Jun. 1--If you believe in the stock market as a judge, Saft Groupe SA seems to be a highly regarded corporation.

The Paris-based company -- which last week announced a proposal to build a $200 million, 800-job plant in Jacksonville -- has basically kept its value over the past two years while other stocks have tanked.

The SBF-120 index of 120 stocks traded on the Euronext Paris exchange has lost about 50 percent of its value since peaking in early June 2007. But Saft is about even with its price from two years ago, closing Friday at 29.39 euros. Saft went public in June 2005 at 26 euros per share.

According to Thomson Financial, nine of 12 analysts following Saft have a "buy" or "strong buy" rating on the stock.

Saft describes itself as "a world specialist in the design and manufacture of high-tech batteries for industry." The company reported sales in the first quarter this year fell 2.9 percent to 145.6 million euros (about $103 million).

"Saft has achieved an overall satisfactory performance in the first quarter 2009 in light of the very challenging economic conditions. Quarterly sales registered a year-over-year reduction, but our performance in most markets was in line with expectations," Chairman John Searle said in a news release.

Saft said its Jacksonville plant "will produce lithium-ion cells and integrate batteries for military vehicles, aviation, smart grid support, broadband backup power and emerging applications such as energy storage for renewable energy."

The company's Jacksonville plans are contingent on an application to the U.S. Department of Energy for a $100 million grant, and on receiving city and state incentives.

WINN-DIXIE GETS A BOOST: FBR Capital Markets analyst Karen Short upgraded her rating on Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. on Friday from "market perform" to "outperform." She said in a research note that the stock is "unnecessarily cheap" given business trends for the Jacksonville-based supermarket chain.

"As demonstrated by third-quarter results, we think the company is executing extremely well in this environment," Short said.

Winn-Dixie reported last month earnings for the third-quarter ended April 1 of 30 cents a share. Analysts had projected earnings of between 7 cents and 22 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial.

FLOWERS FOODS FALLS ON REPORT: Flowers Foods Inc. fell $1.29 to $21.63 on Wednesday in very heavy trading after its first-quarter earnings report.