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Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: AXP, CAT, BMY, GNK, TXCO ...

Analyst upgrades:

Societe Generale upgraded shares of Veolia Environment (NYSE: VE) to Buy from Hold as they believe the company's new finance chief implement additional cost savings.
Citigroup upgraded shares of Sun Healthcare (NASDAQ: SUNH) to Buy from Hold and added the stock to their Top Picks Live List as they believe the market is pricing in a more severe Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement outlook than is probable. The firm has a $14 target on the stock.
Calyon believes in 2010, American Express (NYSE: AXP) will have easy comps, reserve releases, and income statement leverage. The firm upgraded shares to Outperform from Underperform.
Societe Generale (OTC: SCGLY) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) was raised to neutral from Sell at UBS.
Goldman upgraded Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) to Buy from Neutral and added shares to the Conviction Buy List; Goldman also added Bristol-Myers (NYSE: BMY) to the Conviction Buy List.

Analyst upgrades:

Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of ING Group (NYSE: ING) to Outperform from Market Perform after upgrading the European insurance sector to Overweight from Neutral due to improved risk management.
Keefe Bruyette also upgraded Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) to Market Perform from Underperform to reflect the company's national footprint if the Wachovia (NYSE: WB) deal goes through.
JP Morgan upgraded Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) to Overweight from Neutral citing top line performance, growth profile and valuation, among other reasons.
Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Amylin Pharma (NASDAQ: AMLN) was raised to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.
Louisiana Pacific (NYSE: LPX) was upgraded at RBC Capital to Sector Perform from Underperform.

Analyst downgrades:

Jefferies downgraded shares of Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) to Hold from Buy and lowered its target to $50 from $55 to reflect risks to the company's earnings outlook from the weakening economy.
Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) was cut to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank as they believe the economic slowdown will bring slower volumes. Coca-Cola's target was lowered to $56 from $64.

Analyst upgrades:

Keefe Bruyette upgraded MetLife (NYSE: MET) to Outperform from Market Perform as they believe the company's capital and liquidity profile are very solid relative to this week's sell-off.
The firm also upgraded shares of MSCI (NYSE: MXB) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation as they believe near-term challenges are already priced into shares.
Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan based on valuation and strong pricing outlook.
Costco (NASDAQ: COST) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
Pali Capital lifted Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) to Neutral from Sell.
Merrill upgraded Pall (NYS: PLL) and Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) to buy from Neutral.

Analyst downgrades:

Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Trimble Navigation (NASDAQ: TRMB) to Perform from Outperform as they believe the company's Engineering and Construction division is facing a challenging period due to the credit market strain.
Stephens downgraded Seacoast Banking (NASDAQ:SBCF) to Underweight from Equal Weight as they believe a dilutive capital raise is possible given future losses from real estate credits in coastal Florida.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Corning, BTU International and RiskMetricks were today's noteworthy initiations:

ThinkPanmure believes Corning (NYSE: GLW) is well-positioned to benefit from increased penetration of LCD panels into televisions, flat panel monitors, notebooks, and mobile handsets. Shares were initiated with an Accumulate rating and $31 target.
Thomas Weisel said BTU International (NASDAQ: BTUI) is seeing strong order trends for the company's high margin solar sales in its in-line diffusion furnace and metallization products. The firm started shares with an Overweight rating and $15 target.
RiskMetrics (NYSE: RMG) was assumed at JMP Securities with an Ootperform rating and $26 target. The firm expects RMG to benefit from greater focus on managing portfolio risk and on corporate governance issues.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was initiated at ThinkPanmure with a Buy rating and $29 target.
Gen-Probe (NASDAQ: GPRO) was assumed at William Blair with an Outperform rating.
Baird initiated BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ: BJRI) with a Neutral rating and $13 target.

#	Blogger	Posts
1	Joseph Lazzaro	111
2	Tom Johansmeyer	103
3	Steven Mallas	50
4	Tom Taulli	47
5	Connie Madon	45
6	Steven Halpern	36
7	Trey Thoelcke	36
8	Mark Fightmaster	35
9	Paul Foster	24
10	Brian White	24
11	Zac Bissonnette	23
12	Jim Cramer	21
13	Jon Ogg	21
14	Melly Alazraki	21
15	Brent Archer	21
16	Eric Buscemi	17
17	Michael Fowlkes	15
18	Michael Shulman	13
19	Sam Collins	11
20	Elizabeth Harrow	10

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