• ThinkEquity upgraded shares of Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) to Buy from Accumulate, citing strength in the PC market. The firm believes Micron is well positioned to benefit from the potential secular uptrend in the DRAM market over the next 12 months.

• Credit Suisse upgraded shares of Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) to Outperform from Neutral citing solid cyclical fundamentals, which should offset overly negative perceptions.

• JMP Securities upgraded Visual Sciences (NASDAQ: VSCN) to Market Perform from Underperform based on the potential acquisition.

• Citigroup upgraded shares of Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's robust backlog growth and changes in management...

• JP Morgan upgraded both Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE: RCL) and Carnival Corp (NYSE: CCL) to Overweight from Neutral.

• Roth raised MRV Communications (NASDAQ: MRVC) to Buy from Hold.

• Jefferies upgraded VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) to Buy from Hold.

• Thomas Weisel upgraded Zebra Tech (NASDAQ: ZBRA) to Overweight from Market Weight.

Analyst upgrades 7-13-07: CCL, HAL, MU and VRSN originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• UBS downgraded shares of Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) to Reduce from Neutral and lowered their target to $70 from $78 to reflect decelerating revenues in the company's core businesses, global capacity additions in construction machinery, competitive concerns and valuation.

• Soleil downgraded Movie Gallery (NASDAQ: MOVI) to Sell from Hold following comments after yesterday's close about missing certain debt covenants.

• Suntrust downgraded shares of Cache (NASDAQ: CACH) to Neutral from Buy citing the company's attempt to reconstruct itself in a difficult economic period with tough comps and in a waning trend cycle.

• Manor Care (NYSE: HCR) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Wachovia, citing the acquisition by the Carlyle Group. Soleil cut Manor Care to Hold from Buy on the news...

• UBS downgraded BG Group (NYSE: BRG) to Neutral from Buy.

• Roth downgraded MRV Communications (NASDAQ: MRVC) to Hold from Buy.

• Matrix lowered Brown-Forman (NYSE: BF.B) to Hold from Buy.

• JP Morgan cut Liberty International (OTC: LBYIY) to Neutral from Overweight.

Analyst downgrades 7-03-07: CACH, CAT, HCR and MOVI originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.