Zacks Broker Upgrade Highlights: U.S. Steel, CONSOL, ITT Corporation and Adobe Systems

Business Wire, April 18, 2008

CHICAGO -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Broker Upgrades. Every week, Zacks editor Mark Vickery updates the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the Broker Upgrades include: U.S. Steel (NYSE: X), CONSOL (NYSE: CNX), ITT Corporation (NYSE: ITT) and Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE).

Here are highlights from Thursday's Broker Upgrades:

U.S. Steel Forges Ahead

Buoyed by high demand in the developing world and as commodity-based stocks continue to outperform, U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) sees an impressive rise in its Average Broker Recommendation (ABR), up 0.11 to 1.94 overall. Though the stock has been trading down this Thursday, macro trends favor the steel producing behemoth. We also note a Citigroup analyst has downgraded X to a Hold today, but in doing so kept his comments upbeat, nonetheless.

CONSOL Yielding Results

Large-cap U.S. coal producer CONSOL (NYSE: CNX) has also shown a notable improvement in ABR today, moving from 2.13 to 2.21. Another commodity-based company displays its present strength among analysts, even though CONSOL is also down on the day so far.

ITT Seems to Have "It"

With a favorable outlook to next week's expected earnings report, ITT Corporation's (NYSE: ITT) ABR today has jumped 0.08 to 1.98. ITT is trading a bit lower today, as well, but we note once again that macro-trends - in ITT's case, its businesses in controlling the flow of water, a vital commodity - are serving commodity-based firms well, at least in the eyes of the brokers.

Building Up with Adobe

Amid various discussions about why Apple would be wise to buy out Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE) at some point in the near future, as well as a roll-out of its new online media player, Adobe is another beneficiary of a strong ABR today: up 0.06 to go from 1.98 to 2.04. Once again we note a roughly 1% pullback in today's trading price, but considerations of ADBE's new media player seem to be favorable among brokerage firms, at least at this early stage.

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