MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Home Depot (NYSE: HD) was upgraded to Strong Buy from Hold with a $50 target at Raymond James, expecting that the worst is over in the housing market with hopes 2007 will be a better year.

• Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) was added to Stifel Nicolaus' Select List while maintaining its Buy rating, citing Google's growth rate as compared to its peers. Note that Stifel removed eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) from their Select List.

• Bear Stearns upgraded JB Hunt Transport (NASDAQ: JBHT) to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $27 target; the firm expects JB Hunt to Outperform its pure truckload competitors during the downturn and for a potential buyer to surface.

• Bear Stearns also upgraded Merck (NYSE: MRK) to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $53 target, based on improved sales growth for Vytorin/Zetia, growth from Junuvia and vaccines, along with pipeline catalysts.

• Piper Jaffray upgraded shares of Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN) to Outperform from Market Perform with a $25 target, believing that tight inventory management favors margin improvement and that business at core stores have stabilized.

• Calyon upgraded UAL Corp (NASDAQ: UAUA) to Add from Neutral and raised their target to $48 from $35 based on good prospects for 2007.

Analyst upgrades 1-3-07: Home Depot, Google at the top originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Jan 2007 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.