Buy - Price 27.82 on Sept. 25 by Jefferies & Co. Chesapeake, a U.S. onshore-focused exploration and production company, is forming a joint venture on 50% of its midstream assets with a private-equity fund, Global Infrastructure Partners. CHK will receive $588 million in cash. Raising target to 32, primarily to reflect additional value of [midstream] assets....[This] should help to further ease concerns the company may have to tap the equity markets in the near future. Our [net asset value] of 32 a share is premised on '10 proved reserves of 15.5 tcfe [one trillion cubic feet of natural-gas equivalent]. Meanwhile, Chesapeake is still actively considering a joint-venture opportunity for the Barnett properties [N. Texas]. Risks include: prolonged period of low natural-gas prices; faster than expected decline rates in various shale plays which could impair reserve bookings; delays in planned future asset sales. Market cap: $16.6 billion.

Buy - Price 16.98 on Sept. 25 by Morgan Joseph We are launching coverage of Cumberland Pharmaceuticals with a Buy rating and a price target of 21. CPIX is a speciality-pharmaceuticals company; it recently received Food and Drug Administration approval for Caldolor (for treatment of pain and fever), which, in our opinion, will be the key growth driver over the next three years. We estimate peak sales of Acetadote...the only injectable treatment for acetaminophen poisoning...and Caldolor at about $50 million and $300 million, respectively. Our 21 target is based on a 6 times multiple of our estimate for 2010 sales. Market cap: $340 million.

Buy - Price 17 on Sept. 25 by Singular Research Life Partners Holdings engages in the secondary market for life insurance known as life settlements, which involves the purchase of previously issued life-insurance policies at a discount to their face amount. LPHI acts as an agent for buyers and engages in the purchase of life settlements for its own investment purposes. LPHI issued preliminary 2Q10 revenue of $29.1 million, in line with our estimate of $29 million. Operating income of $11.1 million was below our estimate of $11.7 million. Detailed results are expected on Oct. 10, but we suspect higher costs may relate in part to the August launch of LPHI's ?166 new, structured life-settlement product for broker/dealers. 2Q EPS of 51 cents missed our estimate of 53 cents, but was in line with the only other published estimate. CEO Brian Pardo said the industry and LPHI continue to see substantial growth....Despite 17% 1H10 earnings-per-share growth, LPHI is trading at only 8.3 times fiscal-year 2010E-EPS. Our price target of 35 is 15 times FY 2010E-EPS. LPHI's 25 cent quarterly dividend also provides a generous 5.3%. Market cap: $280 million.

Outperform - Price 77.44 on Sept. 25 by Raymond James [MICC provides telephony services to more than 30 million customers in 16 emerging markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia.] It recently announced it had reached an agreement to sell its wireless operations in Laos (Millicom has a 74.1% stake) to VimpelCom for about $65 million in cash and $37 million assumed net debt...[which] works out to an enterprise-value multiple of approximately 7.5 times on '09 estimated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization [Ebitda]. We had estimated that Millicom would sell its entire Asian asset portfolio...for an average 7 times 2009E-Ebitda, so we're pleased.... With Millicom agreeing in August to sell its Cambodian operations to the Royal Group for $346 million in cash (7.1 times 2009E-EV/Ebitda), the only remaining operations for Millicom to sell are in Sri Lanka. Market cap: $8.4 billion.

Neutral - Price 26.03 on Sept. 25 by Sterne Agee We are downgrading PFG to Neutral, from Buy, on valuation -- as we view the risk/reward from current levels to be largely balanced. Our 33 price target remains intact, based on 12 times our 2010 EPS estimate of $2.75. We expect credit improvement since June 30 has pushed BVPS [book value of equity per share] to a range of $20 to $21, and we continue to believe PFG's capital levels remain adequate relative to potential stress scenario/cumulative investment losses. However, we are concerned that an expansion of valuation for PFG will likely require a return to sustained positive net flows in the company's flagship 401(k) business, which we expect, based on macro conditions, is likely to take some time to develop. In addition, while capital levels are strong following recent equity and debt raises, we do expect above-industry-average investment losses, given PFG's heavy weighting [in] commercial-real-estate-related asset classes. Market cap: $8.3 billion.