Juniper Networks (JNPR) is on the upswing, with the stock catching a 6% boost Wednesday morning on the heels of a well-received fourth-quarter earnings report. Juniper reported a quarterly profit of $190.2 million, or 35 cents per share, substantially improved from its year-ago results of $22.9 million, or 4 cents per share. Excluding items, earnings improved to 42 cents from 32 cents per share on a year-over-year basis.

Meanwhile, revenue for the quarter increased 26% to $1.19 billion. Gross margin retreated slightly, falling to 66.6% from 67.1%.

Here we go again. Disney (DIS) receives some good news in the form of a price-target upgrade. According to Dividend.com, Barclays Capital now thinks $42, not $36, is a proper goal for the stock. Oh, if only that will happen!

I haven't been happy with my Disney holding for quite a while. I've made this clear in previous articles. Yet, I still own the company in my portfolio. Go figure. What's keeping me from selling?

The Mosaic Company (MOS) is slated to take its turn on the earnings stage after Monday's closing bell, with the agricultural chemical concern set to unveil its fiscal first-quarter results.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are anticipating a profit of 72 cents per share, substantially higher than the company's year-ago earnings of 23 cents per share. Mosaic has a dismal history in the earnings spotlight, having fallen short of Wall Street's consensus profit expectations in three of the past four quarters.

AutoZone Inc. (AZO) is scheduled to release its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings before the market opens Tuesday, Sept. 21. The retailer has a solid track record in the earnings spotlight, having exceeded analysts' per-share profit predictions in each of the past four reporting periods -- and AZO has managed to surpass Wall Street's consensus estimate by an increasingly wide margin in each sequential quarter.

Ahead of the report, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are anticipating AutoZone to bank a profit of $5.42 per share, up from $4.45 per share in the year-ago period. Sales are expected to arrive at $2.39 billion.

Ford (F) was more than 2% higher Thursday morning thanks to an upgrade from Barclay's Capital. The brokerage house upped the automaker to overweight from equal weight and elevated Ford's price target to $16 from $15.

Barclay's feels that investors "appear to be ignoring the fundamental increase in Ford's earnings power even in a slower growth environment." The brokerage continued to say that favorable products on top of a stripped-down cost base, even assuming no further gains in the firm's U.S. market share, could lead to U.S. SAAR growth expectations by 1.5 million. This fact leads Barclay's to maintain their Ford earnings estimates materially, with a new earnings estimate of $2.00, which remains atop the consensus estimate of $1.84.

Technology firm SanDisk (SNDK) is enjoying a nice morning thanks to favorable coverage from brokerage firm UBS.

The brokerage house upgraded SanDisk to buy from neutral and assigned a new target price of $55 per share, an elevation from $46 per share. UBS's analyst believes that strong second-half demand will outweigh any risks the stock may hold. The analyst predicts "better than expected ASP trends" continuing in the second half, combining with tight market supply to boost the shares.

Citigroup, Inc. (C) attracted a bullish note this morning from analyst Richard Bove of Rochdale Securities. The outspoken financial analyst hiked his rating on the shares from neutral to buy, citing the banking issue's healthy liquidity position.

"This gives management the flexibility to off-load the problem operations and to support longer term growth," wrote Bove in a note to clients. "It will be a money-making machine again and the stock is long-term cheap."

Bove also raised his price target on Citi shares from $3.75 to $5, implying expected upside of 28.2% to the stock's closing price on Friday.

Late Tuesday, an advisory panel of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) voiced its approval for pirfenidone, the experimental lung drug from InterMune (ITMN). The panel voted 9-3 in favor of recommending pirfenidone to patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

The FDA is expected to follow the advice of the advisory panel, although it's not required to do so. The regulatory agency is due to issue its final ruling on the drug's fate by early May.

Deutsche Bank has reiterated its buy rating and a $48 price target on electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY). The price target implies expected upside of nearly 19% from BBY's closing price on Tuesday.

"BBY reported that Black Friday comps were up double digits. While we expect some slowdown from that level, store checks show that trends remain solid throughout December," wrote Deutsche Bank in a note to clients. "This, coupled with an easy comparison should enable positive high single digit comps domestically. We also believe that web sales, which were up 20% in 3Q continue to grow, which helps comps. Also, TV pricing remains relatively rational, which should help offset some of the margin decline from mix to laptops."

Genworth Financial (GNW) attracted some mixed attention Tuesday. While the insurance issue started off on the right foot with a price-target boost from KBW, the stock was then slapped with a credit-rating downgrade from Standard & Poor's.

Beginning with KBW, the brokerage firm adjusted its price targets on a slew of U.S. insurers Tuesday morning. In a note to clients, KBW explained that it's overweight on the insurance sector for 2010, because it expects a significant earnings recovery and a modest revenue rebound for the group.

Shares of Century Aluminum (CENX) caught a lift Friday morning, as analysts at JPMorgan Chase adjusted their price targets on a number of metals and mining issues. Century's price target was hiked from $9 to $13, representing a premium of 13.2% to the stock's closing price on Thursday.

In the first hour of Friday's session, CENX soared to a gain of 7.8% as traders cheered the upbeat note. Technical support from the stock's 10-week and 20-week moving averages also helped to add some lift; these two trendlines are now on the verge of a bullish cross. A finish above $12 would be a major development for the equity, since this level has capped all of CENX's weekly closes since August.

A Financial Times report indicates that American International Group (AIG) could soon receive an offer on its aircraft leasing unit, known as International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC). The newspaper claims that a consortium of private equity investors, led by current ILFC CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy, "is close to making a bid for about half of the aviation-leasing business."

The consortium reportedly includes Onex, Greenbriar and Canada Pension Plan. An offer could be made as early as this week, according to FT's sources. AIG set a deadline of Dec. 3 for bids on the unit, in hopes of making a decision by Dec. 15.

Brokerage firm Barclays this morning raised its price target on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) from $188 to $208. The new target represents a premium of 25.8% to AAPL's closing price on Wednesday. Additionally, Barclays reiterated its upbeat Overweight rating on the shares.

In a note to clients, analyst Ben Reitzes cited Apple's solid product pipeline and strong free cash flow outlook. "New products should begin to flow again within a few weeks," said Reitzes. "We are more upbeat about the long-term prospects for the iPhone & Mac lines with potential new products."