MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Baird upgraded shares of Strattec Security Corp (NASDAQ: STRT) to Neutral from Underperform following its Q3 report.

• Shares of Palm, Inc (NASDAQ: PALM) were raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Lehman Bros.

• Banc of America upgraded Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) to Neutral from Sell based on valuation.

• J.C. Penney Co Inc (NYSE: JCP) was raised to Strong Buy from Accumulate with a $105 target at Buckingham, citing strategic merchandise, flow and cycle-timing initiatives.

• Wachovia believes that as the lodging cycle matures, Marriott International's (NYSE: MAR) diversified fee-based, unit-driven model will outperform relative to pure hotel-owned companies, and upgraded shares to Outperform from Market Perform.

• Goldman Sachs upgraded CNOOC Ltd (NYSE: CEO) to Buy from Neutral.

• JMP Securities raised Packeteer, Inc's (NASDAQ: PKTR) rating to Market Perform from Underperform.

• Oppenheimer upgraded Playtex Products, Inc (NYSE: PYX) to Buy from Neutral on its acquisition of Tiki Hut, strong fundamentals and realistic investor expectations.

• JP Morgan upgraded shares of American Standard Cos Inc (NYSE: ASD) to Overweight from Neutral.

• Matrix USA raised the rating of Hecla Mining Co (NYSE: HL) to Hold from Sell.

• Shares of VCA Antech, Inc (NASDAQ: WOOF) were upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Morgan Keegan.

Analyst upgrades 4-20-07: JCP, MAR, NFLX and PALM all upgraded today originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Kraft Foods Inc (NYSE: KFT) to Equal Weight from Underweight on valuation. UBS upgraded shares to Buy from Neutral on expectations the company may benefit from a purchase of Cadbury Schweppes' (CSG) confectionary unit; UBS believes Kraft could purchase Cadbury's confectionery unit for $20.8B and still see 7% accretion in 2008.
• Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs upgraded Healthways Inc (NASDAQ: HWAY) to Neutral from Sell on valuation.
• Bernstein raised PepsiCo's (NYSE: PEP) rating to Outperform from Market Perform with a $77 target, expecting the soft-drink maker to outperform rival Coca-Cola (KO) by more than 10% over the next year.
• Citigroup upgraded Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ: LRCX) to Hold from Sell to reflect a more bullish 2-3 year memory capex view and the firm believes customers of Samsung/Hynix continue to have an upward bias.

• Vodafone PLC (NYSE: VOD) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank on valuation.
• JP Morgan upgraded shares of Intersil Corp (NASDAQ: ISIL) to Overweight from Neutral.
• Dreamworks Animation SKG, Inc (NYSE: DWA) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Pali Capital.
• Sappi Ltd (NYSE: SPP) was raised to Buy from Sell at Merrill Lynch.
• JP Morgan added VCA Antech, Inc (NASDAQ: WOOF) to its Focus List with a $46 target, citing the company's near-term growth prospects.

Analyst upgrades 4-12-07: DWA, KFT, PEP & VOD upgraded today originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Goldman reinstated Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) with a Buy rating and $30 target; they are positive on Pfizer's valuation, low binary risk, high dividend yield and potential new initiatives.

• UBS started Flextronics Int'l (NASDAQ: FLEX) with a Buy rating and $14 target; the firm said Flextronics's RoIC expansion potential is under appreciated by the Street.

• JP Morgan initiated VCA Antech (NASDAQ: WOOF) with an Overweight rating; the firm said pet demographic trends are positive and that upside potential will come from its strong acquisition pipeline.

• Bank of America initiated aQuantive Inc (NASDAQ: AQNT) with a Neutral rating and $25 target on valuation.

• Nollenberger started four video game companies: Activision Inc (NASDAQ: ATVI), Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) with Buy ratings and Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO) with a Neutral rating.

Analyst initiations 1-5-07: Pfizer started with a buy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 Jan 2007 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.