MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• VMWare Inc (NYSE: VMW) was initiated by a host of firms: Banc of America believes the current valuation captures most of the upside potential, and started shares with a Neutral rating and $75 target. Wachovia started shares with a Market Perform rating and Deutsche Bank started shares with a Hold rating and $80 target on valuation. The stock was also started with a Buy rating and $92 target at UBS, with a Buy rating and $100 target at Citigroup and with an Overweight rating at JP Morgan and with a Neutral rating at Merrill Lynch.
  
• Validus Holdings (NYSE: VR) was started with a Buy rating and $29 target at UBS on valuation and benefits from the Talbots (NYSE: TLB) acquisition. Shares were also initiated at JP Morgan with a Neutral rating.
  
• CIBC resumed coverage of Hologic Inc (NASDAQ: HOLX) with a Sector Outperformer rating and $77 target as the firm is positive on Hologic's merger with Cytyc Corporation (NASDAQ: CYTC) and views it as one of the top mid-cap stories in the coming year.

• B. Riley initiated shares of EuroBancshares (NASDAQ: EUBK) with a Buy rating and $10 target.
  
• Rodman resumed coverage of Ziopharm Oncology Inc (NASDAQ: ZIOP) with a Market Outperform rating and $8 target.
  
• Citigroup started shares of Timken Company (NYSE: TKR) with a Buy rating and $43 target.
  
• MercadoLibre Inc (NASDAQ: MELI) was initiated with a Sector Perform rating and $39 target at RBC Capital.

Analyst initiations: VMW, VR and HOLX originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro cut GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) to Hold from Buy following the New England Journal of Medicine warnings from Avandia.

• Merrill Lynch cut SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) to Neutral from Buy due to concerns that oversupply in the industry will extend through next quarter.

• Cowen downgraded shares of Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) to Neutral from Outperform based on slower 2007-2008 EPS growth and less cash redeployment upside than General Dynamics Corp (GD) and Raytheon Co (RTN).

• UBS downgraded aQuantive (NASDAQ: AQNT) to Neutral from Buy and RBC Capital cut shares to Sector Perform from Outperform after the Microsoft (MSFT) acquisition...

• Piper Jaffray downgraded Cytyc Corp (NASDAQ: CYTC) To Market Perform from Outperform.

• NetBank, Inc (NASDAQ: NTBK) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings.

• Merrill Lynch downgraded shares of Aeropostale, Inc (NYSE: ARO) to Neutral from Buy.

• AG Edwards downgraded BHP Billiton Ltd (NYSE: BHP) to Hold from Buy.

• Gabelli downgraded shares of Alltel Corp (NYSE: AT) to Hold from Buy.

Analyst downgrades 5-22-07: AQNT, GSK, LMT, MSFT and SNDK originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 22 May 2007 10:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.