Analyst Upgrades

• Athenahealth (ATHN), Ensco (ESV), Pride International (PDE) and Sinclair Broadcast (SBGI) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• CIRCOR (CIR) to buy from hold at BB&T.
• Urban Outfitters (URBN) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Shaw Group (SHAW) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• MGM Resorts (MGM) and Boyd Gaming (BYD) to buy from neutral, as well as Intrepid Potash (IPI) to neutral from underperform, at BofA/Merrill.
• Carlisle (CSL) to buy from neutral at SunTrust.

"Digital medical records are coming; the question of whether these systems are going to be adopting isn't an "if" but a "when" question," says Andy Obermueller.

The editor of Game-Changing Stocks explains, "Here, we look at the companies that are going to dominate the industry, which I believe will be one of the hottest sectors of 2011.

"The cost savings are significant -- hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Reducing this waste would go a long way to slowing the growth of healthcare costs.

Analyst Upgrades

• Stifel Financial (SF) and CVR Energy (CVI) to buy from neutral and Principal Financial (PFG) to conviction buy from buy at Goldman.
• Suntech (STP) to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Internap (INAP) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• Andersons (ANDE) to buy from hold at BB&T.

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Citigroup (C) to conviction buy from buy, Principal Financial (PFG) to buy from neutral, and Stancorp Financial (SFG) and Hartford Financial (HIG) to neutral from sell.
• JetBlue (JBLU) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Barclays upgraded Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Carnival (CCL) upgraded to overweight from equal weight.
• Hollysys Automation (HOLI) was upgraded to buy from hold at Roth Capital.
• RBC Capital upgraded Alliance Data Systems (ADS) to outperform from sector perform.
• RRI Energy (RRI) was upgraded to buy from hold at Citigroup.

Analyst Upgrades

• Citigroup upgraded Mosaic (MOS) to buy from hold and raised its price target to $78 from $64 citing improving ag fundamentals and the potential for BHP (BHP) to issue a higher bid for Potash (POT), which Citi feels would bode well for Mosaic.
• Cowen upgraded VMware (VMW) to outperform from neutral, citing recent share weakness and the company's significant growth opportunity.
• Citigroup upgraded CareFusion (CFN) with a $29 price target, citing valuation and the potential for margin expansion.
• Pfizer (PFE) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Cowen.
• Juniper (JNPR) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Stryker (SYK) was upgraded to buy from gradually accumulate at Soleil.

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

• American International Group Inc. (AIG) posted a big loss and warned it may require additional assistance.
• Athenahealth (ATHN) shares sank after it delayed earnings and its annual report, and warned of restatements.
• Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) Q3 sales jumped on popularity of the Nook reader but same-store sales declined.
• Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (BRCD) disappointing report and guidance caused a sell-off in shares.
• Dell Inc. (DELL) acquisitions and better-than-expected earnings may not be enough to stop shrinking market share.
• Gap Inc. (GPS) rose after it beat earnings estimates, raised its dividend and announced stock buybacks.

Stocks started out strong in the early indication this morning but then went limp after economic data showed that perhaps housing isn't quite as robust as many were hoping and as University of Michigan's consumer sentiment was lower than expected. Today's wishy washy trading gave no real directional feel for the closing bell until the last 20 minutes of the day.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,324.89 +3.86 (0.04%)
S&P 500 1,104.51 +1.58 (0.14%)
Nasdaq 2,238.26 +4.04 (0.18%)

Top Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades
Top Day Trader Alerts
Top Stock & Market Rumors

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Athenahealth, Brocade Communications Systems, Royal Bank of Scotland and Human Genome were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Caris initiated shares of Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) with an Average rating and $26 target, as they believe an unachievable growth rate is priced into shares at current levels.
• Brocade Communications Systems (NASDAQ: BRCD) was initiated with a Neutral rating at UBS.
  
• Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) was initiated with an Underweight rating at Lehmen.
  
• JP Morgan resumed coverage of Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) with a Neutral rating.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Lazard resumed coverage of Zoran (NASDAQ: ZRAN) with a Hold rating and Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM) with a Buy rating.
  
• Stifel initiated Tortoise Energy Capital (NYSE: TYY) with a Buy rating and $32 target.
  
• HSBC initiated DSG International (OTC: DSITY) with an Overweight rating.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Athenahealth, Marvell Technology, Broadcom and Nvidia were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) was initiated with a Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs. Jefferies started shares of the stock with a Buy rating and $46 target, as they believe their estimates could prove conservative given potential upside from new and existing physicians adopting athenaClinicals.
• Kaufman Bros initiated Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) with a Hold rating and $18 target, as they believe near-term growth prospects remain uncertain and recommends waiting for more favorable entry points.
  
• The firm also initiated Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) with a Hold rating and $35 target, and believes the company's growth prospects are priced into shares following the recent rally, and started shares of Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) with a Buy rating and $42 target, as they believe the company's growth opportunity and competitive strength remain intact and would be buyers at current levels.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Goldman started shares of Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) with a Neutral rating and $16 target.
  
• UBS initiated US BioEnergy (NASDAQ: USBE) with a Neutral rating.
  
• Bear Stearns inititated CarMax (NYSE: KMX) with an Underperform rating.
  
• Wachovia started Teekay Offshore Partners (NYSE: TOO) and Holly Energy Partners (NYSE: HEP) with Market Perform ratings.

With the growth in managed care, it's been tough for physician practice reimbursement. Basically, physician practices need to get the right data in order to get payments. As a result, it's not uncommon for them to give up on some accounts and just write them off.

To deal with the problems, athenahealth has created a broad offering of Net-based software systems. It's turned out to be a pretty good business.

In fact, the company has filed to go public.

Athenahealth helps with things like: revenue cycle management, clinical cycle management and billing. What's more, the upfront investment for customers is fairly modest. A majority of revenues for athenahealth come from the percentage of collections.

For 2006, athenahealth increased revenues from $53.5 million to $75.8 million.

The underwriters on the deal include Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER). The proposed ticker symbol is "ATHN."

You can check out the prospectus at the SEC web site. And, if you want to see some more recent IPOs, click here.

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