Analyst calls: AIG, RACK, FIG, AAPL, BBBY ,IFX ...
Posted Aug 5th 2008 11:15AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Apple Inc (AAPL), Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Analyst initiations
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Analyst upgrades:
- Merrill upgraded shares of AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) to Neutral from Underperform to reflect the company's pipeline momentum and lack of negative catalysts.
- Keefe Bruyette upgraded Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation as they believe DB should trade at a higher multiple.
- Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) was raised at HSBC to Overweight from Neutral.
- American International (NYSE: AIG) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
Analyst downgrades:
- Merrill cut Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) to Underperform from Neutral as the firm sees better opportunities elsewhere in the sector.
- Merriman downgraded Rackable Systems (NASDAQ: RACK) to Neutral from Buy following the company's mixed Q2 results to reflect its customer concentration and fluctuating margins.
- Janus Capital (NYSE: JNS) was downgraded at JP Morgan to Underweight from Neutral.
- Fortress (NYSE: FIG) was cut to Sell from Hold at Citigroup.
Analyst initiations:
- UBS believes Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has a competitive advantage and their checks indicate new Macs, new iPhone colors and potentially new iPods may come early on in the second half of 2008. The firm initiated shares with a Buy rating and $195 target. UBS also initiated Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) at Neutral.
- KeyBanc initiated Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) with an Underweight rating and $25 target based on slowing core growth at Bed Bath and likely margin erosion from the ramp in growth at Christmas Tree Shops and buybuy Baby.
- Infineon (NYSE: IFX) was initiated with a Buy rating at Deutsche Bank.
Tags: aapl, aig, azn, bbby, db, dell, fig, hpq, ifx, inthenews, jns, nvo, rack, rds.a
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