Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: MET, COST, WAG, CAG...
Posted Oct 3rd 2008 11:50AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Walgreen Co (WAG), Costco Wholesale (COST), Analyst initiations, Lloyds TSB Group plc ADS (LYG), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI)
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Analyst upgrades:
- Keefe Bruyette upgraded MetLife (NYSE: MET) to Outperform from Market Perform as they believe the company's capital and liquidity profile are very solid relative to this week's sell-off.
- The firm also upgraded shares of MSCI (NYSE: MXB) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation as they believe near-term challenges are already priced into shares.
- Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan based on valuation and strong pricing outlook.
- Costco (NASDAQ: COST) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
- Pali Capital lifted Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) to Neutral from Sell.
- Merrill upgraded Pall (NYS: PLL) and Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) to buy from Neutral.
Analyst downgrades:
- Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Trimble Navigation (NASDAQ: TRMB) to Perform from Outperform as they believe the company's Engineering and Construction division is facing a challenging period due to the credit market strain.
- Stephens downgraded Seacoast Banking (NASDAQ:SBCF) to Underweight from Equal Weight as they believe a dilutive capital raise is possible given future losses from real estate credits in coastal Florida.
- Friedman Billings cut Xyratex (NASDAQ:XRTX) to Market Perform from outperform at lowered its target to $13 to reflect credit concerns and risk of Western Digital (NYSE:WDC) reducing orders after the potential acquisition of Fujitsu operations.
- Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) was lowered to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
- Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP) was downgraded at Merrill Lynch to Underperform from Buy.
- Lloyds TSB Group (NYSE:LYG) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Societe Generale.
Analyst initiations:
- Janney Montgomery believes FuelCell Energy's (NASDAQ:FCEL) products are reaching an inflection point where it will be able to see a path to positive gross margins. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $8 target.
- Jefferies initiated TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) with a Buy rating and $38 target and believes the company's off-price business model offers a strong value proposition to price-sensitive consumers.
- Kaufman Bros. believes BTU International (NASDAQ:BTUI) will transition to a major equipment supplier for the thin-film and crystalline solar cell sector; shares were assumed with a Buy rating and $14 target.
- Spectranetics (NASDAQ:SPNC) was initiated at Caris with an Average rating and $5 target.
- Healthways (NASDAQ:HWAY) was started with a Hold rating at Deutsche Bank.
- ConAgra (NYSE:CAG) and Mentor (NYSE:MNT) were initiated with Neutral ratings and a $21 target and $26 target, respectively, at UBS.
Tags: analyst downgrades, analyst initiations, analyst upgrades, AnalystDowngrades, AnalystInitiations, AnalystUpgrades, bni, btui, cag, cost, FCEL, hway, lyg, met, mnt, mxb, pll, sbcf, sgp, spnc, tjx, trmb, vm, wag, wdc, xel, xrtx
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