Buy - Price 4.12 on Dec. 9 by Morgan Joseph Alvarion, a provider of last-mile point-to-multipoint and point-to-point wireless solutions...announced company-wide cost-cutting initiatives totaling annual savings of $15 million. The reductions are expected to be in head count (11% or 110 employees) and management salaries. The reductions should cause a $3 million one-time charge in 4Q08 and take full effect in 1Q09; 15% top-line growth in '09 is the maximum we anticipate for ALVR without requiring additional fixed costs. We [see] Alvarion shares...trad[ing] up to $5.30, based on a 10-times multiple to our 2010 non-GAAP earnings-per-share estimate of 30 cents plus cash per share of $2.26. Market cap: $265 million.

Buy - Price 116.50 on Dec. 9 by Kevin Dann & Partners AutoZone reported 1Q09 EPS of $2.23 (versus $2.02 the prior year), above our estimate and Street consensus of $2.18. Upside came primarily from...AZO's repurchase of 2.2 million shares for $272 million (average price: $122/share). The remaining items were relatively in-line with our forecast. 1Q09 domestic same-store sales declined 1.5% versus a 1.3% increase the prior year; [our forecast was] 1% to 3%. AZO said September was the worst month of the quarter, and that sales normalized in October through November's end...trends indicate that AutoZone may be better weathering the current environment than its competitors...1Q09 gross margin increased 20 basis points (in-line with our expectations) due to category-management initiatives and a favorable shift in the margin mix toward higher-margin parts and private-label items. [Sales, general and administrative expense] increased 40 basis points (in-line with our expectations) due to the deleveraging effect of the negative sales results. Target: 135. Market cap: $6.9 billion.

Outperform - Price 15.46 on Dec. 9 by Pacific Crest Lowering our target to 18 (from 20), [which] equates to a non-GAAP price/earnings multiple of roughly 20 times our revised '09 pro forma EPS estimate of 92 cents, below BRCM's historic median.... [It] should be achievable on continued solid longer-term top-line growth prospects, improvement in core business segments and improving operating margin....[Risks to target include] market and macroeconomic conditions; a continued lack of traction in the cellular segment; increasing competition; employee turnover; and high exposure to stock-option expenses. Broadcom provides wired- and wireless-broadband-communications semiconductors [and has long] demonstrated product-portfolio improvement through an aggressive acquisition strategy. It excels at integration and address[ing] increasingly converged digital consumer electronics. Market cap: $7.3 billion.

Outperform/Market Risk - Price 21.07 on Dec. 9 by Morgan Keegan EPD announced that it sold $730 million in assets to Duncan Energy Partners (DEP). The assets include 8,000 miles of natural-gas pipelines, 1,000 miles of NGL [natural-gas liquid] pipelines, leased storage facilities for both natural gas and NGLs, and two NGL fractionators. There's a roughly 60/40 equity/cash breakdown: DEP has agreed to pay EPD $280.5 million in cash and issued approximately 37.3 million Class B units of DEP, with market value of $449.5 million ($12.05/unit). The Class B units will convert to common on Feb. 1, 2009....With this transaction, EPD increase[s] its available capital to an estimated $2.2 billion. We believe EPD is well positioned for 2009 both operationally and financially. Market cap: $9.2 billion.

Market Perform - Price 22.42 on Dec. 9 by Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Target: 24. With most of the major equity indexes down between 22% and 30% during the current quarter, the asset-manager business model is facing unprecedented stress. Taking market conditions into account, along with individual manager performance and client outflows, we forecast an average sequential decline in [assets under management] of 14.7% during the December quarter, which is driving an estimated decline of 15.5% in total revenues, on average. The modern-day fund industry has never faced such a rapid, precipitous drop in revenues, and our expectation of an average year-over-year decline in total revenues of 16.2% in '09 suggests that the challenges will persist into next year. Given the...decline in industry revenues and the limited recourse available to managers aiming to cut costs, we remain cautious on the industry group and await more clear evidence that a trough in earnings is in sight before we can turn more positive on the group. Market cap: $2.3 billion.

Market Perform - Price 9.51 on Dec. 9 by JMP Securities Fuel-Tech [has agreed] to acquire Advanced Combustion Technology for about $22 million in cash plus performance-based payments. ACT designs, engineers, and installs combustion systems on utilities and large industrial boilers that burn coal, natural gas and fuel oils. This acquisition could add $22 million to $24 million in sales to our fiscal-year '09 estimate, and should allow for greater sales domestically and enable further penetration in ...China. Trading at about 14 times our FY09 [enterprise value]/Ebitda estimate, we believe Fuel-Tech's shares appropriately reflect longer-term growth prospects, and we would become more constructive on the stock as order flow increases. Market cap: $247 million.

Buy - Price $15.42 on Dec. 9 by Hilliard Lyons As the leading domestic casket maker, with a well-known name and established distribution, we find HI's market position attractive [and like its] recession-resistant business and sizeable excess-cash generation. Revenue guidance was ahead of our estimate, while EPS (excluding legal spending) was in line with our figures. Revenue for the fiscal year could be up 3% to 5%. Sales for fiscal 2009 could be in a range of $695 million to $710 million...due [mainly] to price increases, partially offset by lower volume and negative mix effects...[which] reflect more private-label business and growth in cremation. We have raised our revenue forecast by $10 million, to $700 million, to reflect the higher prices. HI management guided to an EPS range of $1.73 to $1.85, excluding $18.5 million (related to antitrust litigation)....Our fiscal 2009 EPS estimate is $1.80, up 5% from $1.71 in fiscal 2008, excluding nonrecurring items. Management's goal is to boost this to 5% to 8% with acquisitions. Target: 26. Market cap: $963 million.

Buy - Price 19.35 on Dec. 9 by Sandler O'Neill ITG, a full-service [U.S. and overseas] trade-execution firm, uses technology to lower trading costs. We're raising 4Q08 estimate while maintaining Buy rating. With November U.S. volumes above our expectations, we're raising our 4Q08 EPS estimate to 59 cents, from 55 cents; our estimate assumes that U.S. December volumes decrease 20% from November. We're also increasing our full-year 2008 EPS estimate to $2.54 from $2.50. We're [maintaining] our 2009 estimate of $2.45. Our 25 price target is based on a 10-times multiple of our 2009 estimate. Market cap: $849 million.