Buy - Price 66.41 on June 18 by Jefferies & Co. Concurrent with the standardization of Haynesville Shale assumptions (acreage impairment, well economics and spacing) across Jefferies' exploration and production group, and also incorporating [GMXR's recent] acquisition, we're raising our price target to 82 a share from 63.... Multi-rig development of Haynesville potential should begin by the end of this year. We estimate [that the new 27,500-acre] acquisition was done at a cost of around $4,500 to $4,700/acre...which should be funded with GMXR's expanded credit facility and shouldn't require new equity capital. The new assumptions increase our [net asset value] and price target by $19...all attributable to Haynesville [east Texas/northwest Louisiana]. Market cap: $917 million.

Market Outperform - Price 48.35 on June 18 by Avondale Partners New 52 target. GPN [will] form a merchant-processing [joint venture] with HSBC in the U.K. GPN will pay $439 million in cash to acquire a 51% interest in the JV. The transaction is expected to be accretive to FY09 EPS. We believe [that] at current levels, shares of GPN offer investors an opportunity to buy one of the industry's leading merchant processors at a discount to long-term intrinsic business value. [GPN has been] increasing free cash flow and has a balance sheet with about $390 million in cash and no debt....We believe GPN shares more than reflect...negative sentiment...due to weakness in the U.S. to Mexico market...[Yet we think such] issues will be resolved by either a turnaround in the Mexican market or a sale. Market cap: $3.9 billion.

Buy - Price 24.90 on June 17 by Signal Hill News of the MGIC Investment reinsurance contract has bolstered our confidence in our earnings estimates but not enough to warrant an estimate change [2008E EPS is $3]. According to management comments, the reinsurance transaction is "risk remote...." We believe the underlying business has traditionally posted loss ratios well below the threshold where HCC would have to pay claims....Using a $50 billion to $25 billion [coverage] range, our estimates could be adjusted by 3 cents to 8 cents annually, or 1% to 2% of our current $3 2008E operating EPS. The reinsurance contract is in an excess of loss basis, providing coverage for MGIC in the event of catastrophic losses. The agreement covers new mortgages only with origination dates between April 1, 2008, and December 31, 2010. HCC is in the business of assuming risk, and management attempts to lower its risk exposure to preserve book value in periods of large industry losses. ...While the company has been discounted lately due to a management change, operationally the company is sound and will not likely skip a beat. We believe investors can pick up a quality insurer on the cheap. Market cap: $2.7 billion.

Underperform/Speculative - Price 6.69 on June 18 by Morgan Keegan Stripping out charges, Q4 EPS is in line on sales at minus 10%, versus our minus 8% estimate. Upholstery margin improvement offset significant weakness at retail. April 2009 fiscal year EPS guidance is in line with consensus, at 15 cents to 25 cents, on a 3% to 7% projected sales decline. We believe this may prove aggressive [due to] weakening trends we are seeing in our channel checks and macroeconomic data. We remain negative on the stock and the industry, given demand trends and cost pressures. Market cap: $344 million.

Buy - Price 65.90 on June 18 by Sterne Agee & Leach Newfield Exploration announced that one field offshore Malaysia had commenced production and that another would commence production later this week. For 2008, NFX raised production guidance from 224 to 234 [billion cubic feet of natural-gas equivalent] to 232 to 239 Bcfe, the second time this year the company has raised guidance. Our Buy rating and target price of 85 a share are reiterated. The target price equates to 20.8, 6.7 and 7.6 times our 2008 estimates of EPS, Ebitda and EV/Ebitda, respectively. The stock is currently selling for 16.2, 5.2 and 6.1 times our 2008 EPS, Ebitda and EV/Ebitda estimates versus 14, 4.7 and 5.5 times the group averages, respectively. Market cap: $8.4 billion.

Outperform - Price 19.78 on June 18 by Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Weller NYB [notes] that the competitive environment for loans has improved as irrational competitors have left the market due to funding issues. Current yields on multifamily loans have increased about 50 basis points (5.75% to 6.25% currently, versus 5.25% to 5.50% in the portfolio)...[NYB focuses on loans secured by rent-controlled and -stabilized buildings.].... NYB expects recent capital raise will help accelerate net interest margin expansion, as $4 billion in high-cost wholesale borrowings are [refinanced] at about 200 bps in savings....NYB believes its relatively pristine credit quality will allow it to participate in highly accretive deals down the road...[but] noted that recent deal activity has been muted due to concerns about the pricing of assets to be disposed. Target: 21. Market cap: $6.7 billion.

Sell - Price 17.83 on June 18 by Zacks Research Increasing prices of energy and raw material, including steel, aluminum and precious metal, are eroding profits for Nissan. Moreover, the company is offering higher incentives such as discounts to entice buyers. This is making it difficult for Nissan to pass on the rising raw material and energy prices to the ultimate consumers. Also, there are concerns about the new-product launch costs that the company plans in fiscal 2008. Further, the overall automotive-industry environment is a challenging one, with volumes going down. The company anticipates a 29.5% drop in earnings for fiscal 2008. Six-month target: 15. Market cap: $36.4 billion.

Buy - Price 20.51 on June 17 by Wedbush Morgan Nvidia's latest-generation GPU family was announced June 16 with immediate availability for the GTX 280 on June 17. [GPU refers to a graphics-adaptation technology.]...Nvidia's brute force method [appears to] provide an edge over AMD's upcoming Radeon 4870 X2 GPU....we believe [NVDA] has been oversold on concerns about (1) excess channel inventory, (2) increased competition from AMD, and (3) tepid May/June trends...near-term fundamentals have been weak, but F2Q is back-end loaded. We expect Nvidia to maintain its leading position in high-end graphics. Our 26 target is based on 17 times our FY09 pro forma EPS estimate of $1.52, below a five-year mean of 22 times...With $2.79 in cash and $4.71 of book value per share, [the stock looks] attractive, trading at 13 times our pro-forma FY09 EPS estimate. Market cap: $12 billion.