Analyst Upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) to buy from hold based on valuation. The firm keeps a $39 target on the stock.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Kenexa (KNXA) to overweight from neutral, citing a strengthening of trends for the company. The firm has a $29 price target on the stock.
• Janney Montgomery upgraded Gaylord Entertainment (GET) to buy from neutral on expectations the company will benefit from strong trends in 2011. The firm raised its target for shares to $35 from $32.50.
• MeadWestvaco (MWV) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• EADS (EADSY) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Quiksilver, Omniture and Crown Holdings were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• B. Riley upgraded shares of Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK) to Buy from Neutral on valuation and to reflect the EPS catalyst and debt reduction associated with divesting Rossignol.
  
• Friedman Billings upgraded shares of Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR) to Outperform from Market Perform following the recent pullback, as they believe the company is in its best competitive position ever, which should drive increasing win rates and help restore pricing power.
  
• Banc of America upgraded shares of Crown Holdings (NYSE: CCK) to Buy from Neutral to reflect the company's international exposure and believes metal packaging companies should be better able to manage input inflation.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• UBS raised AmerisourceBergen (NYSE: ABC) to Neutral from Sell.
  
• Stephens raised its rating on Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED) to Overweight from Equal Weight.
  
• Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) and JC Penney (NYSE: JCP) were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs has made several changes to its Conviction Buy List this morning. Most notably was a removal of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) from the list. Goldman replaced Wal-Mart's place with Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT).

TGT was given a $68 target and WMT target was cut to $53 from $57 per share. On Wal-Mart, Goldman analysts believe a turnaround is in its early stages and they see little positive momentum into the critical holiday season. Goldman Sachs maintained an official Buy rating for WMT, but simultaneously lowered Fiscal 2006 EPS from $2.87 to $2.83. Target (TGT) EPS estimates were raised by $0.01 to $3.18.

Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) & Aracruz Celulose (NYSE:ARA) were also trimmed off the Americas Conviction Buy List as was Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX). FLEX shares are down 9% since being added to the list in September and Goldman expects a more of a seasonal slowdown. On the other hand, Crown Holdings (NYSE:CCK) was added to Goldman Sachs Americas Conviction Buy List.

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