DAR was trading below $8 and I suggested picking it up. In just over a month, it is now up to $8.94. The stock is moving faster than I thought would happen and now I see a continued upwards trend through 2007. We could Darling go from $9 to $15 by the end of 2007.

Hilary Kramer is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing. Visit her at www.hilarykramer.com.

The NEXT company in my ongoing series of the Top 25 stocks for the NEXT 25 Years is Darling International, Inc. (AMEX: DAR). Darling is headquartered in Irving, Texas, and has a current market capitalization of $715 million. The stock is trading at around $8.90 and has a daily average trading volume of 800,000 shares. The company does not play in a glamorous industry as its name would imply, but it does operate in a growing, vital industry.

Darling provides recovery, rendering, and recycling services and solutions to the food and restaurant industry. The rendering division collects and processes animal by-products including the hides from grocery stores, poultry and meat processors, and butcher shops. It processes these by-products into reusable proteins and oils sold to leather and oleo-chemical producers.

The restaurant services division collects used cooking oil from food services providers, including cafeterias and restaurants, and recycles these oils into industrial oils and high-energy animal feed. The division also manufactures grease-traps used by high-volume food preparers and restaurants. The businesses as I said are not glamorous, but certainly critical as industry handles its waste products more efficiently and profitably.

Even if you're squeamish and vegetarian, don't let yourself be grossed out by Darling International Inc. (AMEX: DAR), a Texas company that takes animal fats and hides, and other byproducts from slaughterhouses, butchers, and restaurants, and renders them into things like tallow and protein meal. It also cleans grease traps at restaurants, and converts the dirty cooking oils into greases that can be reused.

This is a business that's necessary, and it also happens to be in increasing demand as America looks to biofuels for energy solutions. While most biofuel in America comes from ethanol, the demand for biofuel from animal fats is growing quickly, and produced a remarkable growth of nearly 50% in profits and revenues for Darling in the second half of 2006. This demand is only going to increase in the coming years, and I think this one could have see substantial growth as it learns to make the most of this newfound opportunity.

This is risky, of course.The year 2005 was very rough, and a company like Darling can be hurt by rising fuel costs and rising commodity costs. And one has to imagine there will be increasing competition as other companies see a chance to make money in this business; just recently, for example, Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) announced a partnership to make biofuel from Tyson's leftover chicken fats.

Also, investors have already started noticing Darling, and the stock price has doubled over the past six months. But it's still trading below $8, and I think there's lots of room for growth.

Type of stock: A traditional rendering company that is now making lots of money off the growing demand for biofuels.

Price target: I think this one's worth grabbing as long as the stock price is below $8. Just be prepared to hold for a while and to experience some ups and downs as the new biofuels market develops.

Hilary Kramer is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing. Visit her at www.hilarykramer.com.