• Merriman downgraded shares of Occam Networks (NASDAQ: OCNW) to Neutral from Buy as they believe the company's restatement filing raised more questions than it answered and that the company's takeout value is shrinking.
  
• Friedman Billings downgraded Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) and Downey Financial Corporation (NYSE: DSL) to Underperform from Market Perform based on credit trends that are eroding faster than anticipated in the housing market.
  
• William Blair downgraded IMS Health (NYSE: RX) to Market Perform from Outperform following the lower than expected Q3 results to reflect deterioration in the company's market environment. Shares were also downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

• Knight Transportation (NYSE: KNX) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wachovia.
  
• B. Riley downgraded Hancock Holding (NASDAQ: HBHC) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Deutsche Bank downgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) to Sell from Hold and E-Trade Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) to Hold from Buy.

Analyst downgrades: OCNW, WM, DSL and RX originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Nollenberger started shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) with a Buy rating and $18 target. The firm believes the company's issues are widely known and already baked into the valuation and feels the Barcelona ramp and performance are likely ahead of expectations and demand for the latest family of ATI graphics is solid.
• B. Riley initiated shares of Hancock Holding Company (NASDAQ: HBHC) with a Buy rating of $43 target as the firm believes a higher premium is warranted given the company's superior growth prospects and conservative management profile.
• Town Sports International Holdings (NASDAQ: CLUB) was initiated with a Sector Outperformer and a $23 target at CIBC. The firm expects shares to be driven by improving fundamentals.
• Citigroup believes Gerdau SA's (NYSE: GGB) acquisition of Chaparral was expensive and will provide near-term headwinds for the stock, starting shares off with a Hold rating.

• UBS initiated shares of Baker Hughes Incororated (NYSE: BHI), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) and Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB) with Buy ratings and targets of $102, $52 and $121, respectively.
• BMO initiated shares of Health Care Reit (NYSE: HCN) with a Market Perform rating.
  
• Lazard initiated shares of Micron Technology (NYSE: MU), SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ: SIMO) with Buy ratings and targets of $14, $63 and $29.

Analyst initiations 9-10-07: AMD, HBHC, CLUB and GGB originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.