Analyst upgrades:

• FBR Capital upgraded U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and New York Community Bancorp (NYSE: NYB) to Market Perform from Underperform to reflect a new valuation framework. The firm raised its target on U.S. Bancorp to $21 from $14 and on New York Community Bancorp to $10 from $9.
• Stephens upgraded Insulet (NASDAQ: PODD) to Overweight from Equal Weight to reflect the company's top-line growth prospects and reasonable expectations. The firm raised its target on shares to $14 from $8.
• Baird upgraded Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) to Outperform from Neutral and raised its target to $46 from $37 based on expectations for revenue and gross margin expansion, and relative valuation.
• Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.
• Phillips-Van Heusen (NYSE: PVH) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Reliant Energy (NYSE: RRI) was upgraded to Conviction Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

Roger Altman, who runs Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE: EVR), is a consummate dealmaker, with an amazing network of influential people -- he was formerly a U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary during the Clinton years. Even though the global economy is in turmoil, he sees lots of opportunity, especially in countries like China.

To this end, Evercore has put together a joint venture (JV) with Citic Securities called Citic Securities International Partners. It's certainly a big deal as Citic is the biggest securities firm in China.

In the JV, Evercore and Citic will engage in an assortment of activities like direct investments and cross-border M&A advisory.

• Axys Tech (NASDAQ: AXYS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Morgan Joseph based on valuation.
  
• Elizabeth Arden (NASDAQ: RDEN) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Wedbush on valuation and the success of the company's Viva La Juicy launch.

• Keefe Bruyette downgraded Greenhill & Co. (NYSE: GHL) and Evercore Partners (NYSE: EVR) to Market Perform from Outperform on valuation and lowered its estimates to reflect slower than initially expected M&A advisory transactions. Greenhill's target was lowered to $66 from $72 and Evercore's was cut to $14.50 from $16.
  
• Collins Stewart downgraded shares of Thermage (NASDAQ: THRM) to Hold from Buy following the Reliant acquisition to reflect integration and balance sheet concerns.

• Roth Capital views American Oriental (NYSE: AOB) as a cash-rich, multi-faceted pharmaceutical company that is well equipped to handle unforeseen changes in China's Health care market. Shares were initiated with a Buy rating and $10 target.
  
• Jesup & Lamont believes Bristow Group (NYSE: BRS) is well positioned in current downturn as the majority of its business is in production platforms and drilling rigs. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $37 target.
  
• Barrington initiated BWAY Holding (NYSE: BWY) with an Outperform rating and $9 target. The firm believes the company is an early cycle business that should benefit from cost reduction activity.
• Grand Canyon (NASDAQ: LOPE) was assumed with a Buy rating and $21 target at Piper Jaffray.

It's hard to imagine that anyone in the big bucks world of investment banking would be a loser but the reality is that the competition is intense both among firms and within them. And the first quarter results suggest a big gap between winners like Morgan Stanley Inc. (NYSE: MS), Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER), and Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) and losers like Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) and Lazard Ltd (NYSE: LAZ). Will the winners be good investments and the losers bad?

Even though GS is beating LAZ, I have heard that Lloyd Blankfein, GS's CEO, is eagerly reading my brother William D. Cohan's, book, The Last Tycoons, presumably for the insight it provides into LAZ and its CEO Bruce Wasserstein. (I wonder if the rest of GS's 27,000 staff will feel compelled to read what's on the boss's reading list?)

So why are MS, MER and GS beating LEH and LAZ?