According to recent analyst opinion, Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) is a business you should be wary of buying right now. This item reports on a reduction in the price target for the maker of the iconic motorcycle. Edward Aaron over at RBC Capital Markets thinks that earnings and demand won't be great for the company; he slashed his belief of what the shares are worth by $2 to $16 per share.

Harley-Davidson has certainly recovered from its 52-week low made back in March of this year. The stock bounced back from $7.99 to a price of $16.55 as of this writing.

Bloomberg News reports that Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER) has extended its Auction Rate Securities (ARS) redemption offer in response to what I thought was pressure from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who threatened to take Merrill to court. But what is interesting is that Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin was the one who announced the settlement.

While the politics of this intrigue me, those who held Merrill ARSs (pun intended) care about the terms of the settlement. Bloomberg reports that Merrill "will begin the buyback on October 15 for individuals, nonprofits and small business with $3 million or less on deposit. Redemptions for clients with $100 million or less start on January 15." This Merrill deal adds to the one it announced on August 7 -- a voluntary buyback of $10 billion worth of ARS. Merrill has a total of "30,000 clients who held an estimated $12 billion" according to Bloomberg.

This leaves many major ARS issuers lagging behind their peers. Here are four holdouts (with their 2007 municipal ARS issuance in parentheses):

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) ($4.3 B)
• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) ($3.7 B)
• RBC Capital Markets ($1.2 B)
• Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) ($1.1 B)

What are they waiting for?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

Learning Tree International Inc. (Nasdaq: LTRE), which provides information technology and management training, was a fast grower from 1974 to 2000. However, since then, things have languished. True, the company has instituted various initiatives to jump-start growth, but such measures will take some time.

So, in the meantime, Learning Tree is trying to sell out. That is, the company has formed a special committee to explore the possibility of selling itself and has retained RBC Capital Markets as a financial advisor.

Learning Tree is likely to be attractive to private equity players as well as strategic buyers. Over the past few years, the company has improved its operating performance, earned 50% of sales from overseas and has $56 million in the bank, without debt. What's more, the company has no school loan exposure.

Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) is recently down 14c to $8.28 in premarket trading.

CFC February option implied volatility of 116 is above its 26-week avearge of 84 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is recently down 10c to $14.95 in premarket trading.

RBC Capital Markets says: "At $15 the shares have limited downside but likewise we see limited catalysts for stock appreciation."

MOT overall option implied volatility of 35 is above its 26-week average of 31 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Daily Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

EMC (NYSE: EMC) will report 3Q EPS before the open on 10/25. EMC spun out VMW on 8/14/07. EMC owns 82% of VMW. EMC has a market capitalization of $47 billion with VMW having a market cap of $40 billion. VMW will report EPS after the close tonight. RBC Capital Markets issued a EMC report on 10/23 saying "we believe weakness in large, U.S. enterprise business and signs of an aggressive pricing environment were two of the primary inhibitors to better execution." EMC November option implied volatility of 43 is above its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

VMware (NYSE: VMW) is recently down $1.10 to $105.05. RBC Capital Markets said on 10/23 "we believe VMW will comfortably exceed current street estimates for September quarter while providing upward revisions to the Street's December quarter outlook." November option implied volatility of 95 is above its 9-week average of 70 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

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Jabil Circuit Inc (NYSE: JBL) has been down in the dumps lately, down 17% over the last year, while competitor Flextronics International (NASDAQ: FLEX) has profited, up over 7%. But that may be about to change for Jabil -- after 3 consecutive bad quarters, it has given investors reason for optimism, posting better-than expected third quarter earnings results.

Wall Street certainly noticed, as Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets and BMO Capital all upgraded Jabil to Outperform this morning.

Still, technically speaking, the primary overhead resistance for Jabil to break out of this long-term downtrend is at $25.65, which is still a ways from the stock's current price of $23.42 -- which includes this morning's 10% move to the upside. So far so good for Jabil, but a long-term change in investor sentiment and momentum will only be seen if it breaks above the resistance. Keep and eye out and see if it keeps heading up.

Last December, over 100 stocks were featured in our Top Picks for 2007 report. Now, at mid-year, we turn to the 20 advisors whose picks showed the strongest gains to get an update on their previous picks, as well as a new favorite stock for the second half of the year.

Gordon Pape, editor of The Internet Wealth Builder, chose Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM) as his favorite stock for 2007, which rose 31% as of 6/1/07. Here is his original recommendation and his current opinion on Brookfield.

For his new favorite, the advisor looks to Precision Drilling (NYSE: PDS). He explains, "If you like to buy good companies at beaten-down prices, take a good look at this income trust.

"Precision Drilling, which provides services to the Canadian oil patch, has been battered and bruised by a decline in oil exploration activity, distribution cuts, and, of course, the proposed new tax on income trusts which is now working its way through the Parliament of Canada.

"Investors were hit with a second distribution cut in six months when the trust announced on May 18 that it is chopping another 32% off its monthly payment, slicing it to 13 cents. That reduces the annual payment to $1.56 a share, less than half last year's level of $3.24.

"There's no doubt this oilfields service provider is going through a tough period and management hasn't tried to sugar-coat the situation. Despite the gloomy outlook, RBC Capital Markets said in a research report that the firm's dividend cut probably represents the last one for the year.

"The trust's payout ratio should now be marginally below that of other oil service providers and it is generally expected that drilling activity will pick up later this year.