MOST NOTEWORTHY: Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) and Douglas Emmett (DEI) topped today's list of initiations.

• Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE:CMG) was initiated at Morgan Joseph with a Buy and $70 target, citing the restaurant's fast food unit growth, strong revenue growth and attractive valuation.
• Following its recent IPO, Douglas Emmett Inc. (NYSE:DEI) was initiated by several firms: at Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, with Neutral ratings; at A.G. Edwards and Citigroup, with Hold ratings; and at Lehman Bros., an Overweight rating.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Credit Suisse initiated Charles Schwab Corp. (NASDAQ:SCHW) with an Outperform rating and $24 target; the firm said Schwab's transformation is complete and growth should be driven by continued asset gathering, expense control and active capital management.
• Cowen started Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) with an Outperform rating, saying it believes Akamai dominates the CDN and ADN market and expects the company to continue to beat and raise guidance.
• RF Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:RFMD) was initiated with an Underweight rating and Palm Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) was initiated with an Equal Weight rating at Morgan Stanley.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Specific restaurants and Autodesk (ADSK) top today's list of initiations.

• Robert W. Baird initiated coverage of Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ:SBUX), Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ:PNRA), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) and Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (NASDAQ:TXRH) with Outperform ratings and P. F. Chang's China Bistro Inc (NASDAQ:PFCB) and Rare Hospitality International, Inc. (NASDAQ:RARE) with Neutral ratings.
• American Tech initiated Autodesk , Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) with a Buy rating and $12 target. The firm expects to see meaningful upside to 2008 consensus estimates and recommends investors to buy the stock on any pullback following Thursday's results.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Soleil initiated Openwave Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPWV) with a Hold rating, citing unlikely outperformance due to their maturing product line and consolidating customer base.
• The Bank of America initiated F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) with a Buy and $90 target. The firm said checks in the enterprise segment have been positive. In addition, Soleil said the company will soon enter a major product cycle with four launches.

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

Tonight Jim Cramer took a page from a TV man oh-so-like himself and kicked it up a notch! For his second feature stock on CNBC's MAD MONEY, Cramer got hot and bothered over Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG). What about pizza? Cramer says it's "out," after all, look at California Pizza Kitchen, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPKI), which is down 10% at $28.35 after-hours because of cautioning that its outlook wasn't quite so tasty despite a great third quarter. When pizza is out? Fast Mexican food is in.

See, Cramer isn't just an investor. He's also a food critic. And this is a case where the food critic and the investor can come together for "burrito investing." Cramer said he was in denial that pizza sales were down and he thought it was maybe just a Domino's Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) issue, but he was wrong. Domino's had had same store sales declines since Q4 of last year. Before Cramer even mentioned CMG the stock gapped over 2% to $58.00 in after-hours trading on NYSE/Archipelago trading.

Cramer calls burritos "the new pizza." Stay away from names like Papa John's Int'l, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA), says Cramer, as people are leaving for "Taco John's." Also of note in the hot Mexican trend is Jack in the Box Inc. (NYSE:JBX) for its Qdoba Mexican Grills (3% of JBX business), which he said that the place wasn't bad. Cramer said he is hesitant to be a BUY BUY BUY, but it has come down a bit. Cramer said that salsa is now the number 1 condiment in America. Cramer said you may never replace pizza in America, but investors need to be in burritos as people are eating more Mexican food than pizza. CMG & JBX are trumping PZZA & DPZ.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

[Photo Shane Adams]

MOST NOTEWORTHY: DreamWorks Animation (DWA) and Omnicare (OCR) led a moderate upgrade list Wednesday morning, as the Dow and Nasdaq both moved higher in early trading.

• Jefferies upgraded DreamWorks Animation, Inc. (NYSE:DWA) to Buy from Hold, target to $31.50, citing the company's 2007 film slate.
• Bear Stearns upgraded Omnicare, Inc. (NYSE:OCR) to Outperform from Peer Perform, with a $50 target, due to Tuesday's sell-off and valuation.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Baidu.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) to Neutral from Sell, target is $93, citing BIDU's Q3 report and conservative estimates.
• Wachovia upgraded Chipolte Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) to Market Perform from Underperform, citing a better-than-expected Q3 report; the firm also has a $55-$61 valuation range for CMG.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Citigroup upgraded Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) to Buy from Hold.

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