TradingMarkets 7 stocks you need to know for today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for Thursday:

3Com (COMS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat by $0.03, ex-items. RBC raised the target price on the stock to $5. COMS's PowerRating is 6.

Merrill Lynch raised McDonald's (MCD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) to Buy from Neutral. MCD's PowerRating is 5.

Ethanol producer and marketer Aventine Renewable Energy debuts on the NYSE with the symbol "AVR."

Monsanto (MON | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat by $0.03. MON's PowerRating is 4.

Micron (MU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) beat by $0.04, but revenues were less than expected. The company also said it does not expect the Lexar merger to increase fourth-quarter revenues very much. MU's PowerRating is 6.

Paychex (PAYX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) was in-line at $0.32; revenue was greater than expected. The company guided lower, and now sees $1.37 - $1.39 for fiscal 2007 vs. a $1.40 consensus. PAYX's PowerRating is 5.

Red Hat (RHAT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported $0.07 and beat on revenues. RHAT's PowerRating is 5.

Brice Wightman

PowerRatings are Courtesy of PowerRatings.Net