Analyst Comments

Shares of Brazil's Vale (NYSE: VALE) are moving lower today despite a bullish note from Credit Suisse earlier this morning. The stock most recently traded at $28.04, down 0.9% from yesterday's close.

While maintaining an Outperform rating, the firm boosted its price target on the mining company's stock from $26 to $34, a 31% increase. Credit Suisse also adjusted yearly estimates for Vale, saying the miners profits could rise as much as 91% next year, and by 31% in 2011.

The stock may be seeing downside today as we are hearing that a massive power outage has been making its way across Brazil, now reportedly affecting half of the country.

Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, through its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified metals and mining company worldwide.

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) announced that Standard & Poor's (S&P) Rating Services raised Red Hat's corporate credit rating from 'BB' to 'BB+' on Nov. 10, 2009. This upgrade reflects Red Hat's strong performance and consistent growth during a challenging global economic environment.

This marks Red Hat's third upgrade by S&P in just a 20-month period. In addition, Red Hat was selected for inclusion in the S&P 500 stock index starting on July 24, 2009. S&P is a leading provider of financial market intelligence and one of the world's foremost sources of credit ratings, indices, investment research, risk evaluation and data.

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Standard & Poor's it placed its 'BB' corporate credit rating for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), as well as all related issue-level ratings on the company's debt, on CreditWatch with negative implications.

S&P could either lower or affirm the ratings following the completion of its review.

"The CreditWatch listing is based on the company's weak operating performance through the first nine months of 2009, which has resulted in deteriorating credit measures that may no longer be supportive of the current rating," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Allyn Arden. Total debt to last-12-month EBITDA was 4.4x as of Sept. 30, 2009, and is likely to drift higher given current operating performance. Total revenue and EBITDA declined 9% and 17%, respectively, in the third quarter of 2009 year over year, due to ongoing post-paid subscriber losses, which totaled 801,000 and still elevated churn of 2.2% relative to its peer group."

Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) shares are trading sharply higher this morning as we have several analysts out with seemingly bullish research notes on the company's stock. Shares of Palm most recently traded at $11.84, up 7.7% from yesterday's closing price. Notably, just 90 minutes into the trading session, the stock has already traded 7.1 million times, versus the stock's average daily volume of about 9.2 million shares.

First, following a recent meeting with management, BofA Merrill Lynch issued a very positive note on Palm earlier. The firm reiterated its Buy rating and $20 price target, which would represent potential upside of about 68%. BofA Merrill said the key takeaway from the meeting was: "despite increasing smartphone competition Palm can maintain differentiation and remains well positioned to launch its products with multiple new Tier-1 carriers in early 2010 by which time it should have a robust apps catalog." The firm also notes Palm's recent sliding stock price (down 33% since the beginning of October), saying that the sell-off creates a promising buying opportunity.

Next, we have an analyst from boutique firm MKM Partners starting coverage on the stock with a Neutral rating and $11 price target. While the note is not necessarily bullish, it suggests that downside in the stock could be limited.

To see all the analyst action on shares of Palm, visit our Analyst Ratings page.

Barclays maintains an Equalweight on Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX), raises PT to $95 from $92.

To see more analyst ratings on ESRX Click Here.

Express Scripts, Inc. offers a range of pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services in North America.