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.

Hotel operator Wyndham Worldwide(WYN Quote) has been initiated with a sell rating for several reasons, including the company's poor debt management on most measures. Wyndham's gross profit margin is rather high at 53%, but is still down from the year-earlier period. Return on equity is below the industry average. Third-quarter profit increased 27% to $117 million, or 65 cents a share, while revenue climbed 16% to $1.2 billion.

Wyndham has very weak liquidity. The Quick Ratio is 0.43, which shows a lack of ability to cover short-term cash needs. Stockholders' equity has decreased by 5.64% from a year ago. The key liquidity measurements indicate that the company is in a position where financial difficulties could develop in the near future.