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 forecast company earnings. Objective elements include volatility of past operating revenue, financial strength and company cash flows.

Golar LNG(GLNG Quote) has been upgraded to a buy from a hold. The company specializes in shipping liquefied natural gas. Earnings per share shot up 218.8% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006 compared with the same quarter a year earlier. The market is expecting Golar's earnings to continue to improve in the coming quarters. Along with this, the company's current net profit margin of 45.6% is significantly higher than the oil and gas storage and transportation industry average. Golar had been rated a hold since December 2005.

Canadian miner North American Palladium(PAL Quote) has been upgraded to a hold from a sell. The company made 9 cents per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2007 after eight quarters of declining EPS. North American Palladium's current debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41 is below the industry average. The company also seems to have the ability to cover its short-term liquidity needs. PAL had been rated a sell since May 2005. ...