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.

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.

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?

Exxon Mobil (XOM) closed at $74.43. Crude oil futures are recently down 0.67% to $78.37, according to Bloomberg. Barron's says, "The stock could hit 90 in the next year." December option implied volatility is at 21, January is at 23; below its 26-week average of 26, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price fluctuations.

Lorillard (LO) closed at $79.77. Lorillard will be presenting at Morgan Stanley's Global Consumer Conference on Nov. 19. December and January option implied volatility of 27 is near its 26-week average of 29. Options were active on Nov. 16 with 23,488 contracts trading according to Track Data. Average daily volume is 970 contracts, according to IVolatility.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

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.

Lorillard (NYSE: LO) closed at $57.35. LO, Altria Group (NYSE: MO), and Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) have recently announced an increase in cigarette prices. LO April and June option implied volatility of 47 is below its 26-week average of 51, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

RAI closed at $33.54. RAI April and August option implied volatility of 37 near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

MO closed at $16.60. MO April and September option implied volatility of 35 is below its 26-week average of 40, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

A Harvard report was release this week that again is setting the tobacco world on fire. Well, at least figuratively. In the report, the compound Menthol was the focus, and it was concluded that by varying the amount of it in certain brands of cigarettes, tobacco companies could recruit and keep younger smokers and those who may have had an initial bad reaction to smoking upon starting the habit.

The strategy was to "lock in lifelong adult smokers," said the researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. After all the past shenanigans that the tobacco industry has admitted to, it's not surprising to hear that using a varying chemical level strategy to recruit smokers and get them hooked was tried. It was found that milder cigarette brand with lower menthol levels were more appealing to younger smokers. hence, these products were marketed to that age group as a result, according to the report.

One particular example cited was the strategy Philip-Morris USA used when it introduced "Marlboro Milds" back in 2000. The product instantly became a hit with younger smokers was responsible for almost 80% of the menthol product category sales for the company that year.