Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: BAC, AEO, GOOG, X, BIDZ ...
Posted Oct 9th 2008 12:45PM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Google (GOOG), Bank of America (BAC), Analyst Initiations
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Analyst upgrades:
- Baird upgraded Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) to Outperform from Neutral citing valuation and long-term earnings power.
- Keefe Bruyette upgraded shares of Nationwide Financial (NYSE: NFS) to Outperform from Market Perform as it believes the deal is not at risk and will close at the agreed upon $52.25 price.
- Friedman Billings upgraded American Eagle (NYSE: AEO) to Outperform from Market Perform citing valuation.
- Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Natixis.
- W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at RW Baird.
- Fidelity National (NYSE: FIS) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust.
Analyst downgrades:
- Credit Suisse downgraded Eli Lilly NYSE:(LLY) to Neutral from Outperform citing the increased risk profile from the ImClone (IMCL) deal.
- Soleil downgraded Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to Hold from Buy as it believes Google's cost management may lag revenue weakness and that the falling stock price implies employee defections. The firm lowered its target to $350 from $580.
- Piper downgraded shares of Orbitz (NYSE:OWW) to Sell from Neutral to reflect deteriorating travel industry fundamentals and the company's levered balance sheet.
- US Steel (NYSE:X) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman.
- Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at ING Group.
- Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Soleil.
- Cemex (NYSE:CX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Citigroup.
Analyst initiations:
- Bidz.com (NASDAQ:BIDZ), American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) and Union Bankshares (NASDAQ:UBSH) were today's noteworthy initiations:
- Bidz.com (NASDAQ:BIDZ) was initiated with a Hold at Stamford, as the firm does not want to recommend a company that has never been tested during difficult economic times, but is positive on BIDZ's growth potential.
- American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) was initiated with a Hold at Stanford, as the firm believes the Euro decline and global market turmoil are near-term risks.
- Union Bankshares (NASDAQ:UBSH) was initiated with an Underperform at RBC Capital, as the firm views shares as overvalued.
- Regis Corp (NYSE:RGS) was initiated with a Neutral at RW Baird.
- CommVault's (NASDAQ:CVLT) coverage was resumed with a Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Tags: AEO, AMSC, BAC, BIDZ, CVLT, CX, FIS, GOOG, GWW, IMCL, inthenews, LAMR, LLY, NFS, OWW, PHG, RGS, UBSH, X
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-10-2008 @ 5:08AM
CoolerInvest said...
Too many comments from the analysts go nowadays to neutral statements, as an investment blog on www.doitinvest.com has noticed. It looks from outside that business as usual is a desperate hope from the analysts who project their wishes on their forecasts..