MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Intermec (NYSE: IN) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Standford Financial Group. After Intermec's stock fell 10.5% since April 1, and 5.1% on Friday, Stanford believes most of the bad news is priced into the stock.
  
• Brasil Telecom (NYSE: BRP) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank and raised their target to $90 from $87 as they believe the recent weakness presents a good buying opportunity.
  
• W-H Energy Services (NYSE: WHQ) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank following the Q1 miss as they believe the company is well positioned to benefit from a pickup in U.S. onshore activity and a significant acceleration in international and deep water work.

• Commercial Vehicle Group (NASDAQ: CVGI) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.
  
• MoneyGram (NYSE: MGI) was upgraded to Buy from Add at Calyon Securities based on valuation.

Analyst upgrades: IN, BRP, CVGI, MGI and WHQ originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 05 May 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MoneyGram International (NYSE: MGI) -- Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT) made an unsolicited offer to buy MGI, a global payment services company, for 0.6179 Euronet common share for each share of MGI. Based on the closing price of Euronet shares on December 4, the offer is valued at approximately $1.65 billion or $20 per MGI share. MGI over all option implied volatility of 73 is above its 26-week average of 50 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Options update: MoneyGram volatility elevated into Euronet offer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY

• AG Edwards initiated MoneyGram (NYSE: MGI) with a Buy rating because it believes the recent pullback in the shares provides an attractive entry point; Stephens started shares of MoneyGram with an Overweight rating, and believes the company is well positioned to create strong transactional growth and take market share.

• CIBC expects F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) to benefit from strong fundamentals in application networking solutions and started shares with a Sector Outperformer rating and $85 target.

• Morgan Joseph initiated ARK Restaurants (NASDAQ: ARKR) with a Buy rating and $43 target; they believe ARK is well positioned to benefit from strong SSS & earnings leverage given its strong store locations, wide ranging price points, and stable unit development pipeline.

• Sandler is positive on Nara Bancorp (NASDAQ: NARA), starting shares with a Buy rating and $17 target, based on the company's long-term prospects.

• ThinkEquity believes St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ) is poised to take market share in the ICD markets and started shares with a Buy rating and $56 target...

• JP Morgan initiated Softbank (OTC: SFTBF) with an Underweight rating and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NYSE: NTT) with a Neutral rating.

• Goldman reinstated Bausch & Lomb (NYSE: BOL) with a Neutral rating.

• Banc of America initiated PharMerica (NYSE: PMC) with a Buy rating and $18 target.

Analyst initiations: BOL, FFIV, MGI and STJ originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.