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.

The list of stocks under consideration has been reduced from eleven to ten, to seven and now in today's story four. Starting with five major defense contractors and six major oil companies (see Chasing Value: You Must Own Defense and Oil for Safety), I began a search to find one stock in each sector that might be suitable for inclusion in my list of 2011 stock picks posted last week Chasing Value: 2011 Stock Picks -- The Journey Begin.

Today we continue our analysis by examining return on equity (ROE), return on invested capital (ROIC), and price-to-earnings-to-growth (PEG). Each stock is ranked by sector and metric from best to worst. Sometimes there are clear winners and others there is little to separate one stock from the next. However, in total, a picture can be drawn that does portray a superior opportunity.

Analyst Upgrades

• Piper Jaffray upgraded Red Hat (RHT) to overweight from neutral.
• Honeywell (HON) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Cowen.
• Regal-Beloit (RBC) and Actuant (ATU) were upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• RW Baird upgraded MedAssets (MDAS) to outperform from neutral.
• Savvis (SVVS) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at William Blair.

Analyst Upgrades

• Barclays upgraded Western Digital (WDC) to overweight from equal weight.
• LDK Solar (LDK) was upgraded to buy from hold at Needham.
• Legg Mason (LM) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Agilent (A) was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
• Wells Fargo upgraded Dean Foods (DF) to outperform from market perform and Developers Diversified (DDR) to market perform from underperform.
• Deutsche Bank also upgraded Developers Diversified, to buy from hold.
• Northrop Grumman (NOC) was upgraded to sell from conviction sell at Goldman.
• MYR Group (MYRG) was upgraded to buy from hold at BB&T.

• Lockheed Martin: 3.77%
• Raytheon Company: 3.16%
• Northrop, Grumman: 2.89%
• General Dynamics: 2.59%

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman believes EOG Resources (EOG) can regain its premium multiple given its ability to find new horizontal liquids resource plays. The firm upgraded shares to conviction buy from buy and has a $129 price target on the stock.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Macerich (MAC) to buy from hold following the company's Q2 results and raised its target for shares to $47 from $45.
• Needham upgraded QuinStreet (QNST) to strong buy from buy, citing the strong Q4 report and valuation, and has a $20 target on the stock.
• Macy's (M) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Whole Foods (WFMI) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Texas Instruments (TXN) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Raymond James.

Northrop Grumman (NOC) may be a U.S. Air Force favorite, but it does not deserve a place in your portfolio right now.

Northrop announced it received an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) award from the Air Force that has a potential value of $919 million collectively over 10 year. Northrop will compete to provide mission planning software systems and tools that enable warfighters to plan missions and transfer required data to aircraft avionics.

Unfortunately for Northrop, this announcement was overshadowed by Goldman Sach's announcement that it has added Northrop to its "conviction sell" list today.

Frankly, even with the announcement of this new contract, I agree with the folks at Goldman. Northrop has been in a persistent downtrend since the end of April and is continuing to form lower highs and lower lows. A temporary support level has established itself at $54, but I don't expect this level to hold up for long.

Analyst Upgrades

• Bernstein upgraded Corning (GLW) to outperform from market perform based on Gorilla glass prospects and valuation. The firm raised its price target to $22 from $21.
• RBC Capital upgraded Beckman Coulter (BEC) two rating levels to outperform from underperform, citing valuation and customer checks that indicate high retention rates. The firm upped its target for shares to $65 from $55.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Canadian Pacific (CP) to outperform from underperform. The firm expects Canadian Pacific to have stronger-than-average Q2 volume growth, improved productivity and notes leverage to growth in Asia, among other reasons for the upgrade. The firm raised its target to $75 from $59.
• Freeport McMoRan (FRX) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at HSBC.
• Solera (SLH) was upgraded to strong buy from buy at Needham.
• Jefferies upgraded IPC The Hospitalist Co. (IPCM) to buy from hold.

Boeing lost $2.23 per share in the third quarter. The comparison is pretty tough, because in the similar quarter last year, the company earned 96 cents per share. Boeing was expected to lose somewhere around $2.12 per share, according to Earnings.com. Unfortunately, the guidance for the full fiscal year is pretty bad, too. What once was a range between $4.70 per share and $5.00 per share has now dropped to one with a low of $1.35 per share and a high of $1.55 per share.

Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), a defense contractor whose related companies include Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) and Boeing (NYSE: BA), posted second-quarter results earlier in the week. The company seems to be performing pretty well, judging by the growth in the stats.

Net sales increased 4%. Okay, that might not sound so robust, but income from continuing operations rose 25% to $1.24 per share. According to Earnings.com, the market was only looking for $1.13 per share from Raytheon. Operating cash flow also looked good, especially once you take into account a timing element related to cash contributions for pension plans.

"Golf has Tiger Woods, novelists have Tom Clancy, and the investment community has stars such as Bruce Berkowitz, Bill Nygren, Charlie Dreifus, and Mario Gabelli," states Paul Tracy.

In his The Street Authority Market Advisor, he suggests, "These money managers are at the pinnacle of their craft." Here, he takes a look at these "celebrities" and some of their current top stock holdings.

"These money managers have all amassed prodigious gains over the years for their shareholders. Over the past few months, these gurus have come out with ringing endorsements for certain stocks. This isn't empty talk -- they are putting their money where their mouth is.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) reported a huge Q4 loss on a charge and the economic slowdown.
• Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) fell short of Q4 expectations but announced a dividend increase.
• Carlisle Companies Inc. (NYSE: CSL) Q4 numbers resulted in an analyst's upgrade.
• Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) warned that its earnings would fall well below expectations.
• Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) posted a bigger-than-expected loss and outlined cost cutting plans.
• Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) shares took a hit ahead of its earnings report due to rival Mattel's Q4 results.