Lorillard (LO - option chain) shares are rising today after an FDA panel wrote in a draft report that it will not recommend an outright ban on menthol cigarettes. Most of LO's sales come from menthol products, unlike its main competitors Altria (MO) and Reynolds American (RAI). Investors had feared the FDA would move to ban menthol cigarettes, but that is looking less likely now, even though the panel did say removing menthol from the shelves would benefit public health. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on LO.

LO opened this morning at $80.01. So far today the stock has hit a low of $79.30 and a high of $88.17. As of 12:15, LO is trading at $85.67 up 6.89 (8.8%). The chart for LO looks bullish and S&P gives LO a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

If you are looking for clues to tell 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.

Mattson Technology (MTSN) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending Feb. 25 as insiders snapped up 5,000,000 shares of company stock at a market value of $12,350,000. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by -6.49% and now own 0.14% of MTSN stock.

Lorillard (LO - option chain) shares are rising today after the company reported Q4 2010 earnings this morning, posting a profit of $259 million, or $1.74 per share, on revenue of $1.49 billion. Analysts had forecast a profit of $1.67 per share. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on LO.

LO opened this morning at $76.79. So far today the stock has hit a low of $76.01 and a high of $77.20. As of 12:05, LO is trading at $76.55 up $1.55 (2.1%). The chart for LO looks bullish and S&P gives LO a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

"Readers should be aware of my strong feelings about the health hazards of smoking; investors must make their own decision about investing in tobacco companies," says Jack Adamo.

The editor of Insiders Plus explains, "Despite the moral issues, I'm recommending purchase of cigarette maker, Lorillard (LO).

Analyst upgrades:

• Verizon (VZ) to conviction buy from buy at Goldman.
• CSX (CSX) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• AK Steel (AKS) to overweight from neutral, as well as Lorillard (LO) and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) to neutral from underweight, at JPMorgan.
• Marathon Oil (MRO) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Corning (GLW) to buy from outperform at CLSA.
• Quest Diagnostics (DGX) to buy from hold at Jefferies and to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• Salesforce.com (CRM) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.
• Baker Hughes (BHI) to buy from hold at Weeden and to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate (STX) to buy from underperform at BofA/Merrill.

One of our three value portfolios in the Buyback Letter is the Buyback Income Index, a 10-stock portfolio for those interested in income and growth. It features companies actively repurchasing their own stock that also pay relatively high dividends.

While our main emphasis is on buyback stocks, those stocks that both buy back AND pay a substantial and regular dividend are comforting to some investors who want to know that no matter what, at least they will be getting something back.

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Eaton (ETN) to conviction buy from neutral.
• AECOM Technology (ACM) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Hologic (HOLX), Gen-Probe (GPRO) and Qiagen (QGEN) to overweight from neutral.
• GeoMet (GMET) was upgraded to accumulate from neutral at Global Hunter.
• Accretive Health (AH) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Reinsurance Group (RGA) to overweight from equal weight.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded Clearwire (CLWR) to neutral from underperform.

Cigarette manufacturer Lorillard (LO) turned in some smokin' third-quarter earnings results this morning. The nation's third-largest tobacco company reported net income that increased more than 16% as it sold more cigarettes at higher prices, the Associated Press reported.

For the quarter, LO earned $1.81 per share compared to $1.44 per share a year ago. Not only were the results better than a year ago, but LO handily beat the consensus estimate of $1.64 per share. Revenue increased 12.6% as well, coming in at $1.07 billion. Expectations called for revenue of $1.01 billion.

Analyst Upgrades

• Piper Jaffray upgraded Edwards Lifesciences (EW) to overweight from neutral and raised its target price for shares to $77 from $53 after The New England Journal of Medicine reported the company's PARTNER Trial met primary endpoints.
• UBS upgraded Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) to buy from neutral and raised its price target to $36 from $25. UBS is positive on Endo's creative strategic deals and believes the switch to Opana TRF from Opana ER will be easy. Additionally, the analyst believes pipeline expectations are very low.
• BMO Capital upgraded Nvidia (NVDA) to outperform from market perform based on expectations that share loss in the core GPU business will stop, Tegra momentum and valuation. The firm raised its price target to $16 from $9.
• FirstEnergy (FE) and Allegheny Energy (AYE) were upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Mylan (MYL) was upgraded to conviction buy from buy at Goldman. Warner
• Chilcott (WCRX) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.

Even with cigarette taxes jumping in multiple states across the country, cigarettes and cigarette stocks are still attracting plenty of buyers.

One cigarette maker that stands to benefit from this renewed interest is Lorillard, Inc. (LO) -- maker of Newport and Maverick brands. In fact, Goldman Sachs is so convinced that Lorillard is going to be moving higher that it added the stock to its conviction buy list and gave the stock a 12-month price target of $96.

With a current dividend yield of 5.37%, Lorillard is an attractive play for both income and growth investors. Lorillard currently faces some resistance from its 200-day moving average at $75, but once it breaks through this level, I anticipate seeing the stock climb to its recent highs of $82 within the next few months.

Analyst Upgrades

• Janney Montgomery upgraded Microsoft (MSFT) to buy from neutral with a $30 price target, citing valuation and expectations for strong Q4 results.
• UBS upgraded SanDisk (SNDK) to buy from neutral based on favorable pricing and mobile design win momentum. The firm raised its target to $55 from $46.
• BMO Capital upgraded Medtronic (MDT) to outperform from market perform based on valuation and its product pipeline. The firm has a $48 price target on the stock.
• Lorillard (LO) and Qualcomm (QCOM) were upgraded to conviction buy from buy at Goldman.
• Monsanto (MON) was upgraded to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• FedEx (FDX) was upgraded to buy from hold at BB&T.

Stocks paying dividends are in favor on Wall Street right now as investors look to insulate themselves from the recent market volatility. But what happens when these stocks actually end up losing you cash instead of protecting your portfolio?

If you're losing a significant amount of money as the share prices of your high yield dividend stocks dive, then it may be time to pull the trigger and sell these dividend duds. After all there are a host of income friendly stocks out there, so why should you settle for one that offsets your quarterly dividends with regular losses in share price?

Analyst Upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded U.S. Steel (X) to buy from hold after raising its steel forecasts and upped its target price on shares to $77 from $44. Note, the firm also downgraded AK Steel.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Philip Morris (PM) to outperform from neutral based on a better international outlook.
• JPMorgan upgraded ev3 Inc. (EVVV) to overweight from neutral. The firm sees upside potential to ev3's consensus estimates for 2010 and raised its target price on shares to $19 from $15.
• Vale (VALE) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Xilinx (XLNX) was raised to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• Shuffle Master (SHFL) was upgraded at KeyBanc to buy from hold.

Analyst upgrades:

• Kaufman Bros. upgraded American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC) to Buy from Hold as it believes the follow-on contract from Sinovel has positive implications. The firm has a $36 price target on shares.
• Goldman upgraded Nike (NYSE: NKE) to Buy from Neutral citing valuation, visible long-term growth, and signs of sales stabilization. The firm has a $75 target on shares.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN) to Buy from Hold on valuation following the recent underperformance. The firm raised its target on shares to $5.50 from $4.
• Novartis (NYSE: NVS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
• eHealth (NASDAQ: EHTH) was upgraded to Buy from Accumulate at ThinkEquity.
• China Precision Steel (NASDAQ: CPSL) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Roth Capital.

As of Tuesday, you'll have to cross a border to buy a clove. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ban on flavored cigarettes went into effect and prohibits the sale of candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes. Authorized under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the measure is intended to reduce the number of children who take up the habit.

Under the new ban, cigarettes that include "an artificial or natural flavor (other than menthol) or an herb or spice" cannot be sold in the United States. The long, but not exhaustive list of flavors, consists of strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry and coffee.