MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Kaufman initiated Popular (NASDAQ: BPOP) with a Hold rating and $13 target, citing the company's direct exposure to nearly $2B of Alt A residential mortgage loans originated by its U.S. operations and approximately $250M of exposure to another $4B of collateralized, securitized mortgage pools.

• MRU Holdings (NADSAQ: UNCL) was initiated with a Buy rating and $8.50 target at Roth Capital. Roth Capital believes MRU Holdings is on the threshold of potentially explosive growth in the fast growing segment of the education lending market, that of private loans.

• JMP Securities said CDC Corp. (NASDAQ: CHINA) , with its resources and connections in China, has excellent deal flow and has been a disciplined, value oriented buyer, and started shares with a Market Outperform and $10.50 target.

• Piper believes Oscient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OSCI) experienced management team and PCP sales force are competitive advantages and will lead to attractive partners. Piper initiated Oscient Pharmaceuticals with an Outperform rating and $5 target...

• Raymond James started SAIC (NYSE: SAI) with a Market Perform rating.

• Morgan Keegan initiated Hilltop Holdings (NYSE: HTH) with an Outperform rating.

• Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX) was initiated with an Overweight rating and $15 target at Morgan Stanley.

• RBC Capital initiated VMware (NYSE: VMW) with a Sector Perform rating and $75 target.

Analyst initiations 8-30-07: CHINA, DHX, SAI and UNCL originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Hartford Financial (NYSE: HIG) to hold a 10am conference call regarding 2007 earnings guidance
• FCC to hold a hearing on Media Ownership at 1pm
• Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) to hold Q4 mid-quarter update at 5pm

• Six Flags (NYSE: SIX) to hold mid-quarter update at 8:30am
• Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) to hold Q4 earnings conference call at 11am
• General Electric (NYSE: GE) to hold financial update conference call at 3pm

• Dynegy (NYSE: DYN) to hold 2007 earnings and cash flow estimates webcast at 8am
• Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to hold public hearing at 9am

Thursday December 14

• Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) to hold Q4 earnings conference call at 10am
• PDUFA Date for Novartis' (NYSE: NVS) Rasilez

Friday December 15

• PDUFA Date for Oscient Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ: OSCI) Factive

Earnings news due out this week: Highlights originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.