MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cott Corp, Hartford Financial, Allstate and Valero Energy were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Lehman upgraded Cott Corp (NYSE: COT) to Equal Weight from Underweight citing recent management changes, a focus on CSD business, and new product discipline.
  
• Bernstein believes the entire non-life insurance group is oversold and that it is time to buy; the firm upgraded Hartford Financial (NYSE: HIG) and Allstate (NYSE: ALL) to Outperform from Market Perform.
  
• Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank on valuation with the stock trading at a -30% discount to NAV while the asset market for U.S. refineries is strong.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman added Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) to its Conviction Buy List.
  
• RBC Capital upgraded BJ Services (NYSE: BJS), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) and Patterson-UTI Energy (NASDAQ: PTEN) to Outperform from Sector Perform.
  
• Friedman Billings upgraded the Semiconductor Capital Equipment sector to Overweight from Market Weight.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Toll Brothers (TOL), COTT Corp (COT), Tim Hortons (THI) and Linktone (LTON) were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Banc of America downgraded shares of Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) to Sell from Neutral, citing expected deterioration in luxury sales due to mortgage distress in the marketplace.

• COTT Corp (NYSE: COT) was cut to Hold from Buy at Stifel, citing the difficult macro environment and continued profit declines.

• Tim Hortons (NYSE: THI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman, citing valuation, and notes that fundamentals remain favorable.

• Montgomery cut Linktone (NASDAQ: LTON) to Hold from Buy, citing the sudden decline in its wireless VAS revenues following Q2 results...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Banc of America downgraded Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV) and Standard Pacific (NYSE: SPF) to Neutral from Buy.
  

• Merrill Lynch cut AutoNation (NYSE: AN) and American Axle (NYSE: AXL) to Sell from Neutral.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Best Buy Co, Inc (BBY), Amazon.com, Inc (AMZN), aQuantive, Inc (AQNT) and AT&T (T) were today's most notable upgrades:

• Goldman upgraded shares of Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to Buy from Neutral, telling customers valuation is discounting an earnings miss and reflects concerns about the company's capital allocation. The firm expects BBY to meet recent guidance and current Street estimates.
• Deutsche bank upgraded shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Buy from Hold, citing expectations for operating margin improvement near-term and added growth and margin expansion longer-term from Web Services initiatives.
• JP Morgan upgraded shares of aQuantive (NASDAQ: AQNT) to Outperform from Neutral, citing valuation and stronger fundamentals as the firm expects Google's (GOOG) acquisition of DoubleClick to result in stable pricing during the integration process. aQuantive was also upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBSW and to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer at CIBC.
• AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital, as the firm believes shares have stronger growth prospects compared to the group based on wirelines cost cutting, churn and margin improvements at Cingular.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman upgraded shares of Progressive Gaming International Corp (NASDAQ: PGIC) to Neutral from Sell on valuation.
• Banc of America upgraded shares of Apollo Group, Inc (NASDAQ: APOL) to Buy from Neutral.
• Matrix upgraded shares of Ruth's Chris Steak House, Inc (NASDAQ: RUTH) to Hold from Strong Sell.
• Bear Stearns upgraded Rural Cellular Corp (NASDAQ: RCCC) to Outperform from Peer Perform.
• Merrill raised COTT Corp's (NYSE: COT) rating off the ground, upgrading shares to Neutral from Sell.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: SanDisk (SNDK), Business Objects (BOBJ) and the Beverage Sector top today's list of downgrades.

• SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS, citing expectations for an oversupply of flash memory in 2006 and 2007.
• Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJ) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at Pacific Crest, citing valuation concerns and increasing competition from Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT) and open source competitors.
• The Beverage Sector was downgraded to Cautious from Neutral at Goldman Sachs. The firm cited declining demand in core categories, raw material inflation and valuation.
  • Goldman downgraded PepsiAmericas, Inc. (NYSE:PAS) and Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:CCE) to Sell from Neutral
  • while COTT Corp (NYSE:COT) was added to their Conviction Sell List.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Kevin Dann & Partners downgraded shares of Pep Boys (NYSE:PBY) to Hold from Buy on valuation and the lack of near-term catalysts.
• Thomas Weisel downgraded Ikanos Comm (NASDAQ:IKAN) to Peer Perform from Outperform citing a slowdown of VDSL deployments in Japan due to persisting inventory build at NTT.

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