3 Stocks With Upgrades: AOL, Seacor, Qiagen

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The following stocks were upgraded Wednesday by TheStreet Ratings: AOL(AOL), Seacor Holdings(CKH) and Qiagen(QGEN).

AOL

The Internet services company reported earlier this month fourth-quarter earnings of $22.8 million, or 23 cents a share, down from year-ago earnings of $66.2 million, or 60 cents.

"We do not expect a particular catalyst for AOL this year other than continued execution on display ad growth both on owned and partner sites, " Miller Tabak analysts wrote in a Feb. 2 report. "Upside to our estimates might come from particularly telegraphed ad client wins."

Shares of AOL were upgraded to hold from sell by TheStreet Ratings.

AOL has an estimated forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.92; the average for Internet companies is 18.81. For comparison, both J2 Global(JCOM) and Earthlink(ELNK) have lower forward P/Es of 11.41 and 19.15, respectively.

Ten of the 16 analysts who cover AOL rated it hold. Five analysts gave it a buy rating and one rated it sell.

TheStreet Ratings gives AOL a C- grade. The stock closed Tuesday at $18.63 and has risen 23.38% year to date.