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Analyst upgrades:- Jefferies upgraded MSC Industrial (NYSE:MSM) to Buy from Hold after meeting with management as they believe shares are attractive at current levels. The firm raised their target price to $44 from $32.
- UBS upgraded DuPont Fabros (NYSE:DFT) to Buy from Neutral and raised their target to $7 from $2. The firm believes DuPont Fabros will receive a waiver on its CH1 Construction loan for at least a year.
- Royal Bank of Scotland upgraded Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's derisking of its trading book.
- Smith & Nephew (NYSE:SNN) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman and added to the Conviction Buy List; Cigna (NYSE:CI) was also added to the Conviction Buy List.
- Affymetrix (NASDAQ:AFFX) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
- Airtran Holdings (NYSE:AAI) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jesup & Lamont.
Analyst downgrades:
- Keefe Bruyette downgraded American Capital (NASDAQ:ACAS) and Allied Capital (NYSE:ALD) to Underperform from Market Perform and Apollo Investment (AINV) to Market Perform from Outperform as they expect a dividend reduction due to the weakness in the credit markets.
- UBS downgraded shares of British Airways (OTC:BAIRY) to Neutral from Buy as they expect weak demand for leisure and corporate air travel to continue.
- Oppenheimer cut DryShips (NASDAQ:DRYS) to Underperform from Perform as they believe the company's $500M shelf offering will be highly dilutive. The firm set an $8 target on the stock.
- UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) was removed from Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
- Citrix Systems (NASDAQ:CTXS) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse and to Neutral from Buy at Banc of America/Merrill.
- iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) was lowered to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan.
- Wunderlich believes IberiaBank (NASDAQ:IBKC) is well-positioned to continue to benefit from industry disruption. Shares were initiated with a Buy rating and $50 target.
- Maxim initiated Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) with a Sell rating and $29 target based on valuation and concerns that the weak macro economic will result in increased seasonality and subscriber growth volatility.
- Auriga started Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) with a Sell rating and $8 target. The firm believes the company's business will remain at low levels into 2010, which is not priced into the stock.
- Grainger (NYSE:GWW) was assumed with an Equal Weight rating at Barclays.
- American Public Education (NASDAQ:APEI) was initiated with an Overweight rating at Morgan Stanley.
- DaVita (NYSE:DVA) was initiated at RBC Capital with an Outperform rating and $58 target.
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