"Our latest high-dividend stock pick is AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB), a leading global money manager," says Mark Skousen.

In his premium service, High-Income Alert, he explains, "The company offers mutual funds, structured products, and managed accounts to corporations, endowments, institutions, and government agencies.

"Of course, asset managers collect fees based on the quantity of assets under management. As asset values decline, so do net fees. And, needless to say, with the haircut that world bond and equity markets have taken during the past two years, sales and earnings at AllianceBerstein have fallen.

Over the past few months, the IPO market has been perking up. And, with the recent surge in equities, the good times should continue, right?

Well, not necessarily. The fact is that investors are scrutinizing deals. Just look at yesterday's IPO of PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT). In the offering, the company raised about $335 million. However, the goal was to get about $750 million. In other words, there was lots of investor pushback. Actually, on its first day of trading, the shares of PennyMac fell 4.5% to $19.10.

The company is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that is purchasing mortgages -- at discounts -- and trying to turn a profit. At the same time, PennyMac wants to get federal government support, such as from the loan modification programs. Oh, and the company also has notable backers that include BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) and Highfields Capital Management.

Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB) to Outperform from Market Perform as they find AB's risk/reward attractive given its attractive long-term business model. Wachovia upgraded Watson Pharma (NYSE: WPI) and Teva Pharma (NASDAQ: TEVA) to Outperform from Market Perform citing valuations and positive drivers for generics that include patent expirations and market share expansion.
• UBS raised Lloyds TSB Group (NYSE: LYG) to Neutral from Sell on expected pricing power following the HBOS (OTC: HBOOY) acquisition.
• Otter Tail (NASDAQ: OTTR) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
• GFI Group (NASDAQ: GFIG) was upgraded at Citigroup to Hold from Sell.
• Merrill upgraded Logitech (NASDAQ: LOGI) to Neutral from Underperform.

Analyst downgrades:

• JP Morgan downgraded shares of Lloyds TSB Group to Underweight from Neutral on capital concerns and believes the HBOS acquisition is not in the best interest of shareholders.
• Stephens downgraded Universal Truckload (NASDAQ: UACL) to Equal Weight from Overweight on valuation and concerns about a slowdown in the flatbed sector. The firm's target remains $28.

I am not sure that Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) will make it through the month as public companies. Barron's quoted an anonymous senior official -- who sounds an awful lot like Hank Paulson to me -- that unless Fannie and Freddie could raise at least $10 billion each, the government would bail them out while wiping out common shareholders and eliminating the preferred dividend. Since then, investors have been dumping shares of Fannie and Freddie like there's no tomorrow.

Who wins and who loses if Fannie and Freddie's shareholders are wiped out? As I said on CNBC's Power Lunch this afternoon, the winners are investors who shorted Fannie and Freddie years ago and are now reaping enormous profits. I also think that some Wall Street investment banks will win big as they get the job of selling off Fannie and Freddie's pieces. The losers are their biggest common and preferred shareholders -- including some well known mutual funds.

The winners are:

• Jim Rogers, Rogers Holdings - Rogers originally shorted Freddie and Fannie in March 2006 and appeared on Bloomberg on November 20, 2007 to discuss why he did it and where he thought their stocks would go.
• Doug Noland, Prudent Bear - As I posted, since the late 1990s, Noland's research has concluded that Freddie and Fannie would "shudder" when the US credit bubble eventually burst. Noland has profited from the short bets he made -- but he says it is emotionally painful to watch them fail.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Genesit Energy LP (GEL), EnerNoc (ENOC) and Comcast (CMCSA) were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Genesis Energy (AMEX: GEL) was initiated with a Buy rating and $40 target at Stanford, as the firm believes the company's affiliation with Denbury Resources and pending acquisition of petroleum products, terminals, and transportation businesses from the Davison family will drive rapid growth.

• EnerNoc Inc (NASDAQ: ENOC) was initiated with a Hold rating and $42 target at Jefferies, due to valuation. EnerNoc was also initiated at Morgan Stanley with an Equal Weight rating and $40 target.

• Stifel expects Comcast (OTC: CMCSA) to benefit from higher penetration levels of DVR and HDTV set-top boxes over the next several years and initiated shares with a Buy rating and $34 target.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Select asset managers were initiated at Credit Suisse:

• AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB), Affiliated Managers (NYSE: AMG), Fortress Investment (NYSE: FIG), Invesco (NYSE: IVZ), Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) and T Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) were initiated with Outperform ratings.

• Blackrock (NYSE: BLK), Calamos Asset Mgmt (NADAQ: CLMS), Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE: EV), Federated Investors (NYSE: FII), Janus Capital (NYSE: JNS), Legg Mason Inc (NYSE: LM) and Waddell & Reed (NYSE: WDR) were initiated with Neutral ratings.

• Deutsche Bank initiated Ryland Group (NYSE: RYL) with a Buy rating and $52 target, as well as Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) and Meritage Homes Corp (NYSE: MTH) with Hold ratings and a $23 target and $29 target, respectively.

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