Analyst Upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Wells Fargo (WFC) to buy from hold as it believes the TARP repayment should remove uncertainty and that the company will report strong Q4 results. The firm raised its target price on shares to $36 from $29. Keefe Bruyette upgraded Wells Fargo to market perform from outperform following the TARP repayment and raised its target on shares to $28 from $24.
• Wells Fargo believes News Corp's (NWS) newspaper and TV station segments are finally outperforming budget, while cable nets continue to perform well. The firm upgraded shares to outperform from market perform and has a $16 to $17 Valuation range.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded Starwood Hotels (HOT) to buy from underperform as they expect "strong cyclical recovery in lodging earnings" in late 2010. The firm raised its target to $40 from $25.
• ArcelorMittal (MT) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• JA Solar (JASO) was upgraded to hold from sell at ThinkEquity.
• Acxiom (ACXM) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Stephens.

Bright and early this morning, lab-technology innovator StarLIMS (LIMS) announced that it will be bought by pharmaceutical firm Abbott Laboratories (ABT) for roughly $123 million. This purchase price reflects a per-share price tag of $14 for LIMS, which closed Monday's trading session near the $10 region.

Needless to say, LIMS was the subject of heavy pre-market trading, which pushed the per-share price closer to the premium paid by ABT. According to the report, ABT will acquire all outstanding equity of LIMS, which currently has roughly $18 million cash in hand.