If you plan on liquidating any profitable, or taxable, positions in the stock market thanks to the current uptrend and also want to give to your favorite charity, the strategy outlined below is key to optimizing your gift, as well as your capital.

Though giving cash to causes is the most popular form of charity, desperate times call for creative measures, and any type of gift will be gladly accepted. By giving stock directly to charity, and bear in mind that the stock must be in your portfolio for one year or more as short-term capital gains are not applicable, you not only avoid capital gains taxes on your gains, but you can actually use the gift of your stock as a tax deduction. Hence, the cost of your gift is lower than giving cash directly. Think of it as an overall investment for yourself and the charity.

Analyst upgrades:

• Oppenheimer upgraded FTI Consulting (NYSE:FCN) to Outperform from Perform on expectations the stock will outperform in the second half of 2009 due to easier comparisons and a "deeper and longer" restructuring cycle. The firm has a $62 target on shares.
• Citigroup upgraded Cigna (NYSE:CI) to Hold from Sell to reflect reduced balance sheet risk following the company's capital raise and the potential for a PBM sale. The firm raised its target price to $23 from $13.
• Goldman expects Coca-Cola Enterprises (NYSE:CCE) to benefit from favorable soda demand and lower commodity costs. The firm upgraded shares to Conviction Buy from Buy and has a $20 target on the stock.
• Novellus (NASDAQ:NVLS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Bank of America/Merrill.
• CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) was upgraded at JP Morgan to Neutral from Underweight.
• Allegiant (NASDAQ:ALGT) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
  

The earnings crunch is on. Among the many companies scheduled to report quarterly results this week are such so-called bellwether stocks as Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), DuPont (NYSE: DD), and United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS), all of which analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to report lower earnings for the recent quarter. Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD), and Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN), on the other hand, are expected to post marginal earnings growth.

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

"Airline stocks are looking good now; the airlines should benefit greatly from the big drop in crude oil, as lower crude means lower fuel costs for their operations," notes breakout specialist Leo Fasciocco.

In his Ticker Tape Digest, he looks at Allegiant Travel Co. (NASDAQ: ALGT), a "niche travel airline providing nonstop flights from 53 small cities to large vacation destinations such as Las Vegas and Orlando."

The advisor explains, "The Las Vegas-based company has annual revenues of $483 million. The company also has fixed-fee deals with Harrah's Entertainment to fly certain prespecified routes. The firm's fleet is composed solely of McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft.

"ALGT recently broke clear of a seven-week flat base. Its price pattern of the past few weeks has been a zig-zag with a bias to the upside. The current base is a bit choppy. However, the technicals are extremely bullish. ALGT's push to a new high is very bullish and could bring in more buying.

Analyst upgrades:

• Philip Morris (NYSE: PM) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Friedman Billings upgraded shares of Principal Financial (NYSE: PFG) to Market Perform from Underperform as they believe the company's capital buffer could keep outrunning credit losses.
  
• Friedman Billings also upgraded Office Max (NYSE: OMX) to Outperform from Market Perform. The firm believes the risk of recourse to Office Max from the Timber Notes formerly backed by Lehman is low and that any litigation by noteholders will have a low level of success.
  
• Citigroup upgraded CF Industries (NYSE: CF) to Buy from Hold on valuation following the recent weakness but lowered their target to $113 from $128.
• Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  
• Granite Construction (NYSE: GVA) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman.
  

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

• Allegiant Travel Co. (NASDAQ: ALGT) beat estimates with soaring Q1 revenues, bucking the airline trend.
• Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) Q1 profits doubled but fell short of expectations.
• Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) posted solid Q1 results despite negative operational cash flow.
• Centex Corp. (NYSE: CTX) posted a Q4 loss well below analyst estimates.
• Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI) profits plunged in the first quarter on litigation charges.
• Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) posted another big loss, way off estimates of a small profit.
• Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) posted its first quarterly loss since 2003 on write-downs.
• Gardner Denver Inc. (NYSE: GDI) beat Q1 expectations and raised its outlook for the year.
• International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) fell short of Wall Street's Q1 earnings estimates.
• Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) beat Q1 estimates and offered fully-year guidance.
• KBR Inc. (NYSE: KBR) Q1 profit more than doubled on arbitration benefit.
• MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) topped analysts' expectations as Q1 profits more than doubled.
• Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) Q1 profits tumbled 55% but still beat analysts' estimates.

With nose-bleed oil prices, we've seen a string of airline bankruptcies. But as for Allegiant Air (NASDAQ: ALGT) things are much different. In Q1, operating revenues increased 58% to $133.1 million and there was a $9.7 million profit, or $0.47 per share.

So what's going on here? Basically, the company has a strong management team and an innovative business model. That is, the airline markets primarily to smaller cities for leisure travel, to places like Las Vegas and Orlando. The fares are cheap and the flights are non-stop.

What's more, Allegiant has its own reservation system. This not only cuts out the middleman but allows for ancillary revenues. This means charging for baggage, beverages, snacks, as well as hotels, car rentals and so on. It also helps that Allegiant has been aggressive with enhancing its load factors.

Companies spend lots of time trying to cut costs. Unfortunately, they often don't pay as much attention to pricing. As a result, there may be needless discounting and promotions, as well as pricing that is below breakeven levels.

In fact, a recent study from Gartner shows that a 1% improvement in price can translate into an 11% increase in profitability. This compares to a 3% increase in profitability when there is a 1% improvement in fixed costs.

So what can your business do to get better pricing?

Well, I had a chance to talk to Rafi Mohammed, who is a pricing expert and the author of The Art of Pricing: How to Find the Hidden Profits to Grow Your Business (he also operates a consulting firm, Culture of Profit).

He says a highly effective strategy is "versioning." That is, you can have a basic version and an advanced version of a product. Of course, there will be a differential in pricing. Then again, customers will understand that they will get better value for the advanced version.

You can get creative with this. Take Allegiant Air (NASDAQ: ALGT). The company attracts customers with rock-bottom airfares (the basic offering). But then there are add-ons such as vacation packages, seat assignments, beverage sales, and so on. As a result, Allegiant gets more than $15 per passenger in such ancillary revenues.