Earnings highlights: FedEx, Nike, Oracle, General Mills, Palm, Adobe and more

Trey Thoelcke — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:10:00 EST

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

Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) reported better-than-expected Q1 results due to cost cutting.
Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) received several upgrades ahead of its Q4 report on the demise of Circuit City.
Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) crushed analyst's expectations for Q4 as same-store sales rose.
China Direct Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: CDII) Q4 earnings prospects resulted in an analyst's dowgrade.
Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) posted better-than-expected Q3 earnings and lifted its 2009 guidance.
Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER) was downgraded after it lowered its guidance.
FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) fell short of Q3 earnings and revenue expectations due to economic conditions.

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: EXPE, JNJ, HOT, URBN, SNE ...

Eric Buscemi — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:50:00 EST

Analyst upgrades:

Citigroup upgraded Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) to Buy from Hold as they believe the company's fee elimination coupled with 2009 industry trends could lead to market share gains and that the valuation is compelling at current levels. Citigroup raised its price target to $14 from $9 on EXPE shares.
Credit Suisse upgraded Lukoil (OTC: LUKOY) to Outperform from Neutral as it believes lower taxes and the ruble's decline will increase profitability.
Soleil upgraded Jo Ann Stores (NYSE: JAS) to Buy from Hold as it believes the company's sales results in the first half of 2009 could top expectations. The firm raised its target price to $20 from $16.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
Bayer AG (OTC: BAYRY) was lifted to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America/Merrill.
ManTech (NASDAQ: MANT) was raised at Wachovia to Outperform from Market Perform.