Lionsgate Entertainment (LGF) posted results for the fiscal third quarter earlier in the week. I would like to be bullish on the numbers, but I realize such emotion isn't in the cards after reading through the press release.

Maybe I should be at least a little considerate about the Q3 loss of 4 cents per share; last year at this time, the loss was 55 cents per share. Problem is, the loss for the nine-month period is 77 cents per share versus a profit of 2 cents per share in the comparable frame. Perhaps I should just focus on the quarter, but I couldn't help noticing what was going on over the longer term. Besides, who wants to see red ink, especially when, according to TheFly, execs couldn't beat Wall Street's expectations?

If you are looking for clues telling you which stocks have a good chance of increasing in value, you might want consider watching what insiders are doing. After all, talk is cheap, but when insiders put their own money on the line, you should sit up and take note.

Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending Jan. 14 as insiders snapped up 819,823 shares of company stock at a market value of $5,328,850. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by 35.40% and now own 2.94% of LGF stock.

A year ago, a fierce battle was being waged between two Hollywood studios for the dominance of the Halloween movie marketplace. Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF) was high on its latest gory sequel, Saw VI, while Viacom (VIA.B) was pinning its hopes on a low-budget film entitled Paranormal Activity. It was something of a David-and-Goliath situation; certainly the bloody brand equity of the Saw franchise could not be bested by some goofy found-footage-themed piece of celluloid?

Haven't the Goliaths of this world learned anything? Saw VI ended up the loser of the competition. I was amazed. Lions Gate, however, wanted to give it another shot. So, Saw 3D, which supposedly may be the final one of the series (yeah, we'll see), declared war on the sequel to Viacom's demon tale, Paranormal Activity 2, this past weekend; Jigsaw apparently is out for a little revenge.

I have to admit, I didn't notice until late this week that World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) Legendary film, which opened yesterday, was some sort of drama. Maybe I was aware of it, somewhere in the back of my mind, but honestly, I've suddenly been hit by the notion that WWE's celluloid division made one heck of a strange business decision in green lighting the project.

Let me say upfront that I have not seen the movie. But I've read several reviews, such as the one in the Los Angeles Times. They don't make me want to see the flick.

M & A. That's mergers and acquisitions. They're all over the financial pages. Intel (INTC) is buying Infineon's wireless division for $1.4 billion so the chip manufacturer can diversify beyond computers. HP (HPQ) or Dell (DELL) will end up with 3PAR, a cloud-computing company, at a cost of $2 billion or more. Carl Icahn, the billionaire financier, is making a hostile tender bid for Lions Gate (LGF), the film and television producer. 3M (MMM) is buying Attenti Holdings, an Israeli maker of remote monitoring technology used to track people, for $230 million. Exelon (EXC) is picking up a division of Deere (DE), a renewable energy unit, for about $900 million so it can enter the wind-power segment. Sanofi-Aventis (SNYNF) is trying to buy Genzyme (GENZ) but the board won't accept the bid of $18.5 billion. The board is open to better numbers. There are many more.

Is all this good for investors? Or is there some bad in there?

Lionsgate (LGF) needed The Expendables to be a hit, as I noted last week. And management scored on that count. According to early estimates for domestic theatrical performance at Box Office Mojo, the movie nabbed first place with $35 million over the three-day weekend.

Coming in a strong second was Sony's (SNE) Eat Pray Love, which had a ton of buzz surrounding it going into its debut, capturing $23 million. Not bad.

Lionsgate Entertainment (LGF) is hoping it can dominate the upcoming weekend box-office race. And if it can't dominate, then it at least wants to come as close to dominating as possible.

The bottom line: it can't put in a mediocre performance -- and it most definitely cannot fail. It will release a movie this Friday called The Expendables. As the Los Angeles Times makes clear, it's a pretty important event for the studio.

If you are looking for clues telling you which stocks have a good chance of increasing in value, you might want consider watching what insiders are doing. After all, talk is cheap, but when insiders put their own money on the line, you should sit up and take note.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending July 2 as insiders snapped up 7,071,774 shares of company stock at a market value of $49,502,418. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by 15.84% and now own 7.71% of LGF stock.

Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF) was downgraded to a hold rating this week, according to our Analyst Calls piece. It's no longer a buy, says Jefferies, because Carl Icahn's tender offer is now expired.

If you ask me, I'd say it was the right call. I don't think the stock is currently appropriate for most investors simply because the whole struggle between Icahn and management leaves little clarity to the situation. Traders and arbitrage players are probably having a field day, but smaller participants would be entering a highly speculative scenario at this point.

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.