Analyst calls: EBAY, DELL, WFC, RBS, STM, DNA . . .


Analyst upgrades:

  • Baird upgraded Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB), SunTrust (NYSE: STI) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) to Outperform from Neutral citing the ability to raise cheap capital following the Treasury's aggressive policy response.
  • Keefe Bruyette upgraded First Security Group (NASDAQ: FSGI), Amcore Financial (NASDAQ: AMFI) and Seacoast Banking (NASDAQ: SBCF) to Outperform from Market Perform to reflect the benefits of the government's TARP program.
  • Suntrust believes Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ: ZION) is disproportionately positioned to benefit from what should be a wave of industry fallout and consolidation over the next few years. Shares were upgraded to Buy from Neutral.
  • Cadbury (NYSE: CBY) was raised to Hold from Sell at ING Group.
  • Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman.
  • Genentech (NYSE: DNA) was upgraded at Piper Jaffray to Buy from Neutral.

Analyst downgrades:

  • HSBC downgraded shares of Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) to Neutral from Overweight on valuation and believes any revision to the terms of the government equity investment could lead to dilution and book value erosion.
  • Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) was cut to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan due to its high PC exposure.
  • STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) was cut to Underperform from Buy at Merrill Lynch as they believe 2009 consensus estimates are too high.
  • JMP Securities downgraded Movado (NYSE: MOV) to Market Perform from Outperform.
  • CGG Veritas (NYSE: CGV) was lowered to Underweight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  • Merrill downgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) to Underperform from Neutral.

Analyst initiations:

  • Suntrust initiated AmSurg (NASDAQ: AMSG) with a Neutral rating, citing reimbursement pressures, competition, lack of commercial pricing power and modest operating cost inflation.
  • Oppenheimer initiated Idenix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IDIX) with a Perform rating and believes shares are fairly valued at current levels.
  • Cross Country Healthcare (NASDAQ: CCRN) was initiated at Soleil with a Hold rating and $15 target. The firm believes Florida, the company's most important market, is still in the early stages of a turnaround.
  • FedEx (NYSE: FDX) was assumed with a Neutral rating and $75 target at Credit Suisse.
  • Penn National (NASDAQ: PENN) was started at Morgan Stanley with an Equal Weight rating.
  • Craig-Hallum initiated CH Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) with a Neutral rating and $45 target.
Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+6.5112,890.46
NASDAQ+11.372,927.23
S&P 500+1.991,351.95

Last updated: February 10, 2012: 04:57 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

19.13-0.11(-0.57)

Alcoa

10.64-0.03(-0.28)

Apple Inc

493.17+16.49(+3.46)

Google Inc 'A'

611.46+1.61(+0.26)

Bank of America

8.18+0.05(+0.62)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.96+0.34(+0.55)

Exxon Mobil Corp

84.88-0.44(-0.52)

Ford

12.69-0.15(-1.17)

Citigroup

33.66-0.57(-1.67)

IBM

193.13+0.18(+0.09)

Yahoo

16.00+0.22(+1.39)

Starbucks

49.20+0.48(+0.99)

Microsoft

30.77+0.11(+0.36)

Home Depot

45.27+0.10(+0.22)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    WalletPop Headlines

    DailyFinance BlackBerry App

    My Portfolios

    Track your stocks here!

    Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

    BloggingStocks Partners

    More from AOL Money & Finance

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    Page Loaded in 1328867879466 ms.