Analyst Upgrades

• Goodrich (GR) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Ford (F) to neutral from underperform and CenterPoint Energy (CNP) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Dollar Financial (DLLR) and Edwards Lifesciences (EW) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Alterra Capital (ALTE) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Cheesecake Factory (CAKE) and P.F. Chang's (PFCB) to buy from neutral, as well as SunTrust (STI) to neutral from sell, at Janney Capital.
• Arch Capital (ACGL), Axis Capital (AXS), PartnerRe (PRE), Everest Re (RE) and Transatlantic (TRH) to buy from hold, as well as W. R. Berkley (WRB) to hold from sell, at Citigroup.
• Optimer Pharm (OPTR) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.

If you are looking for clues to tell you which stocks have a good chance of increasing in value, you might want to consider watching what insiders are doing. After all, talk is cheap, but when insiders put their own money on the line, you should sit up and take note.

U.S. Gold (UXG) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending March 4 as insiders snapped up 3,067,000 shares of company stock at a market value of $19,935,500. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by 30.97% and now own 21.13% of UXG stock.

Analyst Upgrades

• Ryder (R) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• HCP (HCP) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Hertz Global (HTZ) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Lincoln National (LNC) to buy from neutral and T. Rowe Price (TROW) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Protective Life (PL) and Janus Capital (JNS) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Newell Rubbermaid (NWL) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• National Instruments (NATI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Team Health (TMH) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.

If you are looking for clues telling you which stocks have a good chance of increasing in value, you might want consider watching what insiders are doing. After all, talk is cheap, but when insiders put their own money on the line, you should sit up and take note.

Scientific Games Corp. (SGMS) topped the insider-buying charts for the week ending July 9th as insiders snapped up 4,387,000 shares of company stock at a market value of $38,159,298. During the past six months, insiders have increased their overall holdings in the company by 74.21% and now own 2.05% of SGMS stock.

Option traders appear to be setting up for a bullish move on TransDigm Group Incorporated (TDG). Traders plowed into 1,865 new call option contracts -- 84.77 times the average volume -- on the stock on Thursday. And we know that traders were eager to get into this trade because 96% of the trades came in on the ask price.

TransDigm has been hitting 52-week highs for a few days in a row now. The stock closed Thursday at $61.25, up 7.65% during the past month.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Aerospace stocks, WuXi Pharma, Myriad Genetics, Cypress Bioscience and Knology were today's noteworthy initiations:

• LYON initiated shares of aerospace stocks including Goodrich Corporation (NYSE: GR), TransDigm Group Inc (NYSE: TDG) and Triumph Group Incorporated (NYSE: TGI) with Add ratings and a $74 target, $45 target and $90 target, respectively.
  
• WuXi Pharmatech (NYSE: WX) was started with a Hold rating and $29 target at Jefferies on valuation. JP Morgan started shares with a Neutral rating and Credit Suisse initiated shares with an Outperform rating.
  
• Myriad Genetics Inc (NASDAQ: MYGN) was started with a Hold rating and $50 target at Citigroup, as the firm is cautious on the Phase III Flurizan results and does not recommend putting new money here at these levels.
  
• Citigroup also initiated shares of Cypress Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: CYPB) with a Buy rating and $22 target as the firm believes Milnacipran has sufficient database for approval and is capable of gaining meaningful market share as firstline therapy.
  
• Knology Inc (NASDAQ: KNOL) was initiated with a Buy rating and $25 target at BWS Financial, as the firm believes the company's growth potential is greater than other cable companies through a business plan that allows it to have operations in all regions of the U.S.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Wachovia resumed coverage of Liberty Media Corporation (NASDAQ: LCAPA) with an Outperform rating.
  
• Northwest Airlines Corporation (NYSE: NWA) and Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE: DAL) were initiated with Overweight ratings at JP Morgan.
  
• Thomas Weisel started shares of Tyco Electronics (NYSE: TEL) with a Market Weight rating.
  
• Goldman initiated shares of Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Activision Inc (NASDAQ: ATVI) with Buy ratings and THQ Inc (NASDAQ: THQI) with a Neutral rating.