Buy - Price 16.21 on Oct. 10 by Brean Murray Carret Reiterate Buy; raising target price to 21 from 20. Fiscal-year 2007 fourth-quarter results were better than expected. On the top line, revenue of $62.5 million was nicely above our estimate and the Street consensus. On the bottom line, reported earnings per share of 12 cents came in below consensus of 16 cents and our estimate of 15 cents, but results were obscured by one-time items associated with stock compensation expenses and expenses related to recent acquisitions (5 cents total). Excluding these items, EPS would have been 17 cents (and above expectations). 4QFY07 results aside, we see plenty of leverage within the existing model going forward. We expect incremental margin improvement in the Water, Healthcare Disposable and Endoscopic Reprocessing segments, which account for approximately 70% of total estimated future revenues. Overall margin expansion, coupled with solid top-line growth and deployment of free cash flow (repayment of debt or complementary acquisitions) should drive bottom-line growth of approximately 30% over the next two years.

Market Perform - Price 59.37 on Oct. 10 by Friedman Billings Ramsey Downey Financial, the second-largest thrift operating in California, is the holding company for Downey Savings & Loan Association....We are downgrading DSL to Market Perform from Outperform and lowering our price target to 60 from 85, to reflect continued weakening and uncertainty in California's housing market. Our new target represents 1.2 times year-end estimated tangible book value of 52 and 13 times our revised FY08 EPS estimate of $4.65....We do not believe any thrift or large holders of residential mortgage loans will trade higher until nonperforming loans stabilize, which could take another four to six quarters. On Oct. 10, DSL preannounced earnings and expects to report an operating loss of approximately $23 million, or 84 cents per share. Earnings during the quarter were impacted by an $82 million loss provision and a $9 million valuation adjustment on real estate held for development. We believe credit trends have eroded more quickly than management expected, and with better knowledge of current and expected losses, management is taking reserve balances up accordingly.

Sell - Price 39.10 on Oct. 10 by Cantor Fitzgerald Target: 30. On Oct. 9, eBay U.K. announced fee changes in its Photography and Toys & Games categories, with lower insertion fees, free gallery and higher final-value fees, from Oct. 23-Dec. 31. While potentially a long-term positive, we do not know...what the financial impact might be on eBay. With its stock near a 52-week high and expectations ramping sharply ahead of the holiday season, we see a widening disconnect between investor perception and the current reality of business conditions....We have set a 30 price target on eBay's shares, implying a 2008 enterprise value-to-sales multiple of four times to five times and a price-to-pro-forma-earnings-per-share multiple of roughly 20 times. We believe these multiples are warranted, given eBay's expected three-year growth rate of roughly 15% to 20%, challenges we see in eBay's core business and comparable company valuations....At 30, eBay's shares would be trading at an EV-to-revenue-to-growth multiple of about 0.20 times and a P/E of approximately one times. Comparable companies -- including Amazon.com, IAC/InteractiveCorp, Google and Yahoo! -- are trading at average growth-adjusted multiples of about 0.30 times and more than 1.5 times, respectively.

Buy - Price 26.16 on Oct. 9 by Merriman Curhan Ford Energy Conversion's solar PV [photo-voltaic] division, Unisolar, is experiencing the strongest growth in the company's history. The company recently announced several large solar PV contracts with domestic and international distributors....Recent conversations with the company's new CEO, Mark Morelli, suggest the company is embracing a renewed focus on growth through the execution of large solar PV distribution agreements and greater module manufacturing throughput, while continuing to trim overhead from across the company's operations....We are revising our FY08 estimates to $229 million/14 cents, from $221 million/22 cents previously. Reiterating our Buy rating based on a sum-of-the-parts valuation analysis of the company's businesses.

Buy - Price 68.19 on Oct. 10 by Maxim Group Given the extraordinary rate environment [and contract renewals and operating leverage] for dry bulk and our revised outlook as to its stability for FY2007, we are raising our EPS estimate to $3.52 from $2.90. Our EPS estimate for FY2008 goes to $6.27, up from $4....For contracts that are to be renewed over the forecasted period, we are building into our model an assumption of Panamax rates at $42,000 per day and Handymax rates of $34,000 per day. We note that there is still some conservatism built into these estimates since we recently saw Hanjin pay $57,000 per day for the 2004-built Panamax vessel Patrizia D'Amato....Maintaining Buy and raising our 12-month price target to 88, based on an EPS multiple of 14 times our 2008 EPS estimate. Our new multiple takes into account the cyclicality of the new rate environment.

Hold - Price 28.40 on Oct. 9 by Morgan Joseph Disappointing F1Q08 EPS sends shares lower, 27 cents versus our 48 cents estimate....While sales fell year over year 16%, the drop was not dramatically off from our expectations. The biggest factor that reduced profits was [sales, general and administrative costs] which increased as a percentage of sales 690 basis points. While all divisions declined, the largest drop came within Lanier Clothes (down 13% y/y) and Oxford Apparel (down 34%). The majority of the Oxford decline was expected and due to a restructuring, but weak macro economic conditions and delayed retail purchases contributed...with no clear indication for a near-term turnaround.

Sell - Price 16 on Oct. 10 by Zacks Research Prior recommendation Hold; six-month target price 10. Although Palm has released several products and has a major platform redevelopment in the works, we believe that the company currently lags competitors with its dated product offering. The company faces increased competition with Apple iPhone in the consumer market and Research In Motion in the enterprise market.

Buy - Price 46.78 on Oct. 10 by Sterne Agee Target: 60. Fir Tree Partners announced that it would support PXP's acquisition of Pogo Producing (PPP). Several weeks ago, Fir Tree had sent a letter to PXP that said it would oppose the acquisition....With the now probable success of the acquisition of PPP, the number of shares increases from about 72 million to about 114 million in 4Q07. We have been informed by PXP that they own roughly 30% of the total Flatrock wells. If the Flatrock area totals 1.5 tcf [trillion cubic feet] in reserves and those reserves were to be sold for $3 to $3.25 per mcf [thousand cubic feet], the discovery is now worth about $12 per share to PXP. Our $60 target price equates to 38 and 8.2 times our 2007 estimated EPS and Ebitda [earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortization], respectively.