This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

This entry in the Big Company, Small Town series features one of the great recent American business success stories, as this powerhouse brand came from very humble beginnings only 30 years ago.

Ben & Jerry's was started in 1978, when Long Island, N.Y., natives Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield used a $12,000 investment to open up a homemade ice cream scoop shop in Burlington, Vermont. The Ben & Jerry's shop grew rapidly in popularity, and by 1980 they began packing pints to sell in grocery stores. By 1985, the company's sales were more than $9 million, and it began building its manufacturing plant in nearby Waterbury, Vermont. The plant in Waterbury was then opened to the public for tours of Ben & Jerry's ice cream making operations, creating a tourist attraction for the town, which has a population of around 1,700.

Although Ben & Jerry's was bought in 2000 by Unilever (NYSE: UN) for $326 million, the company still maintains its local roots, with its headquarters in South Burlington and its factory still open for tours in Waterbury. The founders of Ben & Jerry's, while no longer holding any positions within the company, have worked with Unilever to make sure it remains as socially conscious as when they ran it, keeping that small-town, grassroots feel that made it such a success worldwide.

To this day, Ben & Jerry's maintains its Free Cone Day, which Ben & Jerry started to honor the first anniversary of their ice cream shop.

Be sure to check out more Big Company, Small Town posts.

Through May, the S&P 500 is down 5%. The interesting news to me is that some stocks have been doing phenomenally well. They appear to be benefiting from the weak dollar and strong demand for raw materials -- like oil and coal -- in emerging markets.

It happens that I picked three of them for my newsletter -- whose average stock has risen 26% since the beginning of 2008. Here are the top three -- and how much they've risen since their first mention there:

• Walter Industries (NYSE: WLT) +124%. Walter is a coal, natural gas, and home construction and finance company that is spinning off the latter and is benefiting from rising coal prices.
• Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN) +36%. Southwest is an oil and gas explorer that was just added to the S&P 500.
• Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) +24%. Burlington runs trains and Warren Buffett owns its stock. One analyst boosted 2008 EPS estimates from $5.90 to $6.05 due to fuel surcharges and rate increases, partially offset by significantly higher unhedged fuel costs and flat-to-modestly-lower volumes.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has agreed to pay penalties totaling $15M to end a Clean Air Act lawsuit brought by the Justice Department for the EPA, reported the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
• In 1992 Ecuador left OPEC, but this month is expected to rejoin the organization, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Barron's Online's (subscription required) "Inside Scoop" section reported that Warren Buffett exercised call options to purchase 7.847M shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI).

OTHER PAPERS:

• The UK is going to purchase 140 armored vehicles from Force Protection (NASDAQ: FRPT) for use in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press.
• India's Reliance Retail has won the exclusive marketing and distribution rights for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stores in India. The first Apple-owned store in India is scheduled to open at the end of this month, reported the Economic Times.
• Independent movie studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (NYSE: LGF) has signed a partnership agreement with Mexican media conglomerate Grupo Televisa (NYSE: TV) to make movies and TV shows, and distribute Grupo's film library, reported the Los Angeles Times.

It's a big deal whenever Warren Buffett so much as sneezes, and this morning was no different. Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK.A) decision to boost its stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) made the expected splash, and up went Burlington's stock 3%.

Back in April, Berkshire disclosed an 11% stake in Burlington, and then in May it announced investments in two other railroads: Norfolk Southern Corp (NYSE: NSC) and Union Pacific Corp (NYSE: UNP). Buffett clearly sees value in riding the railroads.

Then today came Berkshire's disclose that it had raised its stake from August 3 through August 7 to 11.5% from 11% -- which, while not exactly earth shaking, is a strong indicator that Buffett sees the recent price weakness enveloping the market as a buying opportunity. Usually when the "oracle" Mr. Buffett sees something, it is worth paying attention.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Select railroads were popular initiations today:

• Morgan Keegan started shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (NYSE: BNI) with an Outperform rating and believes the stock should trade at a premium to Class 1 railroad peers, as the company consistently ranks above its peers in terms of operating ratio and return on invested capital.
  
• Morgan Keegan believes Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) de Mexico provides KSU a tremendous growth opportunity, starting shares with an Outperform rating.
  
• Morgan Keegan also believes Norfolk Southern Corp (NYSE: NSC) is undervalued, despite having some of the best operating metrics in the industry, initiating shares with an Outperform rating.
  
• Union Pacific Corp (NYSE: UNP) was started with an Outperform rating as Morgan Keegan believes earnings estimates and management guidance may be conservative.
  
• Finally, CSX Corp (NYSE: CSX) was initiated with a Market Perform rating at Morgan Keegan as the firm believes there is more risk to the current share price than the potential upside...
  

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Citigroup started Gaylord Entertainment Co (NYSE: GET) with a Buy rating and $68 target.
  
• Morgan Joseph initiated shares of Jakks Pacific, Inc (NASDAQ: JAKK) with a Buy rating.
  
• ITT Corp (NYSE: ITT) was given an Equal Weight rating by Morgan Stanley.
  
• Banc of America started Healthways, Inc (NASDAQ: HWAY) with a Buy rating and Matria Healthcare, Inc (NASDAQ: MATR) with a Neutral rating.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: American Home Mortgage Investment Corp (AHM), MasterCard Inc (MA) and the selective railroad companies were today's more notable initiations:

• JMP Securities started American Home Mortgage (NYSE: AHM) with a Market Perform frating citing the challenging mortgage market.

• UBS started MasterCard (NYSE: MA) with a Buy and doesn't believe margin upside is fully reflected in the stock's valuation.

• Morgan Stanley initiated five railroad companies: Union Pacific Corp (NYSE: UNP) and Norfolk Southern Corp (NYSE: NSC) with Overweight ratings and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (NYSE: BNI), Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (NYSE: CNQ) and CSX Corp (NYSE: CSX) with Equal Weight ratings.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Ceradyne, Inc (NASDAQ: CRDN) was initiated with a Neutral rating at First Albany.

• United Therapeutics Corp (NASDAQ: UTHR) was started with a Buy rating and $81 target at Citigroup.

• Goldman Sachs initiated shares of Aruba Networks, Inc (NASDAQ: ARUN) with a Neutral rating and $16.50 target.

• Saks Inc (NYSE: SKS) was started at Bear Stearns with a Peer Perform rating.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: NYSE Group Inc (NYX), Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN) and HomeBanc Corp (HMB) were today's more notable downgrades:

• JP Morgan downgraded shares of the NYSE Group Inc (NYSE: NYX) to Underweight from Neural to reflect their belief that the company's float will increase significantly in March due to the acquisition of Euronext and the lockup expiration. JP Morgan believes this could bring selling pressure.
  

• Credit Suisse downgraded shares of Patterson-UTI Energy (NASDAQ: PTEN) citing negative earnings impact from share losses and industry capacity additions.

• Shares of HomeBanc Corp (NYSE: HMB) were downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform with a $2.60 target at Friedman Billings based on continued losses and an unlikely sale given market conditions.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Wachovia downgraded Hub International Ltd (NYSE: HBG) to Market Perform from Outperform following news of a private-equity acquisition for $40 a share.

• UBS downgraded Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (NASDAQ: BBBY) to Neutral from Buy on valuation.

• Citigroup downgraded Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (NYSE: BNI) to Hold from Buy.

• AG Edwards cut Teekay LNG Partners (NYSE: TGP) and Teekay Offshore Partners (NYSE: TOO) to Hold from Buy citing valuation.

• Raymond James downgraded shares of Marvel Entertainment Inc (NYSE: MVL) to Market Perform from Outperform.

• Lazard downgraded Thoratec Corp (NASDAQ: THOR) to Sell from Hold with a $15 target. They recommend selling shares ahead of a likely FDA decision to call an advisory panel for HeartMate II.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The Railroad Sector and Obagi Medical (OMPI) were today's most notable initiations:

• Calyon Securities initiated coverage on the following stocks, all with Neutral ratings, including Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (NYSE: BNI), Canadian National Railway Co (NYSE: CNI), Canadian Pacific Ltd (NYSE: CP), CSX Corp (NYSE: CSX), Norfolk Southern Corp (NYSE: NSC).and Union Pacific Corp (NYSE: UNP).

• Obagi Medical (NASDAQ: OMPI) was initiated by Baird with an Outperform rating and $13 target; CIBC started the specialty pharmaceutical company with a Sector Outperformer rating and $14 target, saying the company is a pure play in the rapidly-growing aesthetics market and has expectations that the company's growth will accelerate due to the rise in physician-dispensed products.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• MasterCard Inc (NYSE: MA) was initiated with a Neutral rating at Merrill Lynch.

• Xoma Ltd (NASDAQ: XOMA) was initiated with a Market Outperform rating at Rodman & Renshaw. The firm said XOMA's antibody technology licenses and manufacturing provide an important source of consistent and growing commercial revenues. Additionally, the broker said Raptiva is becoming a more meaningful contributor.

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