MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Citigroup upgraded shares of Fluor (NYSE: FLR) to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's strong performance and backlog in Q4 and raised their target to $190.50 from $158.
  
• Baird upgraded Forward Air (NASDAQ: FWRD) to Outperform from Neutral citing near-term growth initiatives that are gaining traction.
  
• Citigroup also upgraded shares of McDermott (NYSE: MDR) to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's strong Q4 performance and rising commodity prices.

• RBC Capital upgraded Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) and ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) to Top Pick from Outperform.
  
• Credit Suisse raised China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) to Outperform from Neutral.
  
• Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Analyst upgrades: FLR, FWRD and MDR originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here are a few highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• CEC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: CEC) reported a profit loss and flat revenue for the fourth quarter.
• Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) raised its third-quarter and full-year earnings forecasts.
• Forward Air Corp. (NASDAQ: FWRD) beat earnings estimates and offered guidance.
• General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS) raised its 2008 and 2010 earnings forecasts on strong sales.
• Hewlett-Packard Co. (NASDAQ: HPQ) reported better-than-expected earnings and offered bullish guidance.
• Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) second-quarter profits fell and it offered meager guidance.
• JC Penney Inc. (NYSE: JCP) reported a smaller-than-expected profit decline for the fourth quarter.
• Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) third-quarter profit and revenue beat analysts' expectations.
• OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX) easily beat fourth-quarter earnings expectations on lower costs.
• TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX) fourth-quarter profit beat estimates and helped raise the retail outlook.
• Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) earnings were dragged down by the Wild Oats acquistion.

Also, Douglas McIntyre examines how a slowdown in orders is likely to affect the earnings of Airbus and Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), and Brian White looks at how HP might "do better" for the rest of this year.

Upcoming results to watch for include Lowes Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW), Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP), Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO), Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Earnings highlights: HP, General Mills, Whole Foods, OfficeMax and others originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• William Blair downgraded Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY) to Market Perform from Outperform, expecting a slowing down in growth from advanced TV, a difficult competitive environment and cyclicality of consumer electronics spending in 2007;
• First Albany downgraded Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL) to Neutral from Buy, citing valuation and a likely slowing down in growth within two-to-three quarters.

• Baird downgraded Forward Air Corp. (NASDAQ:FWRD) to Neutral from Outperform, citing weak near-term truck freight trends and economic uncertainty.
• EnCana Corp (NYSE:ECA) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Citigroup to reflect the disappointing 2007 guidance with 1% overall production growth, as well as cost run-up and concerns of portfolio quality.
• Following poor second-quarter earnings and light third-quarter guidance, Baird downgraded Tektronix Inc. (NYSE:TEK) to Neutral from Outperform and a $33 target.

Analyst downgrades 12-15-06: Best Buy and Oracle originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.