Analyst upgrades:

• Barclays upgraded Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised its target to $64 from $48 following the better-than-expected Q2 report.
• Cowen upgraded Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR) to Outperform from Neutral. The firm cites stabilizing demand trends and recovering margins for the upgrade.
• Susquehanna upgraded Isle of Capri (NASDAQ: ISLE) citing weakness following the weak quarter. The firm, which has a $13 target on shares, expects regional operators to benefit from improving macro trends quicker than destination markets.
• Senior Housing (NYSE: SNH) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
• Barclays (NYSE: BCS) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette.
• CGI Group (NYSE: GIB) was upgraded to Buy from Speculative Buy at Canaccord.

Astronics Corporation (NASDAQ: ATRO) designs and manufactures electrical power and lighting systems for the aerospace industry. Products generate electricity for aircraft cabins and airframes and provide both interior and external lighting. Customers include manufacturers of business jets, military aircraft, missiles and commercial transports. The company's control panels are also used in a variety of military ground vehicles. Boeing (NYSE: BA), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) are among the firm's major clients. Astronics ranked first on the Fortune Small Business Magazine 2008 list of America's 100 fastest-growing small public companies.

The firm surprised the Street earlier in the month, when it reported Q2 EPS of 60 cents and revenues of $47.9 million. Analysts had been looking for 31 cents and $42.1 million. Management also guided FY08 revenues to $175-$185 million, versus Street consensus of $169.49 million. The CEO commented, "While we set an all-time record for shipments in the quarter, the level of orders received was even stronger." Boenning & Scattergood subsequently reiterated its "market outperform" rating on the shares and boosted its price target to $30.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: UCN Inc, Astronics and SunTrust Banks were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Merriman expects UCN Inc (NASDAQ: UCNN) to further expand its contact center product set and believes it is likely to be sold to a larger provider expanding within the hosted contact solution market over the longer term. The firm started shares with a Buy rating.
  
• Jesup & Lamont initiated Astronics (NASDAQ: ATRO) with a Neutral rating. The firm wants to see a change in the backlog visibility and more clarity on the ramp-up schedules of some new programs. For now, they view shares as fairly valued.
  
• Friedman Billings resumed coverage of SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) with an Underperform rating and $37 target and cites credit deterioration and uncertainty regarding credit costs.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL) was initiated at Wachovia with an Outperform rating.
  
• Morgan Stanley assumed Imperial Tobacco (NYSE: ITY) with an Overweight rating.
  
• Suncor (NYSE: SU) was started with an Outperform rating and $80 target at RBC Capital.