"One of my favor defensive sectors is healthcare," says Elliott Gue; the contributing editor to Personal Finance looks to Quality Systems (NSDQ: QSII), a company that helps automate medical records.

Quantitative analyst Richard Moroney also sees opportunity in the same niche sector. In his Upside newsletter, he looks to a competing play, Cerner (NASDAQ: CERN). Here are their reviews.

"The President made health care a centerpiece of his campaign, including investments in health care-related information technology (IT).

"Health care IT systems can save doctors' offices and hospitals significant administrative costs as well as prevent mistakes. In addition, some major health insurance firms are already putting heavy pressure on their physician networks to adopt these systems."

"Medical offices and hospitals are seeking to automate many functions, from storing patient records online to automatically submitting insurance claims for reimbursement.

"It's estimated that as much as 90% of health care records at smaller medical practices are still maintained in paper form, while even bigger hospitals keep close to half of their records manually.

"Quality Systems, a holding in our growth portfolio, is a leading provider of such systems. It sells software used to manage electronic patient records, billing, scheduling and other common administrative functions for medical and dental practices.

Analyst upgrades:

• Wachovia upgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) to Outperform from Market Perform on expectations for greater pricing power given Goldman's position as the largest remaining independent securities firm.
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Investment Technology Group Inc (NYSE: ITG) to Outperform from Market Perform as they believe the company will take market share with the reshaping of the large wire-house brokerage community. The company's target was raised to $37 from $33.
• Broadpoint raised Hoku Scientific Inc (NASDAQ: HOKU) to Buy from Neutral as they believe the contract with Tianwei New Energy reduces financing risk.
• ACE Ltd (NYSE: ACE) and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE: TRV) were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: ACLS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold and Evergreen Solar Inc (NASDAQ: ESLR) was lifted to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.

Analyst downgrades:

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Jefferies Group, Quality Systems and Techwell were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Friedman Billings initiated Jefferies Group (NYSE: JEF) with a Market Perform citing the difficult underwriting environment and challenging credit market.
  
• JMP Securities initiated Quality Systems (NASDAQ: QSII) with an Outperform rating and $35 target. The firm expects the company's practice management and electronic medical record solutions to benefit from growth opportunities within the ambulatory market.
  
• Techwell (NASDAQ: TWLL) was assumed with an Overweight rating and $14 target at Thomas Weisel, as they expect TWLL to have continued stable revenue growth given its market leadership and increased global security demand.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Bernstein initiated NetSuite (NYSE: N) with a Market Perform rating and $23 target.
  
• Keefe Bruyette started Comerica (NYSE: CMA) with a Market Perform rating and $37 target.
  
• BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) were assumed at ING with Buy ratings.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Google (GOOG) and Broadcom (BRCM) were the notable companies initiated today:

• Cantor initiated Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) with a Buy rating and $650 target, believing Google will continue to benefit from the secular shift of advertising and marketing dollars to the Internet and sees no signs of business "hitting the wall."
• Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ:BRCM) was initiated by ThinkEquity with an Accumulate rating and $34 target; while the company is well-positioned in growth areas for 2007, the rating was based on excess channel inventory and valuation, and recommended that investors only buy shares of Broadcom on weakness.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• aQuantive Inc. (NASDAQ:AQNT) was initiated with a Buy rating and $30 target at Cantor; the firm believes aQuantive has positioned itself as a "best-of-breed" provider of digital marketing services and technologies.
• Kevin Dann reinstated The Wet Seal Inc. (NASDAQ:WTSLA) with a Buy rating and $9.75 target, feeling that The Wet Seal can still meet their Q4 comps estimate of 3%, and believes the guide-down in comps would not have been necessary except for the need for full disclosure relative to the secondary offering.
• JP Morgan initiated Quality Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:QSII) with an Overweight rating, positive on the company's valuation and long track record.
• Prudential initiated The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (NYSE:SMG) with a Neutral on valuation with a $56 target.

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