Analyst downgrades:

• JPMorgan downgraded BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ) to Neutral from Overweight. The firm believes food disinflation poses risk to the company's second half of 2009 SSS outlook and has a $34 target on the stock.
• Wells Fargo downgraded Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) to Market Perform from Outperform. The firm downgraded the stock on valuation, and because it expects same-store NOI growth to remain soft into 2010.
• Oppenheimer downgraded REIT shares citing the recent strength in the group. BioMed Realty Trust (NYSE: BMR) and Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) were cut to Outperform from Perform, while Washington REIT (NYSE: WRE) was lowered to Underperform from Perform.
• Volkswagen (OTC: VLKAY) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at HSBC.
• Boardwalk Pipeline (NYSE: BWP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Analyst initiations:

• Deutsche Bank initiated STEC (NASDAQ: STEC) with a Buy rating and $45 target. The firm believes the enterprise storage SSD market can grow significantly over the next couple of years and that STEC is attractively valued at current levels.
• Oppenheimer expects Ariad's (NASDAQ: ARIA) lead cancer drug, Ridaforolimus, will receive approval for sarcoma and estimates peak sales at $350M. Shares were started with an Outperform rating and $4 target.
• Oppenheimer also initiated American Physicians (NASDAQ: AMPH) with an Outperform rating. The firm believes that the company is poised to deliver attractive returns, since its book value increased by more than 10% last year.
• Merck (NYSE: MRK) was reinstated with a Buy rating and $34 target at BofA/Merrill.
• EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC) was initiated with an Overweight rating and $32.50 target at JPMorgan.
• DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) was initiated with an Overweight rating and $25 target at Morgan Stanley