• Jefferies upgraded shares of Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS) to Overweight from Neutral on valuation, as they believe the current share price undervalues Risperdal Consta and provides little to no value for other pipeline drugs.
  
• JP Morgan upgraded ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) to Buy from Hold following the company's Q1 results, as they believe further estimate reductions are unlikely.
  
• UBS expects ITT Educational (NYSE: ESI) to benefit from strong enrollment growth and they see less private student lending risk. Shares were upgraded to Buy from Neutral.
• BMC Software (NYSE: BMC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman and added to the firm's Conviction Buy List.
  
• Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  
• Covance (NYSE: CVD) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at First Analysis.

• UBS downgraded Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) to Neutral from Buy and added shares to its Short-term Sell list citing the significant reduction in 2009 coal prices and estimates.
  
• Friedman Billings cut Century Aluminum (NASDAQ: CENX) to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered its target to $8 from $18 shares to reflect a lowered aluminum price forecast and financing concerns.
  
• Bernstein downgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Market Perform from Outperform citing recent share performances and the difficult macro environment.
• CommVault (NASDAQ: CVLT) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman and added to the Conviction Buy List.
  
• TomoTherapy (NASDAQ: TOMO) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.
  
• Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) was lowered to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

• Morgan Keegan initiated Brinker (NYSE: EAT) with a Market Perform citing the difficult macro economy, relative debt levels and the competitive environment.
  
• Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) was initiated at Oppenheimer with an Outperform rating and $12 target. The firm expects the company to benefit from growing demand for higher acuity assisted living.
  
• Baird initiated Healthcare Realty (NYSE: HR) with an Underperform rating and $19 target citing the company's premium valuation vs. the group.
• UBS initiated Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN), and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) with Neutral ratings citing the difficult near-term demand environment.
  
• FedEx (NYSE: FDX) was started at Jesup & Lamont with a Hold rating.

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ALKS, CS, EBAY, AMZN, EXPE, FDX ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Keefe Bruyette initiated Anchor Bancorp (NASDAQ: ABCW) with a Market Perform rating and $18 target, as they prefer to wait for credit and capital concerns to subside.
  
• Jefferies believes TomoTherapy (NASDAQ: TOMO) should trade higher based on the company's strong new order growth and would be buyers at current levels. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $17 target.
  
• Skillsoft (NASDAQ: SKIL) was assumed with an Outperform rating at William Blair, as they believe the NETg acquisition will drive significant operating margin improvement in the coming years.

• Lehman reinstated MarkWest Energy (NYSE: MWE) with an Overweight rating.
  
• Friedman Billings initiated C.R. Bard (NYSE: BCR) with a Market Perform rating and $102 target.
  
• Wachovia initiated Cooper Industries (NYSE: CBE) and Thomas & Betts (NYSE: TNB) with Market Perform ratings.

Analyst initiations: ABCW, TOMO and SKIL originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• TomoTherapy Inc (NASDAQ: TTPY) was initiated by a group of firms:

• Baird started TomoTherapy Inc with an Outperform rating, saying the Hi-Art system has several key competitive advantages that include a more conformal beam pattern, potential to better measure radiation dose delivery and greater ability to treat complex cases.

• William Blair and Piper Jaffray both believe the company has a substantial infrastructure to manufacture and support strong growth beyond the current 125 systems in the field, and started shares with an Outperform rating.

• Deutsche Bank initiated Anthracite Capital (NYSE: AHR) with a Hold rating, expecting the company to continue growing its portfolio by acquiring commercial real estate securities and CRE loans...

• Lehman started Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR) with an Equal Weight rating.

• Taleo Corp (NASDAQ: TLEO) was reinstated with a Buy rating at ThinkEquity.

• Needham initiated Spectrum Control, Inc (NASDAQ: SPEC) with a Buy rating.

Analyst initiations 6-18-07: AHR, ESLR, TLEO and SPEC originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week, the NASDAQ halted trading on the shares of TOM Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:TOMO). That's always nerve-wracking for investors. However, in the case of TOM Online, it looked like the company was going private, which of course, is a good thing.

Today, we got confirmation. TOM GROUP will indeed buy out TOM Online for about $200 million. On the news, TOM Online's stock was up 26% to $14.64. While this sounds good, let's not forget that within the last year, the stock was as high as $28.89.

Tom Online has two joint ventures with eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) and eBay's Skype but its main business is the Chinese wireless data market. While this has lots of potential, it is still in its early stages, at least in terms of monetization. This has certainly been a problem for TOM Online.

The recent fall-off in the Chinese equities markets was not helpful either.

TOM Group already owns about 65.73% of TOM Online already, making the probablity of another bidder quite slim. In other words, it holds all the cards. The complex Chinese regulations doesn't make it easy to buy companies there either.

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

TOM Online goes behind the Great Wall originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) has decided to get out of China, at least in terms of operating its own local language site [subscription required, alternate]. Chinese who buy from eBay sites outside the country will still deal with eBay.

Chinese portal Tom Online will operate a new auction site that will be a joint venture with eBay. Tom will own 51%.

The Wall Street Journal said that the move is a defeat for eBay. That is short sighted. Tom has a significant presence in China and knows the local markets. Half a loaf is better than none.

There is a wisdom in eBay's decision, and it will probably be evident fairly quickly.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

eBay pulls the China plug originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I think we started talking about eBay, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:EBAY) endeavors in China months ago. Rumors kept surfacing every few months about eBay either getting out of China or making a deal with a local player. Just last week there were reports that Tom.com (NASDAQ:TOMO) and eBay EachNet were close to signing an agreement.

To hear, then, that eBay EachNet and Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) agreed on a partnership isn't surprising and what's more, it makes perfect sense.

With over 60% of the Chinese market, Baidu is China's largest portal and search engine. With this in mind, the cross-promotional partnership could greatly benefit EachNet. Baidu will promote, PayPal Beibao, PayPal's Chinese service, as a preferred payment method while eBay EachNet will use Baidu exclusively for its search advertising. The companies will be testing the search as early as the first quarter; implementing by the second. A special toolbar, co-branded, will also be developed by the two companies.

Despite the fact that on the face of it the deal seems like it would benefit EachNet more than it would Baidu, BIDU shares are up 2.8% while EBAY shares are flat (by 11:30 a.m.). All in all, I'd say this is a positive move for eBay as the company's starting to show a strategy for this market.

Finally, if you recall, rumors of Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) or Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) acquiring Baidu have also been floating around. If there is any truth to these rumors, this would be weird as Yahoo! holds a stake in eBay's competitor in China, Alibaba's Taobao.

eBay and Baidu sign a cross-promotional deal originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.