Analyst upgrades: Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, Prestige Brands

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and Prestige Brands were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Wachovia upgraded Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to Outperform from Market Perform as they expect the retail brokerage unit to be valued higher due to its recurring revenue streams, shrinking competition in prime brokerage, deleveraging and continued strength in commodities.
  


• Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) to Overweight from Underweight following the company's rights offer and higher bad-debt provisions to reflect less concerns about its U.S. operations.
  


• Oppenheimer raised Prestige Brands (NYSE: PBH) to Perform from Underperform on valuation and the early turnaround progress made by the new CEO.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• TranSwitch (NASDAQ: TXCC) was upgraded at Thomas Weisel to Market Weight from Underweight.
  


• Goldman raised Nabors Industries (NYSE: NBR) to Buy from Neutral.
  


• Koppers Holdings (NYSE: KOP) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

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