At The Motley Fool, we poke plenty of fun at Wall Street analysts and their endless cycle of upgrades, downgrades, and "initiating coverage at neutral." So you might think we'd be the last people to give virtual ink to such "news." And we would be -- if that were all we were doing.

But in "This Just In," we don't simply tell you what the analysts said. We'll also show you whether they know what they're talking about. To help, we've enlisted Motley Fool CAPS, our tool for rating stocks and analysts alike. With CAPS, we'll be tracking the long-term performance of Wall Street's best and brightest -- and its worst and sorriest, too.

And speaking of the best ...
As market indices across the country turn green, shares of erstwhile photo king Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK) are taking a pinkish hue, smudged by an "initiation" of coverage from JPMorgan. The investment banker attached an "underperform" rating to the stock this morning, citing two main reasons for being pessimistic about the shares:

  • First, the film industry is going digital. This development (pun intended) is roiling the industry, creating new sets of winners and losers among companies large (NEC) and small (IMAX (NASDAQ:IMAX)) -- and smaller (Access Integrated (NASDAQ:AIXD)) and smallest (Ballantyne (NYSE:BTN)), too. JPMorgan sees the move from ordinary movie film to digital sapping profits from Kodak's entertainment imaging business.
  • Second, JPMorgan is not at all sanguine about the prospects for Kodak winning a price war with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) in the inkjet printer-and-cartridges space. HP's strategy has usually been to sell cheap machines, then make buyers pay through the nose on cartridges.

Granted, HP faces problems of its own in this space, as bricks-and-mortar retailers like Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) and Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS) roll out their in-store ink-refill services. But in JPMorgan's view, it's Kodak that has the greater problem here. Simply put, it's gambling that impulsive American consumers will think long-term, and pay for Kodak's pricier printers hoping to save money in the future on Kodak's cheaper ink.

JPMorgan doesn't have the greatest of track records among professional analysts. While it boasts a respectable CAPS rating of 85.32, the firm's record for accuracy is little better than that of your average flipped coin. But in this case, I happen to agree with the professionals. To paraphrase a truism, HP's never lost money betting on consumers' desire for immediate gratification. And Kodak's not going to make money betting against it.