Stock Upgrades, Downgrades from TheStreet.com Ratings

Each business day, 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.

General Growth Properties(GGP Quote) is a real estate investment trust. It has been downgraded to a sell from a hold. The company's net losses widened to $9.4 million in the third quarter from $8.2 million in the same period last year, and its debt-to-equity ratio of 15.95 is currently higher than the industry average, implying that there is very poor management of debt levels. The company's stock price is down 14.63% in the last 12 months. Its decline might be one of the factors that may help make the stock attractive down the road, but right now, TheStreet.com Ratings believe it is too soon to buy. General Growth Properties had been rated a hold since February 2007.