MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• JP Morgan assumed coverage of 5 machinery stocks: The firm assumed Eaton (NYSE: ETN) and Illinois Tool Works (NYSE: ITW) with Overweight ratings and Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR), Parker Hannifin (NYSE: PH) and Kennametal (NYSE: KMT) with Neutral ratings. JP Morgan's top picks in the group are Illinois Tool Works and Eaton.

• Pali initiated Sohu.com (NASDAQ: SOHU) with a Buy rating and $41 target and believes the Olympic Games represent the biggest growth catalyst for the company.

• Jefferies started shares of Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) with a Buy rating and $34 target, likes the momentum in TurboTax and QuickBooks and sees potential upside fo FY08 expectations.

• Banc of America initiated Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN) with a Buy rating and $96 target and is positive on the company's European positioning given expectations for top line growth and margin expansion. The firm also started shares of Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) with a Buy rating and $35 target, positive on the company's strong management, solid competitive positioning and improving fundamentals.

• First Albany assumed coverage of Cougar Biotechnology (OTC: CGRB) with a Buy rating and $29 target.

• Oppenheimer started shares of Virginia Commerce (NASDAQ: VCBI) with a Neutral rating.

• Omega Financial (NASDAQ: OMEF) was initiated at Keefe Bruyette with a Market Perform rating and $25 target.

• Merrill Lynch initiated shares of Insulet (NASDAQ: PODD) with a Buy rating.

Analyst initiations: ETN, EXPE, INTU, PCLN and SOHU originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• ORBComm was initiated with a Market Perform rating and $16 target at Piper Jaffray, as the firm believes the company may need to launch at least 25 satellites over the next few years to continue servicing its existing subscribers, which could lead to further losses. The company was initiated with an Outperform rating at Raymond James.
• Baird initiated Weingarten Realty with an Outperform rating and $56 target due to its strategy to accelerate growth and initiated Regency Realty with a Neutral rating and $88 target citing valuation and lack of catalysts.

• OceanFreight Inc (NASDAQ: OCNF) was initiated with a Buy rating and $24 target at Cantor.
• UBS initiated shares of Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: OPTT) with a Buy rating and $20 target and shares of Omega Healthcare Investors Inc (NYSE: OHI) with a Neutral rating and $18 target.
• Shutterfly Inc (NASDAQ: SFLY) was initiated at JMP Securities with a Strong Buy rating and $25 target.
• Corn Products International Inc (NYSE: CPO) was initiated with a Buy rating and $48 target at BB&T Capital Mkts, as the firm believes CPO will be able to generate strong earnings growth, as well as use its strong cash flow to grow its specialty ingredients business, raise its dividend, use for a share repurchase or a combination of the above.

Analyst initiations 6-05-07: ORBC, WRI and REG originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.