MOST NOTEWORTHY: Goldman Sachs, Alexza Pharma and SAP AG were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Wachovia upgraded Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) to Outperform from Market Perform, as they believe Goldman has a superior capital position relative to competitors and will likely benefit more than any firm from Bear Stearns' (NYSE: BSC) collapse. They have a $180-$185 target range for the stock.
  
• Following Alexza Pharma's (NASDAQ: ALXA) Q4 report, JMP Securities said they have reduced concerns regarding Loxapine timelines and risks. The firm raised Alexza to Outperform from Market Perform.
  
• SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein on valuation and a positive view on fundamentals.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Stephens.
• Citigroup upgraded Teekay Shipping (NYSE: TK) and General Maritime (GMR) to Buy from Hold.
  
• RiskMetrics (NYSE: RMG) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America.

With the turbulence in the markets, it was looking dicey for the RiskMetrics Group (NYSE: RMG) IPO. The company even priced its offering at $17.50, at the low end of its proposed $17-$19 range.

But RMG turned out to be a good deal for investors. RiskMetrics' stock price is now trading at about $23.

The company is the brainchild of JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), which wanted to develop better ways to deal with risk. After all, the financial markets have become increasingly complicated – especially with the surge in derivatives.

To bulk things up, RiskMetrics purchased ISS, which provides research and voting services for corporate governance.

The upshot: RiskMetrics has about 3,500 customers. Revenues increased about 16% to $176 million for the first nine months of 2007.

However, perhaps the biggest boost for RiskMetrics came from announcement that Societe Generale lost $7.1 billion, which was the result of a nefarious trader. No doubt, the firm could have used some better risk management systems, huh?

The underwriters on the RiskMetrics IPO included Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Banc of America Securities LLC.

You can find the prospectus at the SEC website. Also, if you want to check out other recent IPO activity, visit DealProfiles.com.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

For some time, RiskMetrics has been a rumored IPO candidate.

And, yesterday, the company indeed filed for a public offering.

No doubt, RiskMetrics is a powerhouse. The company has a broad platform to help measure and quantify risk across asset classes. It is based on nearly a decade of R&D and the databases include information on more than 150,000 issuers that span 200 countries and 220 exchanges. There are approximately 650 clients.

There is also the ISS division, which provides reports, analysis and consulting on corporate governance. In fact, the organization has a major impact on key corporate decisions (such as mergers & acquisitions). There are roughly 2,750 clients.

Oh, and there is also the CFRA segment, which provides forensic accounting services.

Last year, RiskMetrics posted revenues of $204.5 million and EBITDA of $56.9 million. The company sells its services primarily on a subscription basis – and the renewal rate is about 90%.

The lead underwriters include Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), and Banc of America Securities LLC (NYSE: BAC).

You can find the prospectus at the SEC website. Also, if you want to check out more IPOs, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.