Big move today in Isilon Systems (ISLN): shares of the storage systems company have jumped $1.08, or 19.9 percent, to $6.49, on volume of more than 660,000 shares, or more than 4x the daily average. Today’s rise boosts the company’s three-day rally to 33 percent.

So, what’s going on here?

Well, here’s what I know.

Chris Blessington, the company’s senior VP of marketing and communications, notes in an interview with Tech Trader Daily that management has been on the road getting the word out to investors, press, analysts and customers about the company’s big push into the virtualization market, where it is taking on NetApp (NTAP). Blessington notes that the company was in New York on Monday and Tuesday talking to potential investors in a series of meetings arranged by Needham & Co.

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Faint praise seems the order of the day when dipping into depressed stock prices. Needham & Co.’s Charlie Wolf this morning upgraded shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) from “Underperform” to “Hold,” writing that the fall in price from $105 in July to $60 and change today fairly reflects potential for slowing of sales of BlackBerrys to consumers in the quarter ending next month. (Remember that RIM shares traded at $130 as recently as August.) Wolf says sales of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone appear to be “materially higher than initial forecasts” and so couches RIM’s problems in the context of Apple’s encroachments on the smartphone business.

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On the heels of Netflix’s (NFLX) problems last week getting DVDs out the door to subscribers, Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf initiated coverage this morning of Blockbuster (BBI) with a “Hold” rating. Wolf says that while the company is throwing lots of things at the wall to “see if it sticks,” it’s not clear the company will get the increase in same-store sales it needs to offset the drag on earnings from its 6,000 retail outlets. He did not offer a target price.

“Blockbuster’s major problem lies in its base of 6,000 stores,” writes Wolf. “The company’s challenge and opportunity is wrapped up in the relatively large fixed expenses entailed in operating its stores.” Blockbuster revenue barely covers the cost of running the stores, but even a modest tick up in same-store sales could “transform a basically break-even operation into a highly profitable one,” writes Wolf.

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Talk about the horse and the barn door.

Amid a 38-percent plunge in shares of chipmaker Anadigics (ANAD) following a gloomy pre-announcement last night, analyst Pierre MacCagno of Needham & Company today reiterated his “strong buy” rating on the stock while cutting his price target from $14 to $6. Thanks for the heads-up.

To recap, Anadigics yesterday announced that for its current third fiscal quarter, cellphone makers have shown less demand for its chips, and the company is putting off some chip production, leading it to revise its revenue expectation from a range of $75 million to $81 million, given back on July 22, to $62 million to $65 million. Ouch!

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