Benzinga's Top Upgrades with Color for May 24, 2012

Listed below are today's Top pre-market Upgrades at Benzinga:Bank of America Upgrades HEICO (NYSE: HEI) to Buy:Bank of America notes, "After Wednesday's conference call with management we are updating our model for 2012 and the outyears. We are lowering our FY12 estimate to $1.63 from $1.75 but leaving our outyear estimates unchanged. For FY12 we are maintaining our net sales forecast of $925mn (+21% Y/Y vs. management's outlook of 17-20% growth) but lowering our operating profit margin forecast to 18% from 19%. This is predominantly driven by a lower margin forecast at ETG of 22.2% vs. 25% previously. We are now assuming the business unit exits the year closer to 25% margins instead of full year average of 25%."Goldman Sachs Upgrades Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) to Neutral:Goldman Sachs says, "We raise our rating for Arch Coal to Neutral from Sell, as we see the risk/reward as now more balanced, with our prior concerns around thermal volume cuts and its balance sheet now largely discounted in the stock after lagging. Since adding ACI to the Sell List on 3/18/12 the shares are -40% vs. -22%/-6% for coal peers/S&P 500. Over the past 12 months ACI is -74% vs. -56%/0% for coal peers/S&P 500. ACI held a meeting with analysts in West Virginia on May 22-23. No major changes to company strategy, growth opportunities or M&A were disclosed."Keefe Bruyette & Woods Upgrades Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ: BSRR) to Outperform:Keefe Bruyette & Woods comments, "Shares of BSRR trade below peers despite PTPP profitability outperformance by the company. We believe the company's elevated credit costs account for the lower bottom-line profitability metrics, and ROE is further hampered by Sierra's higher capital cushion. While we admit that we remain cautious on future credit costs at the company given its current NPA level (8.55% of loans and OREO at 3/31/2012), we do not believe the discount to book and to peers is warranted given the company's core income generation capabilities. We also note that Sierra pays a cash dividend, while the majority of its peers do not."All of Benzinga's Analyst Ratings news can be viewed here.