Benzinga's Top Upgrades with Color for May 9, 2012

Listed below are today's Top Upgrades at Benzinga:

Morgan Stanley said in the report, "Our cardiology deep dive suggests St. Jude is best positioned to benefit from new cardio markets and has more room for margin expansion. Durata concerns have pressured the stock, but likely fade after an uneventful Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) meeting. We're upgrading St. Jude to Overweight."

Morgan Stanley commented in the report, "We are upgrading our rating to EW as a result of the company's amended agreement to acquire eBioscience, a deal which should improve the long-term profitability, growth and stability of AFFX."

Sterne Agee said, "We are raising our rating from Underperform to Neutral. The stock is within 3% of our price target and is valued at a discount to its closest peer, CSH. There is still the risk that the company could miss EPS in the June or September quarter and we would not be buyers of the stock at this level."

Citigroup says, "Rationale for Our Upgrade — 1) DMD has anniversaried its traffic problems from Google's Panda updates; 2) DMD has diversified its eHow revenue dependency, where GOOG now accounts for 13% of eHow's revenue vs. 22% a year go; 3) DMD has become a potentially material play on the growth of Online Video due to its YouTube channels; 4) eHow appears on a path to sustainable growth – 2nd consecutive Q/Q growth; 5) Registrar biz remains a solid double-digit revenue grower, and could see some benefit from the gTLD domains in 2013; and 6) after a 44% correction since its IPO, DMD has become materially more reasonable at 6x 2013E EV/EBITDA."

In the report, Bank of America explained, "We are upgrading shares to Buy (from Underperform) and raising our P.O. to $52 (from $44) with a call that MGLN will retain its largest commercial behavioral health customer near term. The BCBS plan has not bid out the book, which comes up for renewal at year end 2012, and taking benefits in house would require longer lead times. This contract accounts for 5% of total revenue, but potentially ~15% of segment profit. MGLN will concede margin, but locking in terms limits contract termination risks ahead of some growth opportunities. Net, high FCF yields compensated for attrition historically, but a 10% FCF yield + 18% current market cap in cash more clearly reflects a discount to fair value today."