Today's Upgrades and Downgrades....

Lowe's: Citigroup downgrades Buy to Hold. Citigroup downgraded LOW to Hold from Buy, as they believe both LOW and HD 4Q07 SSS are likely tracking below guidance, as continued housing market weakness and a faltering consumer are taking its toll. The firm notes that since 2008 EPS visibility is very limited, and they anticipate HD and LOW guidance to be cautious in February, and as such, they expect additional pressure on these stocks. Firm cuts their ests for both HD and LOW.

Motorola: Citigroup upgrades Hold to Buy. Citigroup upgraded MOT to Buy from Hold as the co is finally exploring a structural and strategic realignment of its businesses. The firm believes that this will serve as a meaningful catalyst to Motorola shares as investors will look past the drag from the underperforming handset business. Firm says their sum of the parts analysis indicates a value of $16 - $17, with fairly conservative assumptions.

Avid Tech: Kaufman Bros downgrades Hold to Sell . Target $28 to $15. Kaufman Bros. downgrades AVID to Sell from Hold and lowers their tgt to $15 from $28, following Q407 revenue results that exceeded firm estimates with EPS slightly lower and based on management's view of 2008 as a transition year.

Garmin: Needham & Co upgrades Hold to Buy. Target $85. Needham upgrades GRMN to Buy from Hold with an $85 noting GRMN shares are down almost 30% ytd and 45% from their peak late last year. While some new concerns, such as threat of a macro slowdown and maturing of the European market have recently been added to the traditional ones, the firm believes these concerns are likely more than baked into the current share price and must be balanced against the very robust nearterm performance of Garmin's business. Firm also says while they are impressed by the new Nuviphone and expect it will minimally be a modest success, they don't view it as critical to the shares working from here.

RF Micro Device: Needham & Co downgrades Strong Buy to Buy. Needham downgrades RFMD to Buy from Strong Buy with a $6 tgt following earnings and saying they are bullish on RFMD for the following reasons: 1) Healthy handset unit growth, 2) more than doubling of GaAs content per handset with the migration to 3G, 3) Pricing of GaAs components to stabilize as industry enters capacity constraint conditions, 4) Continued Ramp up of Polaris transceivers through C08 based on current design activity; 5) Several strategies to increase margins.

Medarex: Banc of America Sec upgrades Sell to Neutral. BofA upgraded MEDX to Neutral from Sell based on valuation. At current prices, the firm believes expectations for MDX-010, its lead compound for melanoma, are low for a timely approval and that downside is limited. Longer term, they continue to believe that MDX-010 is a drug with activity in a relatively small percentage of patients and that it will ultimately gain approval. They estimate ~$300 mln in peak sales for MDX-010 in 2012.

Bristol-Myers: Cowen & Co upgrades Neutral to Outperform. Cowen upgraded BMY to Outperform from Neutral following earnings. The firm says standout Q4 EPS growth were driven by better-than-expected revenues. Current product dynamics, a good pipeline, upcoming news events, and attractive yield make a standout investment case.