Stock Upgrades, Downgrades From TheStreet.com Ratings

Each weekday, TheStreet.com Ratings updates its ratings on the stocks it covers. The proprietary ratings model projects a stock's total return potential over a 12-month period, including both price appreciation and dividends. Buy, hold or sell ratings designate how the Ratings group expects these stocks to perform against a general benchmark of the equities market and interest rates.

While the ratings model is quantitative, it uses both subjective and objective elements. For instance, subjective elements include expected equities market returns, future interest rates, implied industry outlook and company earnings forecasts. Objective elements include volatility of past operating revenue, financial strength and company cash flows.

Financial services company H&R Block(HRB Quote) has been downgraded to sell. The company has seen deteriorating net income, weak debt management and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself. H&R Block recently posted a first-quarter loss of $302.6 million, or 93 cents a share, compared with a loss of $131.4 million, or 41 cents a share, a year ago.

The company said it had to renegotiate sale of its Option One Mortgage to Cerberus because of continued problems in the credit market. Cerberus has indicated it will buy only the mortgage servicing business, not Option One's origination business. Revenue increased 11% to $381.2 million but missed Wall Street's expectations. H&R Block had been rated hold since September 2006.