Google (GOOG) (HLF) (MDP) (SCOR) (TJX) (CAVM) Get New Coverage

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF), Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP), COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), TJX Companies Inc (NYSE: TJX) and Cavium Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM) get new coverage from analysts.

Credit Agricole initiated coverage on Google (GOOG). They placed a “Buy” rating on the company.

SunTrust initiated coverage on Herbalife Ltd. (HLF). They placed a “Buy” rating on the company.

Piper Jaffray (NYSE:PJC) initiated coverage on Meredith Corporation (MDP). They placed an “Overweight” rating on the company.

Piper Jaffray initiated coverage on COMSCORE, Inc. (SCOR). They placed a “Neutral” rating on the company.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) initiated coverage on TJX Companies Inc (TJX). They placed a “Buy” rating on the company.

MKM Partners initiated coverage on Cavium Networks, Inc. (CAVM). They placed a “Neutral” rating and a price target of $40.00 on the company.

Ratings on (SCOR) (SRE) (TK) (TTI) Reiterated

Ratings on COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), Teekay Co. (NYSE: TK) and Tetra Technologies Incorporated (NYSE: TTI) were reiterated by analysts.

Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) reiterated a “buy” rating on COMSCORE, Inc. (SCOR).

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) reiterated a “buy” rating on Sempra Energy (SRE).

Sterne Agee reiterated a “buy” rating on Teekay Co. (TK). They have a price target of $45.00 on the company.

Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) reiterated a “buy” rating on Tetra Technologies Incorporated (TTI). They have a price target of $17.00 on the company.

Yahoo (YHOO) Loses, (MSFT) (GOOG) Gain Search Share

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) gained search share in March, according to ComScore Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR), as did Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing, while Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) again lost share.

Search share for Google climbed to 65.7 percent in March, up from $65.4 percent in February. Bing's share jumped to 13.9 percent, increasing from 13.6 percent the month before. Yahoo's share fell from 16.1 percent in February to 15.7 percent in March.

It's hard to tell if this is in response to some changes Google made in improve the relevance of its results, which affected about 12 percent of search result queries.

Google was trading at $574.44, gaining $3.83, or 0.67 percent, as of 2:28 PM EDT. Microsoft was trading at $25.71, gaining $0.07, or 0.27 percent. Yahoo was at $16.60, up $0.24, or 1.47 percent.

ComScore (SCOR), Nielsen (NLSN) Patent Infringement Battle Heats Up

In the second round of the legal battle between Internet metric firms ComScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) and Nielsen Holdings (NYSE:NLSN), comScore has fired back with a counter suit against Nielsen, also alleging infringement of patents, according to a regulatory filing of comScore.

Nielsen filed a lawsuit against comScore on March 16 in U.S. District Court making similar claims.

Nielsen said in a statement, "While we support vigorous competition in the marketplace, that competition must be fair and respect intellectual property rights. Nielsen does not take such matters lightly and only after thorough analysis and consideration did we file this action. We look forward to a fair and appropriate resolution."

ComScore said it "intends to vigorously protect its intellectual property and defend itself."

Both companies are seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief.

Comscore closed Tuesday at $27.97, gaining $0.19, or 0.68 percent. Nielsen closed at $27.15, up $0.15, or 0.56 percent.

comScore's (NASDAQ:SCOR) Earnings Growth Estimated at 20 Percent

With expectations fourth quarter results for comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) will come in at the high end of guidance, Needham says they expect that to continue on into 2011 and earnings growth in the foreseeable future averaging about 20 percent.

Needham said, "We expect SCOR’s 4Q10 results to come in at the high-end of guidance, driven by strong renewals during the busiest renewal period, healthy contract size increases at renewal, improved small-client churn, and continued integration execution of recent acquisitions. We expect 2011 to be defined by continued solid core growth and new product development and introductions. Given this, and our view that SCOR can generate - 20% earnings growth w/ high ROIC for the foreseeable future, we are reiterating our rating."

Needham & Company reiterates a "Buy" rating on comScore, which closed Wednesday at $21.97, down $0.18, or 0.81 percent. Needham has a price target on them of $26.