MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Banc of America upgraded shares of General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) to Neutral from Sell as they believe the agreement with the United Auto Workers union offsets a worsening outlook for sales.
  
• Piper Jaffray upgraded shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR) to Outperform from Market Perform after a meeting with management as they believe shares offer a compelling buying opportunity at current levels based on their 2009 estimates.
  
• JMP Securities upgraded shares of Orexigen Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OREX) to Strong Buy from Market Outperform as they believe the company's lead product candidates, Empatic and Contrave, could become front-line therapies for obesity due to improved durability of efficacy, increased safety and tolerability, and lack of addiction.
  
• Norsk Hydro (NYSE: NHY) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Citigroup. The firm sees upside in the stock from the volume growth and further improvements in downstream operations.

• Lehman upgraded Temple Inland (NYSE TIN) to Overweight from Equal Weight.
  
• Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  
• HSBC upgraded ENI SpA (NYSE: E) to Overweight from Neutral.
  
• Nollenberger raised shares of Symyx Technologies (NASDAQ: SMMX) to Buy from Neutral.

Analyst upgrades: GM, GMCR, OREX and NHY originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Stocks Report.

Symyx Technologies (NASDAQ: SMMX) is the top speculative pick for 2007 from nanotech expert Josh Wolfe. The editor of the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report says, "Santa Clara, California-based Symyx is one of the nanotech materials companies in our model Nanosphere portfolio.

"SMMX is a research services company focused on serving the chemical, energy, pharmaceutical, and electronics industries. It works closely with alliance partners ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical to provide research services, develop and sell discovery tools systems, and license software and intellectual property.

"We believe that the biggest source of value in Symyx is in spin-off opportunities. Two have, in fact, been funded by venture capital firms. In addition, materials that they are commercializing are now coming to market and will earn them royalties on top of the service and hardware revenues they already receive.

"For the four financial quarters ended September 30, 2006, Symyx generated $33 million in cash flow on revenues of $116 million. Revenues for the first nine months of 2006 were up 10% versus the same period in 2005. Symyx shares bottomed just below $20 in October of 2006."

Top Picks 2007: Josh Wolfe's nanotech bet on Symyx originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 26 Dec 2006 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.