Stock Upgrades and 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.

Discount retail giant Wal-Mart(WMT Quote) has been downgraded to a hold from a buy, which it had maintained since October 2006. The company's net operating cash flow fell 50.6% in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the same quarter a year ago. ...