Cramer said that Ryder CEO Greg Swienton "said there's nothing to ship." Swienton's "an honest, candid CEO," Cramer said, "and he's a realist. He's talking about a reason why the Dow's down 400."

Outperform -- Price 61.86 on April 15
by Baird Securities
R [is to] acquire substantially all assets of Gator Leasing, a full-service leasing, commercial-truck-rental and fleet-services company... . The acquisition's likely [to be] modestly accretive. Our 68 target reflects 13 times "09 estimates... . R's ability to grow earnings through this downturn bolsters case for higher full-cycle valuation ... when the environment improves ... long-term P/E 16 times; LT Ebitda: 4.1 times. Market cap: $3.6 billion.

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9.5% , 14 , 1.4%

Miami's provider of transportation and supply chain management solutions announced two separate buyback programs. Under one program, Ryder will repurchase $300 million in common stock over a two year period- representing about 10.8% of total outstanding shares. The second program authorizes two million shares for repurchase as an anti-dilutive buyback to combat the affects of exercising employee stock options.

Commenting on the two programs, Ryder Chairman and CEO Greg Swienton said, "Our solid financial position enables us to take these steps to both increase our leverage toward desired levels, and offset the dilutive effect of stock option exercises, without curtailing our ability to invest capital for organic growth and opportunistic acquisitions."

On top of the buyback, the stock was also upgraded by Morgan Keegan to outperform from market perform. "We believe the 14.7% pull back in the stock price of Ryder this year has created an attractive entry point for long-term investors," said analyst Art Hatfield.

They point out that investors have been cautious buying Ryder in 2007 because of fear for an economic slowdown that would weaken the trucking freight environment and because of the negative investor sentiment toward leasing companies. However, Hatfield believes Ryder should be trading at a higher multiple than during the last economic downturn due to the fundamental changes in the company's business model.

He explained, "We believe the fundamentals underlying Ryder's business model going forward are not accurately portrayed in the share price at current levels. Based on our sum-of-the-parts model, we believe shares should be worth between $44.66 per share and $62.96 per share. At the midpoint of our sum-of-the-parts model, shares should be worth $53.81 per share, which represents a substantial premium to current share price."

Upgraded by Bear Stearns from Underperform to Outperform