My recent Investing in Oregon post took a look at some companies that the Motley Fool had featured in its investigation of investment opportunities in the Beaver State, including Precision Castparts Corp. (NYSE: PCP), StanCorp Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: SFG), FLIR Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR), and Columbia Sportswear Co. (NASDAQ: COLM).

But the Motley Fool article also mentioned that one of the most prominent business influences in Oregon wasn't even headquartered in the state: semiconductor giant Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) from Santa Clara, California. It also included mention of four Oregon-based businesses that provided support for Intel: Tektronix Inc. (NYSE: TEK), Mentor Graphics Corp. (NASDAQ: MENT), Triquint Semiconductor Inc. (NASDAQ: TQNT), and Electro Scientific Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: ESIO). One could imagine that Intel's impressive earnings report this week should have been good news for these supporting companies.

Beaverton-based Tektronix, widely known as Tek, is one of the leading makers of test and measurement equipment, such as digital multimeters, logic analyzers, and curve tracers, and oscilloscopes. Tek will win its seventh technical Emmy this year. Tek beat Wall Street expectations in its previous three quarters, reporting earnings per share of 40 cents for its first quarter FY2008. But the consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial was to hold shares of Tek. The share price reached a 52-week high of $37.95 on Monday when it was announced that Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR) will acquire Tek. Tool and equipment maker Danaher just announced record third quarter results.

Continue reading Investing in Oregon: Electro Scientific (ESIO), Mentor Graphics (MENT), Triquint (TQNT), Tektronix (TEK)

Investing in Oregon: Electro Scientific (ESIO), Mentor Graphics (MENT), Triquint (TQNT), Tektronix (TEK) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• JP Morgan upgraded shares of Tektronix (NYSE: TEK) to Overweight from Underweight citing improving sector fundamentals.

• JP Morgan also raised GameStop (NYSE: GME) to Overweight from Neutral based on the May sales data.

• Oppenheimer upgraded PrivateBancorp (NASDAQ: PVTB) to Neutral from Sell based on valuation.

• BMO Capital raised Quebecor World (NYSE: IQW) to Market Perform from Underperform on valuation.

• CheckFree (NASDAQ: CKFR) was assumed with a Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer at CIBC citing a favorable risk/reward, solid secular underlying trends, and overblown concerns for its rating...

• Symantec Corp (NASDAQ: SYMC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

• Ingersoll-Rand Co Ltd (NYSE: IR) was raised to Outperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.

• ThinkEquity upgraded shares of Jones Soda Co (NASDAQ: JSDA) to Buy from Accumulate.

• BB&T upgraded Pacific Sunwear of California (NASDAQ: PSUN) to Buy from Hold.

• Goldman added Cigna Corp (NYSE: CI) to its America's Conviction List.

Analyst upgrades 6-18-07: CI, CKFR, JSDA, PSUN and SYMC originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Stock futures are lower

Before the bell 3-16-07: Futures lower ahead of CPI, consumer confidence originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 Mar 2007 07:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• William Blair downgraded Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY) to Market Perform from Outperform, expecting a slowing down in growth from advanced TV, a difficult competitive environment and cyclicality of consumer electronics spending in 2007;
• First Albany downgraded Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL) to Neutral from Buy, citing valuation and a likely slowing down in growth within two-to-three quarters.

• Baird downgraded Forward Air Corp. (NASDAQ:FWRD) to Neutral from Outperform, citing weak near-term truck freight trends and economic uncertainty.
• EnCana Corp (NYSE:ECA) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Citigroup to reflect the disappointing 2007 guidance with 1% overall production growth, as well as cost run-up and concerns of portfolio quality.
• Following poor second-quarter earnings and light third-quarter guidance, Baird downgraded Tektronix Inc. (NYSE:TEK) to Neutral from Outperform and a $33 target.

Analyst downgrades 12-15-06: Best Buy and Oracle originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.