Analyst Upgrades

• Applied Materials (AMAT) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Air Products (APD) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Youku.com (YOKU) and Pinnacle West (PNW) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Stryker (SYK) and Zimmer (ZMH) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Zions Bancorp (ZION) to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Alnylam (ALNY) to buy from hold at Needham.
• AK Steel (AKS) to buy from hold at KeyBanc.

Analyst Upgrades

• Cisco (CSCO) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Cognizant (CTSH) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Polypore (PPO) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Elan (ELN) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Millicom (MICC) and NuStar GP Holdings (NSH) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Teekay LNG (TGP) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• American Railcar (ARII) to outperform from market perform at Morgan Keegan.
• Texas Instruments (TXN) to buy from neutral at Sterne Agee.

This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which TheStockAdvisors.com asks the nation's leading advisors for their single favorite stock for the new year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

"EZchip Semiconductor (EZCH), a fabless semiconductor company that specializes in network processors, is my top pick for the coming year," says technology sector guru Paul McWilliams.

In his Next Inning newsletter, designed for sophisticated tech investors, he suggests, "I think the upside potential here in 2010 and beyond is significant.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Adtran (NASDAQ: ADTN) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from the broadband Stimulus funds.
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) to Overweight from Equal Weight based on relative valuation and views the company as a "survivor." Additionally, the analyst lowered 2009 industry estimates but believes it is the last cut for the year and is incrementally more positive on the sector.
• Morgan Stanley also upgraded EXFO Electro-Optical (NASDAQ: EXFO) to Overweight from Market Weight based on valuation.
• Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Ascent Solar (NASDAQ: ASTI) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
• Mechel Steel (NYSE: MTL) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

"My top stock for 2009 is EZChip Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: EZCH)," says Paul McWilliams in Next Inning technology newsletter. Indeed, the advisor believes the chip stock could double in 2009.

McWillaims explains, "I came as close as I've ever come to 'pounding the table' when first recommending EZCH when the stock was trading in the $6's and I continue to believe the stock provides a very attractive balance between risk and potentially high rewards from its current price in the mid-$11's.

"EZCH has captured designs at tier one and tier two networking companies with its innovative and highly pipelined network processor (NPU) and I believe is set to do the same with its soon-to-be-released NPU aimed at the access markets.

"These design wins have been several years in the making and the products, which include the wildly successful Juniper (JNPR) MX series of routers and are just now building momentum.