Analyst upgrades:

• Morgan Keegan upgraded Copano Energy (CPNO) to Outperform from Market Perform based on the $300M capital infusion it received from TPG Capital.
• Wells Fargo upgraded SunTrust (STI) to Market Perform from Underperform following the company's Q2 results citing improving credit quality trends and valuation.
• UBS upgraded Baidu (BIDU) to Buy from Neutral based on solid fundamentals following the strong Q2 report and guidance and valuation. The firm raised its price target to $92 from $69.
• Baxter (BAX) was upgraded to Conviction Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• JetBlue (JBLU) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Soleil.
• Penn Virginia GP (PVG) was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.

Analyst downgrades:

• Piper Jaffray downgraded Beckman Coulter (BEC) to Neutral from Overweight following the company's weaker than expected Q2 results and lowered guidance. The firm lowered its target for shares to $60 from $74. Shares were also downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies and to Neutral from outperform at Baird following the company's reduced guidance.
• Keefe Bruyette cut AmeriCredit (ACF) to Market Perform from Outperform following the acquisition by General Motors (GM, MTLQQ).
• FBR Capital downgraded SunTrust (STI) to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered its price target to $27 from $34. The analyst believes larger banks are better positioned than regionals due to greater prospects of reserve releases.
• Travelers (TRV) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
• Lender Processing (LPS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman.
• Penn Virginia Resource (PVR) was downgraded to Sector Perform at RBC Capital.

Analyst initiations:

• ThinkEquity assumed coverage of SanDisk (SNDK) with a Buy rating.
• Macquarie initiated Allergan (AGN) with an Outperform rating and $75 price target.
• Macquarie also initiated Cooper Companies (COO) with an Outperform rating and $45 price target.
• NCR Corp (NCR) was initiated with a Hold rating at KeyBanc.
• CryoLife (CRY) was started at Benchmark Co. with a Buy rating and $8 target.
• China New Borun (BORN) was initiated with an Overweight rating and $7.40 target at Piper Jaffray.

TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) saw a smaller loss than expected in the fourth quarter just reported on yesterday. The DVR pioneer's net quarterly loss was $6.36 million compared with $19.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Much of the difference was due to TiVo's shift away from making its own hardware and set-top boxes to licensing its technology to cable and satellite operators.

So far, TiVo has lined up Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) as a large cable customer for its patented digital video recording software, and a partnership with private company Cox Communications is in the works as well. CEO Tom Rogers said, "The key for TiVo now is to secure new, legitimate distribution partnerships with cable and satellite pay-TV providers." Does this mean the end of the standalone TiVo box that pioneered the DVR market in the U.S.? Hard to say, but the focus of the company's efforts isn't pointed in that direction.

For the quarter, TiVo's sales revenue actually went down to $74.1 as hardware revenue declined in a large way to $23.9 million-- a 45% drop from the year-ago period. The company did add 33,000 net TiVo-owned subscribers in the fourth quarter, which was a significant drop from the 101,000 customers signed in the year-ago period. Adding to some slight misery for the company, TiVo lost 122,000 subscribers in the quarter due to competing products and service mainly sold by former partner DirecTV Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTV). At this time, TiVo has 3.95 million TiVo-owned customers.