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.