Frontline Ltd.'s (FRO) stock has risen only incrementally since the April 28, 2009 Buy recommendation at $19.17, but the view from here maintains that considerable upside remains, hence I'm reiterating the buy rating. Here's why:

The spot market rate for Frontline's very large crude carriers (VLCC) and Suezmax tankers is likely to stabilize, with a modest improvement in rates heading into the second half of 2010.

Analyst upgrades:

• FBR Capital upgraded Frontline (NYSE: FRO) to Market Perform from Underperform to reflect the company's above-average day rates and alleviated near-term financing pressures. The firm raised its target on shares to $23 from $14.
• Baird upgraded Varian Medical (NASDAQ: VARI) to Outperform from Neutral and said checks at ESTRO meeting indicate European radiation therapy market demand will remain "respectable" in 2010 and that launch of Unique could drive incremental demand in developing markets. The firm has a $49 target on shares.
• Goldman believes GameStop (NYSE: GME) Street expectations are beatable and valuation is attractive. The firm upgraded shares to Conviction Buy from Neutral and has a $28 target.
• Borg-Warner (NYSE: BWA) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
• KKR Financial (NYSE: KFN) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at JMP Securities.
• Cathay Pacific (OTC: CPCAY) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

During the Chicago Bulls' great run of NBA championships, Michael Jordan was once asked if he was worried about competing against an impressive Utah Jazz team in the finals one year.

"Not really," Jordan said.

Likewise with my stance toward Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO). FRO has meandered somewhat since recommended on April 28, 2009 at $19.17, but just look on that as an extended buy opportunity. I'm reiterating my Buy rating for FRO.

Readers of this space know that one of the preferred sectors is oil/oil services, and an extension of the above concerns companies whose fate is linked directly to the demand for oil. And with the aforementioned in mind, Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is worth a review.

Frontline is a shipping company that operates very large crude carriers (VLCC) and Suezmax tankers. The company transports primarily crude oil products, but also raw materials (coal, iron ore).

The earnings season is beginning to wind down as we have passed the halfway mark of the quarter and the holiday season begins in earnest next week with Thanksgiving in the United States.

Bermuda-based Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is anticipated by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters to be one of the biggest earnings gainers among companies scheduled to report quarterly results this coming week. The oil tanker fleet operator is expected to post third-quarter earnings of $1.97 per share, 86.8% higher than in the same period a year ago, on revenues of $399.5 million (+44.6%). Frontline missed estimates by 6.4% in the previous quarter, and the consensus recommendation by analysts is to hold FRO. While Motley Fool likes its robust dividend, Jim Cramer said in a recent Lightning Round that he prefers rival Nordic American Tanker Shipping Ltd. (NYSE: NAT). Shares have fallen 52.9% in the past three months, and reached a 52-week low of $25.00 on Friday.

Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI) is also expected to be among the week's biggest earnings gainers. Analysts are looking for the semiconductor chip maker to report a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $0.44 per share, 31.8% higher than a year ago, on revenues of $661.7 million (+2.0%). Analog Devices has beat estimates in three of the past five quarters, but only missed by 1.3% in the previous quarter. Analysts on average recommend buying ADI, which has a forecast long-term EPS growth rate of 17.3%, which better than the S&P 500 and that of rival Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN). Shares sank to a multiyear low of $16.23 on Friday, and are down 41.1% in the past three months.

Eoin Treacy of Fullermoney says that as commodities prices weaken, you need to look carefully before investing.

Q. Eoin, I've read that China's annual consumption of copper has declined from a 28.66% growth rate to 2.4%. What does that mean for continued growth in China and also for the global copper market?

A. China and indeed much of Asia and the Middle East are in a generational-long period where they have to build infrastructure from the ground up. The push for educating, housing, transporting and employing large young populations requires massive investment, fueling demand for commodities across the boards.

The supply side was completely taken unawares by this demand following the 20-year crushing bear market that cut exploration budgets to the bone. That is now changing, as major mining groups compete for the best resources, particularly in politically stable parts of the world.

China continues to lead the world in terms of GDP growth, although it has recently manufactured a slowdown to combat rising inflation, generally positive for the economy.

"Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is the 'mac daddy' of the oil transport business," says growth and income expert Bryan Perry, who has added the shares to the model portfolio of his 25% Cash Machine.

"Frontline is doing a much better job of executing profits in the current market for transporting crude oil. FRO posted first quarter results that showed a jump in profits of 40%, with a dividend hiked to $2.75 for the quarter. That translates into a current annual yield of 18.25%. Even better, the company forecasts continued strength in operations and quarterly distributions.

"This kind of profit growth is a result of FRO being leveraged to the spot market for day charter rates for double-hull tankers. The company is by far-and-away the largest shipping company, with 76 vessels and a market cap of $4.4 billion.

Readers of this space know that one of the preferred sectors is oil/oil services. Given oil's importance in a growing global economy, oil and oil services companies are likely to continue to experience steady demand for their services/products. And with the above in mind, Frontline Ltd. is worth an evaluation.

Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) operates about 75 tankers, under primarily short-term contracts, with a total capacity of more than 18.5 million deadweight tons.

FRO's tankers are designed to transport oil, and, as a result of their size, transport the world's most vital commodity from the Middle East Gulf to the Far East, Northern Europe, the Caribbean, and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port. FRO's Suezmax tankers operate primarily in the Atlantic basin. The company also transports coal and iron ore.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the good stuff out there -- and there's a lot of it -- will keep us going up.

How high can we go? That's pretty much the only question worth asking after you put in a bottom, as we did after the Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) (Cramer's Take) collapse.

Nobody's talking about a new bull market. But let me give you some thoughts about what has happened in the past few weeks to make it so that you could become more positive.

First, we went down so much because the systemic risk in the biggest part of the S&P, the financials, was overwhelming. It is why we "overcorrected" because the market feared -- and shorts pressed their bets -- that the following institutions could go under: Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual (WM) (Cramer's Take), Wachovia (WB) (Cramer's Take) -- yes, Wachovia, because of the miserable buy of what turned out to be a really reckless lender, Golden West -- Lehman Brothers (LEH) (Cramer's Take), Merrill Lynch (MER) (Cramer's Take), Citigroup (C) (Cramer's Take), National City (NCC) (Cramer's Take), Capital One (COF) (Cramer's Take) and even Wells Fargo (WFC) (Cramer's Take). Fannie (FNM) (Cramer's Take) and Freddie (FRE) (Cramer's Take), too.

For the two latest buys in his Winning Stocks newsletter, editor Harry Domash looks towards oil. His first pick, deep sea drilling Transocean (NYSE: RIG) is chosen for growth, while his second play, crude tanker operator, Frontline (NYSE: FRO) is selected for income.

The advisor explains, ""In my view, Transocean dominates an industry sector that can only grow from here. The company is a global provider of deepwater oil and gas well drilling services. Its newest equipment is able to go 10,000 feet below the ocean surface to reach oil."

Already the biggest deepwater driller, he observes, Transocean has agreed to buy competitor GlobalSantaFe. The deal, he notes, is expected to close by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, since the consumption of crude oil is growing around 2% annually, and the easily accessible oil reserves are being depleted, the advisor concludes that demand for deepwater drilling services is growing rapidly.

Meanwhile, he adds, "Transocean reported June quarter earnings of $1.84 per share vs. year ago $0.42. Revenues rose 68% to $1.43 billion. Analysts expect Transocean's revenues to climb 50% this year to $5.9 billion. They forecast earnings for the year of $7.96 per share, up 166% over '06. He rates the stock a buy for those willing to hold the shares for 12 to 24 months.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: RadioShack Corp (RSH), Visual Sciences (VSCN), Alcan (AL), U.S. Celluar (USM) and Westwood One (WON) were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Banc of America downgraded shares of RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) to Sell from Neutral and lowered their target to $18 from $26 as they believe cuts to labor costs and advertising expenses will make it more difficult to overcome declining wireless trends.

• Friedman Billings cut Visual Sciences (NASDAQ: VSCN) to Market Perform from Outperform on valuation. Citigroup downgraded Alcan to Hold from buy on the acquisition news.

• Soleil cut U.S. Celluar (AMEX: USM) to Sell from Hold on valuation.

• Westwood One (NYSE: WON) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Citigroup based on management distractions and weak fundamentals...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Cowen removed ImClone Systems (NASDAQ: IMCL) from its Focus List, as the firm believes Erbitux is now more in line with consensus but said financials remain uninspiring.

• Merrill cut Allstate (NYSE: ALL) and Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) to Neutral from Buy.

• USB downgraded Frontline (NYSE: FRO) to Reduce from Neutral.

• Matrix cut Thor Industries (NYSE: THO) to Sell from Strong Buy.

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

Cramer on CNBC's MAD MONEY has a telecom pick tonight he says is even better than Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ:LVLT). There is a money-maker, and that is Craig McCaw. He is the head of ClearWire (NASDAQ:CLWR) that is about to come public. If you can't get in on the IPO you can play it in the secondary market.

I have covered this IPO on several occasions. Here is the article with the terms being set this week. On January 30, the filing was revised to show the subscriber rates. Doug has an article showing how much coverage is on this. Cramer likes that Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) and Motorola (NYSE:MOT) are backing it. At $23 to $25 range given, he said he'd pay $28.00 to $35.00 after the IPO, but only for a portion of it. He would wait for a dip and then buy more.

Cramer also went over his SELL BLOCK. This is where he says to take profits or losses. Here it is: New Century Financial (NYSE:NEW): Cramer was negative on it ahead of earnings. Dividends don't lie, but this one was a lie. Cramer has two more dividends that could be signaling a lie, too, because they are so high they give a warning flag.

BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty (NYSE:BPT) and Frontline Ltd. (NYSE:FRO) are BOTH going into the SELL BLOCK because their dividends are too ridiculously high. BPT is down 18% and the stock and the dividend have to drop. FRO and its 28% yield are misleading because they have to sell off assets to maintain that payment instead of using funds from operations.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.