• Jefferies downgraded shares of Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) to Hold from Buy, as they believe the company's fundamentals are weakening given the worse than anticipated share losses in the wireless segment. Shares were also lowered to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan, to Equal Weight from Overweight at Lehman, to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse, and to Neutral from Buy at UBS to reflect the slowdown in the company's wireless growth.
  
• Check Point Software (NASDAQ: CHKP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies on valuation and highlights the difficult spending environment in 1H08 as well as the company's tough comps.
  
• Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Mobile Mini (NASDAQ: MINI) to Hold from Buy following the company's negative preannouncement.
  
• Oppenheimer lowered Vineyard National Bancorp (NASDAQ: VNBC) to Neutral from Buy to reflect slower pace of balance sheet growth and lower gain-on-sale income estimates.
  
• JMP Securities downgraded TorreyPines (NASDAQ: TPTX) to Market Outperform from Strong Buy and said Tezampanel's lack of dose response and statistically significant pain free response will keep the stock in the "show me" category.

• JP Morgan downgraded ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) to Underweight from Neutral and Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO) to Neutral from Overweight.
  
• UBS downgraded Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ: ZION) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Citigroup downgraded Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) to Hold from Buy.
  
• ThinkEquity downgraded ValueClick (NASDAQ: VCLK) to Source of Funds from Buy.

Analyst downgrade: TXN, CHKP, MINI, VNBC and TPTX originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Sun Microsystems Inc (NASDAQ: JAVA) was initiated with a Market Perform at BMO Capital, which views the shares' risk/reward as favorable around $5.
• FMC Technologies Inc (NYSE: FTI) was initiated with a Buy by Jefferies, which believes strong subsea fundamentals will drive strong earnings by the company.
• TorreyPines Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: TPTX) was initiated with a Strong Buy at JMP Securities, which said PhIIb data in Q4 on the company's tezampanel drug could increase investor conviction on the first in-class drug.
• Exelixis Inc (NASDAQ: EXEL) was initiated with a Buy by Lazard, which believes Exelixis has a promising pipeline.

• Fortune Brands Inc (NYSE: FO) was assumed with a Neutral rating by JMP Securities.
• Evergreen Solar Inc (NASDAQ: ESLR) was assumed with a Hold rating by Jefferies.
• Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp (AMEX: KOG) were initiated with Outperform ratings at BMO Capital.

Analyst initiations: JAVA, FTI, TPTX and EXEL originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.