Analyst Upgrades

• BMO Capital upgraded Concho (CXO) to outperform from market perform and has a $73 price target on the stock. The firm cites valuation and sustainable growth for the upgrade.
• Sterne Agee upgraded City Holding (CHCO) to buy from neutral based on valuation. The firm has a $34 target on the stock.
• UBS upgraded Werner Enterprises (WERN) to neutral from sell based on valuation. The firm raised its price target to $21.50 from $21.
• Nvidia (NVDA) was upgraded to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• Colfax (CFX) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at BofA/Merrill.
• Camden Property (CPT) was upgraded to top pick from outperform at RBC Capital.

As so often happens at this point in the earnings season, focus begins to shift to the results from retailers. And the world's largest retailer is among those that step into the spot light this week.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), which was aggressively competitive during the holiday shopping season and also recently announced a new global strategy, to report fourth-quarter earnings of $1.12 per share, up from $1.03 per share in the year-ago period. Revenue for the three months that ended in January is expected to have risen 4.9% to $114.5 billion. The full-year forecast calls for earnings of $3.61 per share (+5.3%) on $409.1 billion in revenue (+0.9%). Walmart has not missed earnings estimates in the past five quarters.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) started off the new earnings season with disappointing results that helped to stifle the recent rally. Was that enough of a sign of what's to come? No, probably not. But the earnings reports start to fly in earnest this week, which should provide a more detailed picture of the state of things.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipate that some of the biggest names will prove to be holding their own. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is expected to post a profit of $4.91 per share, marginally higher than a year ago, and Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) expected $1.22 per share profit is slightly lower year over year. Even Mattel Inc.'s (NYSE: MAT) estimated loss of $0.13 per share is the same as in the year-ago period.

Analyst upgrades:

• Canaccord upgraded Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) to Buy from Hold citing valuation following the severe price decline following BHP Billiton's (NYSE: BHP) dropped bid.
• UBS upgraded Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI) to Buy from Neutral citing valuation and defensive business mix.
• Jefferies upgraded shares of HealthSouth (NYSE: HLS) to Buy from Hold on valuation and maintains a $13.50 target.
• Melco PBL Entertainment (NASDAQ: MPEL) was raised to buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• PG&E (NYSE: PCG) was upgraded at Merrill Lynch to Buy from Neutral.
• HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Analyst downgrades:

As the second quarter earnings crunch begins in earnest this week, the bear market has investors jittery and prognosticators spinning out dire warnings. In the wake of mixed results from Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) kicking things off last week, here's a look at what Wall Street is expecting from many of the companies scheduled to report this coming week.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting the following companies to report a rise in earnings when compared to the same period of the previous year.

• Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE): $1.80 EPS (36.6%) on sales of $6.4 billion (+53.0%)
• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG): $4.74 EPS (24.9%) on sales of $3.9 billion (+41.6%)
• Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK): 56 cents EPS (23.2%) on sales of $19.9 billion (+17.8%)
• CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX): 90 cents EPS (21.1%) on sales of $2.9 billion (+12.8%)
• Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR): 27 cents EPS (18.5%) on sales of $346.7 million (+8.4%)
• IBM (NYSE: IBM): $1.82 EPS (+17.6%) on sales of $25.9 billion (+9.0%)
• eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY): 41 cents EPS (17.1%) on sales of $2.2 billion (+18.0%)
• W.W. Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW): $1.46 EPS (17.1%) on sales of $1.7 billion (+8.0%)
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): 47 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $15.7 billion (+17.0%)
• Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON): 94 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $9.2 billion (+7.9%)

MOST NOTEWORTHY: WebMD Health Corp (WBMD) was today's only noteworthy initiation:

• William Blair started the online health information portal, WebMD Health Corp (NASDAQ: WBMD) with an Outperform rating. The firm believes WebMD is positioned to benefit from various trends in the industry, including the increasing use of the Internet for information and patients' assuming more responsibility for their health care decisions.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Pacific Growth initiated United Therapeutics Corp (NASDAQ: UTHR) with a Neutral rating. The firm sees potential revenue risk from patient switching and reduced new patient starts in response to reports about higher incidence of serious Gram negative infections resulting in a Dear Doctor letter being sent to all IV-Remodulin prescribers in September 2006.

• Soleil Securities started Genuine Parts Co (NYSE: GPC) with a Buy rating and $65 target, noting that Genuine has the highest yield in the auto sector.

• Nollenberger doesn't see a catalyst for double-digit growth in Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ: LRCX) for the next 12-18 months and initiated the company with a Neutral rating and $40 target.

• ConAgra Foods Inc (NYSE: CAG) was initiated with a Hold rating at AG Edwards on valuation.

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