Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: AMZN, LEAP, BBY, BANF, JBLU
Posted Jan 5th 2009 12:38PM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Amazon.com (AMZN), Best Buy (BBY), Analyst Initiations, JetBlue Airways (JBLU)
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Analyst upgrades:
- JP Morgan upgraded shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to Overweight from Neutral as they believe the company's market share gains in the e-commerce sector will continue and that new product lines are adding diversification of revenue streams.
- Wachovia upgraded Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP) to Outperform from Market Perform citing new market launches that should drive subscriber growth and reduced ARPU deterioration.
- Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Pride International (NYSE:PDE) to Buy from Hold as they believe investors will view the stock as a pure deepwater play beginning in Q2.
- PDL BioPharma (NASDAQ:PDLI) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
- Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
- Altera (NYSE:ALTR) was upgraded at Wachovia to Outperform from Market Perform.
Analyst downgrades:
- Keefe Bruyette downgraded Southside Bancshares (NASDAQ:SBSI), Prosperity Bancshares (NASDAQ:PRSP), Cullen/Frost (NYSE:CFR) and BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) to Underperform from Market Perform on valuation and the weakening economic outlook in the Southwest.
- Oppenheimer cut Varian Medial (NYSE:VAR) to Perform from Outperform as they believe U.S. hospitals could reduce capital spending budgets by 15%-25% in 2009.
- Dress Barn (NASDAQ:DBRN) was lowered to Neutral from Buy at SunTrust based on valuation and lack of near-term catalysts.
- JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) was downgraded at Jesup & Lamont to Hold from Buy.
- Credit Suisse cut Novellus (NASDAQ:NVLS) to Underperform from Neutral.
- Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
Analyst initiations:
- Merriman initiated Capstone Turbine (NASDAQ:CPST) with a Neutral rating and finds the stock fairly valued at current levels.
- Leerink sees a high likelihood that Momenta's (NASDAQ:MNTA) lead product candidates M-Enoxaparin and M-356 clear regulatory and legal hurdles. The firm has an Outperform rating and $16 fair value estimate on shares.
- NCI (NASDAQ:NCIT) was initiated with a Market Perform rating at Wachovia based on valuation.
- Teradyne (NYSE:TER) was assumed at Barclays with an Overweight rating and $6 target.
Tags: altr, amzn, banf, bby, cfr, cpst, dbrn, hele, jblu, leap, mnta, ncit, nvls, pde, pdli, prsp, sbsi, ter, var
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