Visa (V) (WPI) (WSR) (FTNT) (HOG) (AKAM) Get New Coverage

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), Watson Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NYSE: WPI), Whitestone Reit (NYSE: WSR), Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT), Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE: HOG) and Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM) getting new analyst coverage.

Leerink initiated coverage on Watson Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (WPI). They placed a “Market Perform” rating on the company.

Sterne Agee initiated coverage on Visa Inc. (V). They placed a “Buy” rating and a price target of $110.00 on the company.

Ladenburg Thalmann initiated coverage on Whitestone Reit (WSR). They placed a “Buy” rating and a price target of $13.50 on the company.

Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) initiated coverage on Fortinet, Inc. (FTNT). They placed a “Hold” rating on the company.

Keybanc initiated coverage on Harley-Davidson, Inc. (HOG). They placed a “Positive” rating and a price target of $48.00 on the company.

Jefferies initiated coverage on Akamai Technologies (AKAM). They placed an “Underperform” rating and a price target of $18.00 on the company.

Micron Technology (MU) Looks Strong on DRAM Prices

Saying it appears the fallout from the earthquake in Japan in the chip industry will continue to put upward pressure on DRMA chip prices, which should benefit Micron, Sterne Agee chip analyst Vijay Rakesh said he's maintaining a "Buy" rating on the company.

DRAM spot prices are already up 5 percent to 7 percent in the quarter and could go higher, says Rakesh.

Some manufacturers such as Rexchip and Powerchip could find their supply of wafers shrinking dramatically, as “Japanese OEMs are cutting out some of these arrangements,” which under normal conditions had been supplied up front by the companies, with payment coming after DRAM production.

With smartphone and tablet sales continuing to soar, that is another factor which could have a strong impact on the supply of wafers.

Micron closed Thursday at $11.47, falling $0.11, or 0.95 percent.

AMD's (AMD) Llano, Bulldozer Will Ship on Time Says Sterne Agee

AMD's (NYSE:AMD) Llano and Bulldozer chips are expected to ship on time, according to Sterne Agee semiconductor analyst Vijay Rakesh, with the Llano expected to ship in April and Bulldozer should be ready in the third quarter.

Rumors had been the two chips wouldn't be ready on time and would have a negative impact on the company.

Rakesh said he believes AMD will get a nice boost to its gross profit margin when laptops using Llano are offered in the next quarter in the U.S.

He maintains a "Buy" rating on AMD, which was trading at $8.40, gaining $0.04, or 0.42 percent, as of 12:42 PM EDT.

SanDisk (Nasdaq:SNDK) Gets Another Boost, This Time from Sterne Agee

SanDisk (Nasdaq:SNDK) has been getting a lot of positive attention from analysts lately, with the more recent being Sterne Agee, which boosted its rating on the stock today.

Sterne Agee analyst Vijay Rakesh noted the overall flash industry seems to be strengthening and within that, SanDisk is improving on its NAND flash memory chips, which they are moving toward 24 nanometer dimensions.

"We believe NAND fab capacity and supply will be key metrics to watch, especially as Micron ramps its Singapore fab in March 2010. But we believe both the Samsung Line16 and Toshiba Fab5 are coming on only in 2H11 and will be key supply channels to monitor. While SNDK has become more prudent in watching its supply, key will be how Samsung behaves with its fab coming on line. We believe Hynix still remains under pressure in bringing on NAND supply given a big debt load," said Rakesh.

The good news is demand will probably remain solid for NAND flash, based on the increasing exposure they're getting from the tablet and smartphone sector. Prices also appear to be holding stronger than expected, looking to remain level, rather than drop 5 percent, which Rakesh had believed they would earlier.

Even with the positive comments, Rakesh still likes Micron (NASDAQ:MU) and Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) over SanDisk at this time.

He boosted his estimates for SanDisk to $1.4 billion in revenue and $1.22 in EPS for Q2, from $1.3 billion and $1.03, and increased his full year estimate from $5.6 billion and $4.03 a share to $5.9 billion and $4.66 a share.

SanDisk was trading at $49.90, gaining $2.10, or 4.39 percent, as of 12:16 PM EST. Sterne has a price target of $65 on SanDisk.