Analyst upgrades:

• Royal Bank of Scotland upgraded shares of Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's dividend yield.
  
• JMP Securities expects HFF Inc. (NYSE: HF) to benefit from increased U.S. commercial real estate sales and mortgage volumes. Shares were upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform. The firm has a $5 target on shares.
  
• Oppenheimer upgraded Church & Dwight (NYSE: CHD) to Outperform from Perform as it believes Church & Dwight's value-oriented portfolio should continue to benefit from the consumer trade-down and that concerns over distribution are overblown. The firm set a $62 price on shares.
• Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  
• Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• AMB Property (NYSE: AMB) was lifted to Neutral from Underperform at Banc of America/Merrill.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says after seeing what was passed, forget the infra plays.

Is President Obama listening to all of those good businesspeople around him? Or is it all being done for show? Did they really get behind that stimulus package that couldn't stimulate a fraction of the jobs that have already been lost this month?

I couldn't help but feel that way after speaking to Dan Dimicco from Nucor (NYSE: NUE) (Cramer's Take) last night. Nucor's had about a 50% drop in production of steel -- the kind of steel that would be used in any real infrastructure package -- and he was simply aghast that anyone could check off on anything that small, that the amount of steel that would be used in that package was minuscule and wouldn't mean a thing.

Analyst upgrades:

• Barclays upgraded Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised their target to $35 from $28 citing the company's earnings power and free cash flow generation.
  
• William Blair upgraded St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) to Outperform from Market Perform following the company's Q4 results on valuation and the company's "steady growth."
  
• Wunderlich upgraded Liberty Interactive (NASDAQ:LINTA) to Buy from Hold as they believe debt concerns are overdone. The firm thinks that language in the proxy statement for the Liberty Entertainment hard spin suggests that cash and cash flow from the stub Entertainment tracker could be used to provide inter-company support to Interactive. The firm raised their target to $5 from $4.25.
• Lloyds TSB Group (NYSE:LYG) was raised to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  
• BB&T (NYSE:BBT) was removed from Goldman's Conviction Sell List.
  
• Patni Computer (NYSE:PTI) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at KeyBanc.

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

"Granite Construction (NYSE: GVA) is a play on President-elect Barack Obama's plans to plow vast amounts of money into infrastructure," notes contrarian Todd Salomone.

In Schaeffer's Investment Research, the analyst explains, "Granite Construction -- my top pick for 2009 -- provides civil construction services, including projects designed to improve streets, roads, highways and bridges."

"Investing in infrastructure is one of Obama's solutions to address a deteriorating economy. There is $64 billion in 'ready-to-go' projects, of which GVA should be a beneficiary.

"The shares Granite Construction have performed admirably in 2008 amid an extremely weak broad market. For example, through mid-December, GVA shares were up 24% as the broader S&P 500 Index was down 38%.

"In November 2008, the equity climbed above the 40 area, which has capped the shares' rally attempts during the previous 12 months. For chart watchers, a concern would be the 48 area, which would mark a 50% retracement of the August 2007 high and the October 2008 low. Such retracement areas can sometimes act as technical resistance for a stock.

Analyst upgrades:

• Philip Morris (NYSE: PM) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Friedman Billings upgraded shares of Principal Financial (NYSE: PFG) to Market Perform from Underperform as they believe the company's capital buffer could keep outrunning credit losses.
  
• Friedman Billings also upgraded Office Max (NYSE: OMX) to Outperform from Market Perform. The firm believes the risk of recourse to Office Max from the Timber Notes formerly backed by Lehman is low and that any litigation by noteholders will have a low level of success.
  
• Citigroup upgraded CF Industries (NYSE: CF) to Buy from Hold on valuation following the recent weakness but lowered their target to $113 from $128.
• Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  
• Granite Construction (NYSE: GVA) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman.
  

Analyst downgrades:

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Granite Construction Inc (GVA), Sunterra Corp (SNRR), Halliburton Co (HAL) and Golfsmith International Holdings, Inc (GOLF) were today's notable downgrades:

• Matrix USA downgraded Granite Construction Inc (NYSE: GVA) to Sell from Buy on valuation.

• CL King cut Sunterra Corp (OTC: SNRR) to Neutral from Strong Buy.

• UBS removed Halliburton Co (NYSE: HAL) from its U.S. Strategic Stock Selections List.

• JP Morgan cut Golfsmith (NASDAQ: GOLF) to Neutral from Overweight, cutting risk to full-year guidance.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Bank of America cut Spirit Finance Corp (NYSE: SFC) to Neutral from Buy following news that an Australia-based consortium led by Macquarie Bank Ltd will acquire Spirit for $14.50/share.

• Baird downgraded Diamond Management & Technology Consultants Inc (NASDAQ: DTPI) to Neutral from Outperform following its lowered Q4 outlook.

• Goldman cut Holly Energy Partners (NYSE: HEP) to Neutral from Buy on valuation.

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