MOST NOTEWORTHY: BT Group, Luminent Mortage, Cognos, Thor Industries and Watson Pharmaceuticals were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• ING Group upgraded shares of BT Group (NYSE: BT) to Hold from Sell to reflect the company's more stable revenue trend and improving cash flow generation.
  
• Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Luminent Mortgage Capital (NYSE: LUM) to Hold from Sell, as they believe the company's portfolio is beginning to stabilize and its liquidity has improved.
  
• Goldman upgraded Cognos Inc (NASDAQ: COGN) to Buy from Neutral following its Q2 report.
  
• Thor Industries (NYSE: THO) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital Markets. The firm's checks indicate strengthening backlog and lower promotional spending.
  
• Roth Capital believes Watson Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: WPI) is about to enter a growth phase with Paul Bisaro at the helm and is positive on Silodosin potential. The firm upgraded shares to Buy from Hold.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Bank of the Ozarks (NASDAQ: OZRK) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at B. Riley.
  
• Bear upgraded Harman International (NYSE: HAR) to Outperform from Market Perform.
  
• Goldman upgraded Packagaing Corporation (NYSE: PKG) and Smurfit-Stone Container (NASDAQ: SSCC) to Buy from Neutral.
  
• Friedman Billings raised Conseco Inc (NYSE: CNO) to Outperform from Market Perform.

In 2006, boards paid CEOs $1 billion while kicking them out the door. That is according to an article in the New York Times (registration required) which totaled up the amount of severance paid to 36 CEOs who departed in less than glorious fashion from their publicly-traded employers last year.

I don't mind CEOs getting paid a lot of money if they make money for shareholders. As I posted last October, I think it makes sense to look for companies led by bargain CEOs -- who get paid the smallest percentage of the shareholder value they create.

But it really gets me riled up when CEOs get big bucks for destroying shareholder value. And the Times article presents a rogues gallery of value destroyers. The 12 failed CEOs mentioned got $654 million as a parting gift after destroying $161 billion in shareholder value -- a 30% decline during their tenure.

Overall, canning these CEOs may have been a bad idea, since the 12 companies lost an additional $4.5 billion in market value, or 1%, since the failed CEOs departed. However, this average decline masks big differences among them -- in retrospect seven of the 12 CEO departures look smart and five look dumb.