Readers of this space know that I rarely favor stocks already over $50, let alone $100. But there are exceptions, and Core Laboratories (CLB) is one.

Note: The $100 stock price puts Core Labs in the high-risk category, in my interpretation, not suitable for low-risk and moderate-risk investors.

Core Labs is a leading reservoir optimizer, providing an impressive array of proprietary products and services for the energy sector. And, in an oil-hungry and energy-hungry world, Core's products and services are likely to continue to be in demand.

"Core Laboratories (CLB) is being added to our portfolio; this move is in line with our ongoing strategy of adding one new stock each month to our model portfolio," says Neil Macneale.

He continues, "As the name of our 2-for-1 Stock Split Newsletter suggests, the stocks within our model portfolio are exclusively chosen from among those companies that have just recently announced 2 for 1 stock splits.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that as oil goes higher, these stocks will have even more room to run.

Name me three tech stocks that have increased more than 100% in the last year that are still cheap.

Try it! Think you can't?

I have some news for you. I have three that are still selling well under twice their growth rate that have more room to run and simply aren't done, as crazy as that seems: Oceaneering International Inc. (NYSE: OII) (Cramer's Take), FMC Technologies (NYSE: FTI) (Cramer's Take) and Core Labs (NYSE: CLB) (Cramer's Take).

I know. These are oil companies. They are not semis or software or hardware. They are technical services companies that allow companies to recoup marginal oil.

They are the ultimate tech plays on $80 oil. They are worth their weight in black gold.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: ValueClick, Inc (VCLK), aQuantive, Inc (AQNT), Cigna Corp (CI), Warner Music Group (WMG), Clear Channel Communications, Inc (CCU) and Medtronic, Inc (MDT) were today's more notable downgrades:

• Baird cut ValueClick Inc (NASDAQ: VCLK) to Neutral from Outperform, citing the FTC inquiry.

• aQuantive (NASDAQ: AQNT) was downgraded to Sell from Buy after the company was acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) and because aQuantive no longer trades on fundamentals. Kaufman and Gabelli also cut aQuantive to Hold from Buy.

• Cigna (NYSE: CI) was downgraded at Prudential to Neutral from Overweight on valuation.

• Warner Music Group's (NYSE: WMG) downgrade to Sell from Neutral at Pali Research was based on the lower industry outlook, which Pali believes revenues are likely to fall at least 10% for the industry in 2007, along with the company's release schedule.

• Bear Stearns downgraded Clear Channel Communications (NYSE: CCU) to Peer Perform from Outperform on the acceptance of the higher bid.

• Medtronic Inc (NYSE: MDT) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Georgia Gulf Corp (NYSE: GGC) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Matrix USA.

• Stifel cut Core Laboratories (NYSE: CLB) to Hold from Buy.

• UBS downgraded Intuit Inc (NASDAQ: INTU) to Neutral from Buy.

• Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE: OXY) was removed from Goldman's Conviction Buy list.

• Friedman Billings downgraded downgraded CapitalSource, Inc (NYSE: CSE) and Countrywide Financial Corp (NYSE: CFC) to Market Perform from Outperform.

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