Analyst Upgrades: NVIDIA, Global Payments, Northrop Grumman

Analysts are weighing in on visualization specialist NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), commercial transaction concern Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN), and security company Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on NVDA, GPN, and NOC. 

• MKM Partners added NVDA to its list of "Top Stock Picks for 2016." The honor is well-deserved, considering the stock has surged over 64% year-to-date to sit at $32.97, and earlier this month touched a nearly eight-year high of $33.81. Ahead of the bell, NVIDIA Corporation is up another 0.2%. Not everyone's boarded the bullish bandwagon, though. In fact, over half of the analysts tracking NVDA have designated it a "hold" or worse. Long story short, there's plenty of room for future upgrades to keep the shares streaking up the charts.

• GPN announced last night it is buying rival Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE:HPY) for $4.3 billion. The news has been well-received by analysts, where Susquehanna, Cowen and Company, and Citigroup have each raised their price targets on Global Payments Inc. Nonetheless, the stock is bracing for a 10% drop out of the chute, after closing at $71.42 yesterday -- not far from its Dec. 10 record high of $74.64. Expectations have been ramping up at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). GPN's 20-day call/put volume ratio across that trio of exchanges is 6.69, meaning traders have bought to open nearly seven calls for every put over the past month.

• NOC saw its rating lifted to "overweight" from "neutral" at J.P. Morgan Securities, which also boosted its price target to $212 from $201 -- deeper into uncharted territory. On the charts, the shares have advanced an impressive 27.4% in 2015 to rest at $187.84 -- within striking distance of their late-October all-time peak of $193.99, fueled by a potentially lucrative Air Force contract. Nonetheless, option traders have been betting bearishly on Northrop Grumman Corporation in recent months. The stock's 50-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX put/call volume ratio of 0.92 outstrips 80% of all comparable readings taken during the past 52 weeks. Likewise, NOC's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 2.01 indicates short-term put open interest doubles call open interest -- and also rests in the 91st percentile of its annual range. In pre-market trading, the shares are pointed 1.1% higher.