Analyst Upgrades

• Hyatt Hotels (H) and Hospitality Properties (HPT) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• AB InBev (BUD) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Amerisafe (AMSF) to buy from hold at Wunderlich.
• Northrop Grumman (NOC) to sector perform from underperform at RBC Capital.
• China Lodging Group (HTHT) to buy from hold at Brean Murray and to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.

Analyst Upgrades

• Diamond Offshore (DO) to conviction buy from sell and Baker Hughes (BHI) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Frontier Communications (FTR) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Syntel (SYNT) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo, to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank and to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC) and Fiserv (FISV) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• 3M (MMM) to neutral from underweight and Tyco (TYC) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Collective Brands (PSS) and Nordstrom (JWN) to overweight from equal weight, as well as Foot Locker (FL) to equal weight from underweight, at Morgan Stanley.
• Amazon.com (AMZN) to buy from hold at Lazard Capital.
• Yamana Gold (AUY) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.

Analyst Upgrades

• JPMorgan upgraded Dollar Tree (DLTR) to neutral from underweight and $48 price target.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Time Warner Cable (TWC) to outperform from neutral and raised its price target to $70 from $59, citing growth in wireline HST demand.
• Needham upgraded NetScout (NTCT) to buy from hold with a $29 price target, citing channel checks that indicate industry spending on network monitoring software may be improving.
• Nstar (NST) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Novo Nordisk (NVO) was upgraded to hold from sell at Societe Generale.
• Air France-KLM (AFLYY) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Credit Suisse.

Analyst Upgrades

• Credit Suisse upgraded Alliant Techsystems (ATK) to outperform from neutral following the company's increased FY11 guidance. The firm has an $85 target on the stock.
• FBR Capital upgraded Hyatt Hotels (H) to market perform from underperform following the company's Q2 results. The firm raised its target for shares to $44 from $38.
• BB&T upgraded to Smithfield Foods (SFD) to buy from hold, citing tighter supplies, strong pork prices and improving export demand. The firm has a $19 target on the stock.
• Holly (HOC) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at BMO Capital.
• Cogent Communications (CCOI) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Cowen.
• Catalyst Health (CHSI) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at First Analysis.

Analyst Upgrades

• UBS upgraded UPS (UPS) and FedEx (FDX) to buy from hold based on recent weakness and leverage to a recovery. The firm raised its price target on UPS to $74 from $72 and on FedEx to $100 from $97.
• Bernstein upgraded Medicis (MRX) to outperform from market perform based on valuation and said the company has been executing well over the past few months. The firm has a $28 price target on the stock.
• Citigroup upgraded Weingarten Realty (WRI) to buy from hold, citing valuation and the company's improved balance sheet. The firm maintains a $24 price target for shares.
• Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) were upgraded to market perform from underperform at BMO Capital.
• NextEra Energy (NEE) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Baird.
• Nokia (NOK) was upgraded to neutral from reduce at WestLB.

While the IPO market was tough for 2009, the fact remains that it was still lucrative market for Wall Street. In fact, because of the fall of several venerable financial services firms -- as well as some mergers -- it was easier to snag juicy assignments.

Just how lucrative can IPOs be? Well, an investment bank will charge 5% to 6% of the amount raised. Yes, this can add up quickly.

Analyst upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded T. Rowe Price (TROW) to buy from hold due to valuation and solid core trends. The firm raised its target on shares to $57 from $55. Note the firm downgraded Franklin Resources to hold from buy (see below).
• KeyBanc upgraded U.S. Steel (X) to buy from hold based on stable domestic cost environment in 2010 and likelihood of sustained higher spot pricing. The firm has a $65 target on shares.
• Goldman upgraded Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) to buy from neutral, citing oil leverage, sizable resource base and free cash flow. The firm raised its target to $90 from $88.
• Darden (DRI) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Carnival (CCL) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• AmerisourceBergen (ABC) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded FPL Group (FPL) to buy from hold on valuation and recommends buying the stock into the staff recommendation. The firm raised its target on shares to $58 from $55.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Smithfield Foods (SFD) to buy from hold as it believes the company's fundamentals and export demand outlook are improving. The firm raised its target on shares to $20 from $12.
• Credit Suisse upgraded T. Rowe Price (TROW) to outperform from neutral and raised its target to $60 from $55 based on strong net inflows and potential operating leverage.
• Microchip (MCHP) was upgraded to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Toll Brothers (TOL) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Ascent Solar (ASTI) was upgraded to hold from underperform at Jefferies.

The IPO market has been pretty slow for the past two years due to the effects of a subprime mortgage crisis that turned into a credit crisis that turned into a worldwide financial crisis and recession. Nonetheless, two companies made their debuts Thursday -- one on the NYSE (NYSE: NYX), the other on the NASDAQ -- and they nailed it. Hyatt Hotels (NYSE: H) gave its investors a 12% gain on its first Big Board trading day, and Ancestry.com (NASDAQ: ACOM) switched those digits, jumping 21% in its first day of trading.

Hyatt Hotels overcame two major concerns. The worldwide travel market slump has been tough on hotel companies, and Hyatt has been subject to the same forces as everyone else. Also, investors may have been worried about infighting among the founder's heirs (the Pritzker family), but the double-digit price increase suggests that investors don't foresee Bancroft-style squabbles screwing investors -- or, if you don't like Dow Jones, now a part of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS), Playboy (NYSE: PLA) makes the same point.

The Pritzker family is one of the richest in the U.S. with many business interests. One of the most notable is Hyatt Hotels, which Jay Pritzker founded in 1957 when he purchased a hotel next to the Los Angeles International Airport.

Well, this week the company filed the necessary papers to go public. The company had gone private during the early 1980s.

Decisions, decisions.

Suppose you have a wildly successful business in an ultra hot market. Time to sell?It's probably something to consider. Well, that's certainly the state of affairs in the private equity world.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the founder of Apollo Management LP, Leon Black, is mulling these kinds of cash-out issues [subscription required]. His private equity firm is one of the largest and has done deals such as for Harrah's Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: HET), Realogy Corp. (NYSE: H), and Nalco Holding Co. (NYSE: NLC).

Based on the market multiples -- such as for Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE: FIG) -- it looks like he can take home about $1.5 billion selling a minority stake of 10% but still keeping control of his destiny. To me, this is having your cake and eating it too.

What's more, by selling the stake to private investors, there's no need to go through the hassles of the IPO process. In other words, Black has more time to do deals. Although, if the Apollo stock is registered – which is likely to happen – it will become publicly traded within the year.

It's an interesting structure and is typical for small companies. As for Black, he does think out of the box and the back-door IPO does make a lot of sense.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.