Analyst upgrades:

• Merrill believes Assurant (NYSE: AIZ) is well-positioned to weather the turmoil in the capital markets environment and cites the company's defensive characteristics for the upgrade. The firm upgraded shares to Buy from Neutral.
  
• Deutsche Bank upgraded R.H. Donnelly (NYSE: RHD) to Hold from Sell to reflect the company's cost cuts and its ability to buy back bonds at discounted prices.
  
• Citigroup raised Consol Energy (NYSE: CNX) to Buy from Hold on valuation as they are seeing no fundamental deterioration in coal.
• Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
  Raymond James raised shares to Outperform from Market Perform.
  
• Penske Automotive (NYSE: PAG) was upgraded to Add from Neutral at Calyon.
  
• ICF International (NASDAQ: ICFI) was lifted to Overweight from Equal Weight at Stephens.

• Deutsche Bank downgraded Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) to Sell from Hold after the company reported Q2 results to reflect a deceleration in growth and margin pressures. RIMM's target was lowered to $70 from $120. RBC Capital downgraded Research in Motion to Sector Perform from Outperform citing reduced margin visibility and the slowing macroeconomic environment.
  
• Stephens downgraded Vitran (NASDAQ: VTNC) and Saia (NASDAQ: SAIA) to Equal Weight from Overweight to reflect the companies' deteriorating demand and pricing environment. Vitran's target was cut to $15 from $22 and Saia's was lowered to $16 from $24.
  
• Mentor (NYSE: MNT) was downgraded to hold from Buy at Jefferies to reflect continued weakness in the breast implant market and the potential for lowered guidance. Mentor's target was lowered to $31 from $36.
  
• Merrill cut ING Group (NYSE: ING) to Underperform from Neutral.
  
• CF Industries (NYSE: CF) was downgraded at Citigroup to Hold from Buy.
  
• Liberty Interactive (NASDAQ: LINTA) was lowered to Sell from Hold at Natixis.

• Suntrust initiated Idexx Laboratories (NASDAQ: IDXX) with a Neutral rating, citing slowing organic revenue growth, valuation and a slowing lab business.
  
• Jefferies initiated Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN) with a Hold rating and $33 target. The firm prefers to stay on sidelines due to valuation and macro risks.
  
• Hersha Hospitality (NYSE: HT) was assumed with a Market Perform rating and $7.50 target at Keefe Bruyette. The firm believes near-term demand trends in New York City could slow.
  
• Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) was initiated at Baird with a Neutral rating and $54 target.
  
• KeyBanc assumed ENGlobal (NASDAQ: ENG) with a Hold rating.
  
• Piper initiated Pentair (NYSE: PNR) with a Neutral rating and $39 target.

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: AIZ, RIMM, ING, URBN ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• ThinkPanmure said Data Domain's (NASDAQ:DDUP) installed base, strong product, technology lead, and partner network provides a sustainable competitive advantage in the high-growth market for capacity-optimized data storage powered by de-duplication software. Shares were initiated with a Buy rating and $30 target.
  
• Friedman Billings expects ESCO Tech's (NYSE:ESE) utility solutions segment to drive sales growth as secular demand for advanced metering gains traction. The firm started shares with an Outperform rating and $60 target.
  
• Merriman initiated NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) with a Neutral rating. The firm is cautious on the name as the company seeks to reaccelerate top-line growth in a challenging economic environment in North America.

• Citizens Comm (NYSE:CZN) was assumed with a Buy rating and $13 target at Stanford.
  
• R.H. Donnelley (NYSE:RHD) was initiated at JP Morgan with a Neutral rating.
  
• CIBC started FirstService (NASDAQ:FSRV) with a Sector Outperformer rating.

Analyst initiations: DDUP, ESE and NTAP originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Baird reduced estimates across the board in the process control sector due to lower expectations for North American industrial and residential construction. The firm downgraded Roper Industries (NYSE: ROP), Regal-Beloit Corp (NYSE: RBC) and Baldor Electric (NYSE: BEZ) to Neutral from Outperform and AO Smith Corporation (NYSE: AOS) to Underperform from Neutral.
• Goldman downgraded shares of R.H. Donnelley Corporation (NYSE: RHD) to Neutral from Buy after the company updated its 2007 guidance to reflect deteriorating trends in local advertising.
  
• Vonage Holdings Corp (NYSE: VG) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Soleil due to liquidity concerns.
  
• Coca-Cola Enterprises (NYSE: CCE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank on valuation and mixed near-term trends.
  
• Transocean Inc (NYSE: RIG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Gabelli. Even though the deepwater market continues to be strong, the firm is concerned regarding the continuing weakness in the jackup market as well as the limited upside potential due to the company's ships being in use through 2009.

• XM Satellite Radio Holdings (NASDAQ: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc (NASDAQ: SIRI) were downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
  
• Blue Nile Inc (NASDAQ: NILE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Suntrust.
  
• Citigroup downgraded shares of CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ: CKFR) to Hold from Buy.
  
• Morgan Stanley downgraded McAfee Inc (NYSE: MFE) to Underweight from Equal Weight.

Analyst downgrades: Process control sector, RHD, VG, CCE and RIG originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The rumors were true; Business.com was in play. And today we know the buyer: R.H. Donnelley (NYSE: RHD).

The deal comes to about $345 million.

Like other dot-coms, it hasn't been easy. The company got its start back in 1999 and spent a cool $7.5 million for the Business.com domain name. Over the years, Business.com has built a solid and profitable business, with about $50 million in revenues.

As for R.H. Donnelley, it's a must-have deal. With the traditional Yellow Pages threatened by players like Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and even Craigslist, the company certainly needs a digital strategy.

Also, with the scale of Donnelly, the Business.com footprint should get a boost. And I bet we'll see some more dealmaking.

But investors are not happy about the price tag. So far today, shares of Donnelly are down nearly 9% to $66.60.

For some more recent M&A transactions, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

R.H. Donnelley gets some dot-com magic originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A) acquired a stake in Kraft Foods Inc (NYSE: KFT) that was below 5%, the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported.
• R.H. Donnelley Corporation (NYSE: RHD) has paid about $350M for Business.com, the marketing directory Web company, beating out Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ) and the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) in the process, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY), which closed Wednesday at about $17.42, could swing lower as the peak summer season wanes amid continued concern about overall consumer discretionary spending, according to Barron's Online's (subscription required) "Weekday Trader" section.

• The U.K. Times reported that the global debt market crisis may delay or cancel the sale of Cadbury Schweppes plc's (NYSE: CSG) U.S. drinks arm.
• Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT) and Danone are in talks with Ramesh Chauhan to buy Bisleri, the bottled water brand that has become a generic name for the product category, reported the Economic Times.

Newspaper wrap-up 7-26-07: Berkshire invests in Kraft originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.