Analyst Upgrades

• Polo Ralph Lauren (RL) to neutral from underperform at BofA/Merrill.
• Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL) to outperform from market perform at Leerink.
• Petrobras (PBR) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Silvercorp Metals (SVM) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• PROS (PRO) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Power Integrations (POWI) and Monolithic Power (MPWR) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.
• Diodes (DIOD) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Whole Foods (WFMI) to hold from sell at Hapoalim.
• Sinclair Broadcast (SBGI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Sappi (SPP) to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Alpha Natural (ANR) to buy from hold at BB&T.
• Watts Water (WTS) to buy from hold at Brean Murray.

On last night's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer said he had a stock that can offer some insulation and even some profits from the blow-up in subprime: Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY).

The CEO, Mike Farrell, predicted the subprime mess and stuck out his neck to reposition his company to profit. Cramer said it is a liquid stock, and claimed he hasn't always been right about it because he doubted it when he shouldn't have. NLY has a 52-week trading range of $11.83 to $15.90, and shares were up 3.5% at $16.11 after hours. Cramer just interviewed the company on a video on the evening of April 10 when the stock closed at $15.64. It closed at $15.55 the next day and closed unchanged at $15.55 yesterday.

Cramer also said that he has a paper trade based on recent events. The ex-Treasury head John Snow at Cerberus is benefiting from the Chinese coated free sheet paper tariff, but Sappi Ltd. (NYSE: SPP) is the one that will benefit from this. The tariffs are intended to be used for magazines, yearbooks, and the like. Sappi is South African, but they are the largest in the U.S., and most of the other companies doing this are private. Cramer thinks it is a trade rather than an investment. SPP rose 2.9% to $17.27 after Cramer called it, above its $17.08 high over the last 52-weeks.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Kraft Foods, Inc (KFT), Healthways, Inc (HWAY), PepsiCo (PEP) and Lam Research Corp (LRCX) were some of today's more noteworthy upgrades:

• Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Kraft Foods Inc (NYSE: KFT) to Equal Weight from Underweight on valuation. UBS upgraded shares to Buy from Neutral on expectations the company may benefit from a purchase of Cadbury Schweppes' (CSG) confectionary unit; UBS believes Kraft could purchase Cadbury's confectionery unit for $20.8B and still see 7% accretion in 2008.
• Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs upgraded Healthways Inc (NASDAQ: HWAY) to Neutral from Sell on valuation.
• Bernstein raised PepsiCo's (NYSE: PEP) rating to Outperform from Market Perform with a $77 target, expecting the soft-drink maker to outperform rival Coca-Cola (KO) by more than 10% over the next year.
• Citigroup upgraded Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ: LRCX) to Hold from Sell to reflect a more bullish 2-3 year memory capex view and the firm believes customers of Samsung/Hynix continue to have an upward bias.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Vodafone PLC (NYSE: VOD) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank on valuation.
• JP Morgan upgraded shares of Intersil Corp (NASDAQ: ISIL) to Overweight from Neutral.
• Dreamworks Animation SKG, Inc (NYSE: DWA) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Pali Capital.
• Sappi Ltd (NYSE: SPP) was raised to Buy from Sell at Merrill Lynch.
• JP Morgan added VCA Antech, Inc (NASDAQ: WOOF) to its Focus List with a $46 target, citing the company's near-term growth prospects.

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