Analyst Upgrades

• BB&T (BBT) and Aflac (AFL) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Kodiak Oil & Gas (KOG) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Zhongpin (HOGS) to neutral from reduce at Global Hunter.
• Marathon Oil (MRO), Noble Energy (NBL) and Manulife Financial (MFC) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Carrizo Oil & Gas (CRZO) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Comerica (CMA) to buy from neutral at Rochdale.

About a month ago, Zac Bissonnette highlighted an insightful Financial Times article by Mark Sellers, a well-known value investor. According to the article, Sellers focuses on two types of investments:

• Companies with economic moats/tangible asset values exceeding current market price (asset plays)
• "Optionality" investments

Throughout the article (which is free to read), Sellers highlighted a very interesting stock, Carrizo Oil and Gas (NASDAQ: CRZO). Rather than quoting Sellers, I'll remind you that you can read the article here. However, I would like to show you the stock's chart, which appears very interesting to me. As you can see, since featuring the stock in his article, it has fallen more than $5 per share.

While this certainly isn't a huge sell-off, I think it has created a very interesting buying opportunity for people who like Carrizo as a long term investment for a couple reasons. First and foremost, the stock is currently sitting right around a support level. In addition, the stock is very oversold here according to the stochastics, leading me to believe the support will hold. While hardcore value investors will argue that the buying price doesn't matter as long as the intrinsic value is significantly higher -- a concept I don't necessarily agree with -- I believe it always makes sense to buy stocks at logical and opportune times.

With the tremendous "free options" which aren't being priced into the stock, as Sellers outlined, and an attractive buying opportunity according to the chart, I think Carrizo is very interesting here.

On a sidenote, both Zac Bissonnette and I are big fans of Adams Golf (OTC BB: ADGO) -- a stock which we think holds a great "free option" potential. Basically, the stock's net current asset value covers much of the current market capitalization and, as a result, we believe the market is underestimating the future of the company's hybrid irons -- a product receiving solid reviews and visibility. For a more extensive take on this stock, please see Zac's post.

Disclosure: Kevin Kelly and Zac Bissonnette are long Adams Golf.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Komag Incorporated (NASDAQ: KOMG), commercial mortgage REITs, Getty Images Inc (NYSE: GYI) and Rural/Metro Corporation (NASDAQ: RURL) were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Komag was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Craig-Hallum, to Market Perform from Outperform at Piper Jaffray, to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank and to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W Baird & Co following the announcement it would be acquired by Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC).
  
• Morgan Stanley downgraded Commercial Mortgage REITs to Underweight from Neutral. Specifically, the firm downgraded shares of Capital Trust, Inc (NYSE: CT) to Equal Weight from Underweight and Gramercy Capital Corp (NYSE: GKK) to Underweight from Equal Weight, citing increased credit spreads and subordination levels.
  
• Getty Images was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Matrix as the firm believes margins are declining and sees downside to their $40/share intrinsic value calculation.
  
• Rural/Metro was downgraded by Ferris, Baker Watts to Neutral from Buy on valuation.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• PMI Group Inc (NYSE: PMI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
  
• Deutsche Bank downgraded Palm, Inc (NASDAQ: PALM) to Sell from Hold.
  
• BMO Capital downgraded shares of Carrizo Oil & Gas Incorporated (NASDAQ: CRZO) to Market Perform from Outperform.
  
• Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Cemex (NYSE: CX) to Equal Weight from Overweight.
  
• Barnes & Noble Inc (NYSE: BKS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Matrix.

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