Monday, March 3

• Automakers Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) to report monthly sales. Ford is hosting a conference call at 1:00pm, GM at 2:00pm.
• Landstar System, Inc. (NASDAQ: LSTR) to hold Q1 mid-quarter update conference call at 2:00pm
• Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ: FNSR) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.

Tuesday, March 4

• PDUFA date for MGI Pharma's sNDA for Aloxi for Post-Operative Vomiting. Note that MGI was bought by Eisai Co., Ltd. (OTC: ESALY).
  
• Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 8:00am.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: GMX Resources, Glacier Bancorp and Brown and Brown were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Jefferies initiated GMX Resources (NASDAQ: GMXR) with a Buy rating and $40 target and believes the company's valuation discount to its NAV will narrow as management refocuses its efforts on its base Cotton Valley development program.
  
• Glacier Bancorp (NASDAQ: GBCI) was assumed with a Neutral rating and $20 target at B. Riley, as they think bank multiples are unlikely to rise much further, given the ongoing problems in the housing market and continued deterioration in credit quality.
  
• Brown and Brown (NYSE: BRO) was initiated with a Buy rating and $23 at Suntrust. The firm believes softness in the insurance market is now reflected in valuation.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Stephens assumed Online Resources (NASDAQ: ORCC) with an Overweight rating and $13 target.
  
• W.R. Berkley (NYSE: BER) was initiated with a Market Perform rating and $34 target at Keefe Bruyette.
  
• Morgan Keegan initiated Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR) with an Outperform rating.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Allscripts, Supertel Hospitality, Cephalon, Limelight Networks and Financial Federal were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at JP Morgan following its weak Q3 results and guidance.
  
• Supertel Hospitality (NASDAQ: SPPR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird and to Market Perform from Outperform at JMP Securities following its disappointing Q3 report.
  
• JMP securities downgraded Cephalon (NASDAQ: CEPH) to Market Outperform from Strong Buy citing uninspiring Q3 revenue growth.
  
• Friedman Billings downgraded Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) to Market Perform from Outperform citing the tough pricing environment, competition, and upcoming IPO lockup expiration on 12/5.
  
• The firm also downgraded shares of Financial Federal (NYSE: FIF) to Underperform from Market Perform, as they expect the company to be impacted substantially from the slowing economy.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• JP Morgan removed Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL) and CB Richard Ellis (NYSE: CBG) from its Focus List.
  
• Deutsche Bank downgraded Home Diagnostics (NASDAQ: HDIX) to Hold from Buy.
  
• Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
  
• Banc of America downgraded RPM, Inc (NYSE: RPM) to Neutral from Buy.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, ConocoPhillips, Finisar and Cepheid were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Lehman Brothers downgraded shares of Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) to Equal Weight from Overweight and shares of Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) to Underweight from Overweight to reflect potential write downs from their U.S. subprime mortgage exposure.
• ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein on valuation.
• Needham lowered shares of Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ: FNSR) to Buy from Strong Buy, as they expect pressure in FY08 as margins recover and opex remains elevated due to patent litigation.
• Cepheid Inc (NASDAQ: CPHD) was downgraded at UBS to Neutral from Buy on valuation.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Calyon downgraded shares of Gol Linhas Aereas (NYSE: GOL) and TAM SA (NYSE: TAM) to Add from Buy.
• Goldman Sachs downgraded Altria Group Inc (NYSE: MO) to Neutral from Buy.
• Morgan Stanley downgraded NeurogesX (NASDAQ: NGSX) to Equal Weight from Overweight.
• Friedman Billings downgraded shares of Brookline Bancorp (NASDAQ: BRKL) to Market Perform from Outperform.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cisco Systems (CSCO), Finisar Corp (FNSR), Tenet Healthcare (THC), Best Buy (BBY) and Cascade Corp (CAE) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Bear Stearns upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) to Outperform from Peer Perform, with a $36 target, after the quarterly results as they believe revenue growth is sustainable and diversified. Bear expects Cisco to benefit from significant new product cycles over the next two years and believes investments in emerging markets are beginning to pay off.
  

• Merriman upgraded Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR) to Buy from Neutral to reflect the improved outlook at their top customer, Cisco.

• Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Stifel, as the firm expects shares to remain range bound.

• Pali Capital raised shares of Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to Buy from Neutral with a $55 target on valuation as they believe the bad news is already priced in.

• Cascade (NYSE: CAE) was upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Rodman & Renshaw on valuation.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) was upgraded to Buy from Sell with a $13 target at Citigroup.

• Citigroup also upgraded shares of Copa Holdings (NYSE: CPA) to Buy from Hold with a $71 target.

• Baird upgraded shares of Parkway Properties (NYSE: PKY) to Outperform from Neutral on valuation.

• Computer Sciences (NYSE: CSC) was raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies on valuation and improvement in bookings.

• Morgan Stanley upgraded ABB Ltd (NYSE: ABB) to Overweight from Equal Weight.

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

Finisar (NASDAQ:FNSR) trades like water. On a good day, ten million shares in the optical equipment maker change hands. The optics business should be strong. With companies like Verizon (NYSE:VZ) building out big fiber networks, there ought to be plenty of business to go around.

That brings Wall Street to the case at hand. Finisar revenue rose only 16% in its most recently reported quarter to $108 million. The firm can't give out complete financials until its options back-dating probe is behind it.

Finisar made matters worse by guiding for $104 million to $110 million in revenue in the current quarter. Reuters says investors are looking for $116 million.

Shareholders had to be hoping for better. Over the last year, Finisar shares are down about 35%. Other companies in the industry like JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ:JDSU) are guiding for better days ahead.

And, perhaps that is the problem. Companies like JDSU are beating Finisar in the horse race to supply capacity to provide infrastructure for rising internet traffic.

The internet traffic boom will not last forever. Video streaming is already in the market with huge bandwidth hogs like Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube.

For Finisar, if not now, when?

Shares should be down today, or it is a victory of hope over reason.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.