One of our three value portfolios in the Buyback Letter is the Buyback Income Index, a 10-stock portfolio for those interested in income and growth. It features companies actively repurchasing their own stock that also pay relatively high dividends.

While our main emphasis is on buyback stocks, those stocks that both buy back AND pay a substantial and regular dividend are comforting to some investors who want to know that no matter what, at least they will be getting something back.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Garmin Ltd (GRMN) and USA Mobility (USMO) were today's notable initiations.

• JMP Securities initiated Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ: GRMN) with a Market Outperform and $60 target, saying that Garmin will benefit from strong GPS unit growth rates, a pick-up in aviation growth, also noting that checks indicate Garmin sales were strong over the holiday period.

• Soleil Securities started USA Mobility (NASDAQ: USMO) with a Sell rating and $11 target, as they believe USA Mobility is overvalued in a deteriorating industry.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• USB initiated Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) with a Neutral rating and $7 target.

• First Albany started Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT) with a Neutral rating and $17 target, expecting volatile shares in the near-term due to the options investigation, but expects a resolution in 2007.

• BBN&T initiated NutriSystem Inc (NASDAQ: NTRI) with a Buy rating and $84 target. The firm believes NutriSystem is well positioned to sustain healthy earnings growth given consumer weight problems, along with the effectiveness and low consumer awareness of their program.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).