3Par Inc. (PAR) closed up 94 cents to $27.03. Hewlett-Packard company (HPQ) offered to acquire PAR for $24 per share in cash. 3Par, a provider of utility storage, received an offer from Dell, Inc. (DELL) for $18 per share in cash on August 16. PAR overall option implied volatility of 49 is below its 26-week average of 56 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

EMC Corporation (EMC) closed down 45 cents to $18.08. EMC is trading below its 200 day moving average of $18.31. September put option implied volatility is at 30, December is at 33, April is at 36; versus its 26-week average of 28 according to Track Data, suggesting larger 2011 price movement.

Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Vistaprint (VPRT) to buy from hold on valuation following the recent pullback in shares. The firm also raised its price target on the stock to $62 from $55.
• Fox-Pitt upgraded Eaton Vance (EV) to outperform from in line citing strong fundamentals. The firm raised its target to $36 from $34.
• Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Hospitality Properties (HPT) to buy from hold citing valuation and expected cash dividend in 2010. The firm has a $22 target on the stock.
• The Advisory Board (ABCO) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at First Analysis.
• Technip (TKPPY) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Jefferies upgraded Energy XXI (EXXI) to hold from underperform and raised its target to $2 from $1.

Amazon, Inc. (AMZN) is in the clouds. So are Google, Inc. (GOOG), EMC (EMC) and Cisco (CSCO). Now, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) is joining them, having announced on Tuesday its new Windows Azure cloud computing system. The new product will be released on January 1, 2010 -- a new solution for a new year.

Azure will deliver an online platform for the software development set to build their own mousetraps and provide plenty of storage space for users. Testing began a year ago, and full live version will be celebrated next year. For the first month, Azure will be free. The charges start in February.

Stocks felt choppy all day, although the late day move and afternoon stability allowed stocks to have another solid day. Housing starts added some strength, and the buyers are still deciding they need to be in rather than out of the market.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,746.51 +25.07 (0.29%)
S&P 500 945.36 +2.49 (0.26%)
Nasdaq 1,836.89 +8.21 (0.45%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

As U.S. stocks continue to struggle under seemingly unrelenting selling pressure, tech-sector heavyweight EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) plunged today into single-digit territory for the first time in more than two years. In fact, EMC earlier fell to $9.35, its lowest price since August 2004. However, today's losses are simply an extension of the stock's long-term trend -- EMC has steadily declined since November 2007 under pressure from its 10-month and 20-month moving averages.

The drop into single digits is troubling for EMC, since the round-number $10 region has provided support for the shares for more than 5 years. The stock hasn't closed a single month below this area since April 2003, and it's only made a few short-lived forays below double-digit territory in the intervening months. In fact, prior to today, the equity's annual low stood at $10.10.

EMC pared its losses by the close and settled today 3% lower at $10.12, but the stock isn't out of the woods yet. The multi-year low tagged earlier could prompt some analysts to reevaluate their bullish stance on this once-strong performer. According to Zacks, EMC has garnered 12 Strong Buys, 4 Buys, and 5 Holds, with absolutely no Sell or Strong Sell ratings to be found. This top-heavy configuration leaves the sliding stock highly vulnerable to downgrades or other bearish notes. Any negative commentary from the pros on Wall Street could force EMC to revisit that rarely explored territory south of $10.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.

In a recent interview, EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) CEO Joseph Tucci stated that "the company was flying high." For once, a CEO was not bragging. EMC, a leader in overall data management in hardware, software and IT services, recently posted record 4Q and full year profits. These results mark EMC's 14th consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth. EMC even beat its own optimistic forecast. Total 4Q 2006 revenue was $3.215 billion, up 19% from 4Q 2005. Total FY 2006 revenue was just over $11 billion, up 15% from FY 2005. CEO Tucci claims EMC is ready to post the same sort of impressive gains for FY 2007. EMC stock closed on Friday, 2 March at $13.56.

CEO Tucci indicated that EMC's continued profits come from its decision to move from primarily a storage hardware company to a 50/30/20 mix of hardware, software and IT services. EMC now considers itself an "information life-cycle management" company. Rather than focusing on simply storing data, EMC helps its clients secure data, protect it, mine it and share it. CEO of EMC since 2001, Tucci was recently named by Business Week as one of corporate America's best senior managers. Under his direction, EMC diversified its revenue streams so that software and IT services now account for just over half of all EMC revenues. Beginning in 2003, EMC spent more than $7 billion on acquisitions to expand both its software and its IT services. EMC now owns Documentum Inc., as well as Legato Software Inc., and Captiva Software Corporation which specializes in software that captures and categorizes information.

Having acquired so many companies, EMC is now committed to spending more than $1 billion in FY 2007 to invest in new technologies and provide common components across all product lines to enhance product effectiveness and efficiency. EMC also partners with companies such as Accenture Ltd .(NYSE: ACN), Electronic Data Systems Corp. (NYSE:EDS), and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), that offer complimentary products.

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) is a leading developer of information infrastructure computer technology. Corporations and government agencies use its RAID (redundant array of independent disks) storage systems, NAS (network attached storage) file servers and associated software to effectively manage large quantities of data. The firm claims the largest storage-dedicated direct sales and service force in the world. A number of major computer companies resell its systems.

EMC surprised the Street on Tuesday, when it announced Q4 EPS of 17 cents (ex-items) and revenues of $3.21 billion. Analysts had been expecting 16 cents and $3.17 billion. Management also guided FY07 EPS to 71 cents (64 cent consensus) and FY07 revenues to $12.7 billion ($12.63B consensus). The news promises to keep EMC shares cycling through a positive, four-month trading channel. The price is currently consolidating near the base of that channel, where oversold CCI, Momentum and Stochastic technical parameters suggest the potential for a rise back toward the top. Correspondence of the stock's 50-day moving average to the base of the channel backs the rebound notion.

Brokers recommend the stock with five "strong buys," ten "buys" and twelve "holds." Analysts see a 21 percent growth rate through the next year. The EMC Price to Sales ratio (2.79), Price to Book ratio (2.71), Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (24.77) and Sales Growth rate (18.63%) compare favorably with sector and S&P 500 averages.

The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 100 and S&P 500 Indexes. Institutional investors hold about 69 percent of the outstanding shares. Over the past fifty-two weeks, EMC has traded between $9.44 and $14.75. A stop-loss of $11.85 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), the data storage company, has been in a very tight trading range for years. Five years after many of the large tech poster-child stocks bottomed, EMC has had a tough time sustaining a rally.

However, according to Barron's Technology Trader column (subscription required), EMC might be a beneficiary of virtualization, software applications which allow users to more cost effectively utilize their hardware. EMC's VMware is a leader in this space and is expected to show a 60% revenue gain this year, according to Sanford Bernstein.

A big driver for virtualization is the move to data centers. Companies can outsource many functions to data centers which specialize in virtualizing services.

EMC has been dead money for a while. This quarter's results should provide some insight into how VMware business is performing. If this business continues to take hold, this stock should attract investor interest again. And as if to prove the point, UBS today upgraded EMC to Buy from Neutral.