MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• UBS upgraded shares of Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) to Buy from Neutral as they expect the company to benefit from increased capital spending by Rexchip, the joint venture of Elpida and Powerchip. After speaking to contacts, UBS believes shipments to Rexchip will total around $640M in 2007.

• Southern Union (NYSE: SUG) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.

• Credit Suisse upgraded shares of Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) to Outperform from Neutral on improved earnings visibility and the potential for incremental cost savings.

• SMH Capital upgraded shares of Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ: LAMR) to Buy from Neutral after the conference call indicated the run rate for digital deployment is increasing, while capex per board is declining. The firm thinks the Street may be overlooking the potential for significant earnings acceleration into 2008.

• Nollenberger upgraded shares of Trump Entertainment Resorts (NASDAQ: TRMP) to Neutral from Sell based on valuation and believes fair value is $14/share...

• SunTrust upgraded shares of American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) to Buy from Neutral.

• Raymond James raised Steak n Shake (NYSE: SNS) to Market Perform from Underperform.

• Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) upgraded shares to Buy from Hold.

• Buckingham upgraded Blackrock Inc (NYSE: BLK) to Strong Buy from Neutral.

• RBC Capital upgraded US Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ: PRTS) to Outperform from Sector Perform.

• HSBC raised Chartered Semiconductor (NASDAQ: CHRT) to Neutral from Underweight.

Analyst upgrades 5-11-07: AEO, ALU, AMAT and NVDA originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 11 May 2007 11:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.