Southern Company (SO) closed at $31.88. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) committed to loan guarantees to SO for the construction of the first nuclear power unit in the U.S. in more than 30-years. Overall option implied volatility of 19 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Papa John's (PZZA) closed at $22.66. PZZA is expected to provide EPS on February 24. Overall option implied volatility of 38 is near its 26-week average of 37 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

February front month equity options expire Friday February 19.

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

A friend of mine -- who recently came to LA -- ordered a Papa John's Int'l, Inc. (Nasdaq: PZZA) pizza. She used the Internet. All in all, it was pretty efficient.

Well, according to a recent report, Papa John's has sold about $1 billion in pizzas (over the past seven years). That's certainly a lot of dough, huh? And, as should be no surprise, the growth rate has been stunning: about 50% per year.

There is lots of competition, such as Dominos Pizza (Nasdaq: DPZ) and Pizza Hut. And interestingly enough, Pizza Hut plans to launch a web-enabled widget so you can get pizza at super-fast speeds (I'm sure this will be a big hit for Web 2.0 programmers, who tend to eat pizza at about 2 a.m.).

But, as my friend has experienced, there are some glitches. Ordering online it took two hours for her to get her pizza.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Today's noteworthy upgrades include Papa John's Int'l, Inc (PZZA), ExpressJet Holdings, Inc (XJT), Nvidia Corp (NVDA),Georgia Gulf Corp (GGC) and MasterCard (MA):

• Following Q1 results, Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Papa John's Int'l, Inc (NASDAQ: PZZA) to Buy from Neutral, citing better-than-expected revenue growth, improved margins and acquisitions.

• Soleil upgraded shares of ExpressJet Holdings (NYSE: XJT) to Hold from Sell with a $7 target due to the likely absence of any real news until at least August.

• Deutsche Bank assumed shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) with a Buy, up from Hold, as the firm believes Vista will accelerate NVDA's growth rates making their 2008 estimates conservative.

• Citigroup upgraded shares of Georgia Gulf Corp (NYSE: GGC) to Buy from Sell based on an improved near-term outlook.

• MasterCard (NYSE: MA) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Stifel based on the lenders impressive Q1 results and pricing power...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Baird upgraded Barnes Group Inc (NYSE: B) to Outperform from Neutral.

• Pacific Ethanol Inc (NASDAQ: PEIX) was raised to Hold from Sell at Hambrecht.

• LCA-Vision Inc (NASDAQ: LCAV) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Oppenheimer.

• Bernstein raised Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NYSE: BRL) to Outperform from Market Perform.

• Morgan Stanley upgraded Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) to Equal Weight from Underweight.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).