Analyst Upgrades

• Brinker (EAT) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Starbucks (SBUX) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Paccar (PCAR) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• CA Technologies (CA) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• PPL Corp. (PPL) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• ConocoPhillips (COP) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• First Defiance (FDEF) to outperform from market perform at Keefe Bruyette.
• MasTec (MTZ) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Amdocs (DOX) to neutral from underperform at BofA/Merrill.

Analyst Upgrades

• Ryder (R) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• HCP (HCP) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Hertz Global (HTZ) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Lincoln National (LNC) to buy from neutral and T. Rowe Price (TROW) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Protective Life (PL) and Janus Capital (JNS) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Newell Rubbermaid (NWL) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• National Instruments (NATI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Team Health (TMH) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) reported that Q1 revenue was up but earnings declined sharply, and it offered guidance.
• Best Buy Inc. (BBY) shares rallied after it topped Q4 earnings expectations and offered encouraging guidance.
• Brinker International Inc. (EAT) raised its outlook for fiscal 2010 and also increased its quarterly dividend.
• China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) reported that its revenue had doubled and it beat earnings expectations.
• ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) Q3 earnings matched estimates and revenue was flat, and it reaffirmed its outlook.
• Finish Line Inc. (FINL) shares rallied after it reported that Q4 earnings came in better than analysts' expected.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: K-12 Inc., ChinaEdu and Cardtronics were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Baird is positive on K-12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN)'s leadership position and growing market opportunity for expansion. The firm started shares with an Outperform rating and $26 target. Shares were also initiated at Morgan Stanley with an Equal Weight rating and at Credit Suisse with an Outperform rating.
• Bear initiated ChinaEdu (NASDAQ: CEDU) with an Outperform rating and $11.20 target and said demand for post-secondary education in is outstripping the capacity of land based universities and that CEDU will benefit from the governments strategy to raise education levels. Piper, which started shares with a Buy rating and $10 target, believes the online higher education market is still in the relatively early stages as online student enrollments represent less than one-fourth of total university enrollments.
• William Blair believes Cardtronics (NASDAQ: CATM) has a highly attractive opportunity to increase the number of ATM sites it operates. The firm assumed coverage with an Outperform rating.

Other initiataions:

• MedAssets (NASDAQ: MDAS) was initiated with an Overweight rating and $24 target at Lehman, at Deutsche Bank with a Buy rating and $25 target and at Wachovia with a Market Perform rating.
• Jefferies initiated VanceInfo (NYSE: VIT) with a Buy rating and $11 target.
• Susquehanna initiated Under Armour (NYSE: UA) with a Neutral rating.