Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: AAPL, BXP, MOT, NOK, S, RBS, TWC ...

Analyst Downgrades

• FBR Capital downgraded AvalonBay (AVB) and Equity Residential (EQR) to market perform from outperform after introducing 2011-2012 estimates for the sector. The firm lowered its target on AvalonBay to $80 from $85.50 and on Equity Residential to $33 from $38.
• Pali Capital downgraded Sprint Nextel (S) to neutral from buy on concerns the company's subscriber loss improvements are not enough to grow EBITDA.
• Jefferies downgraded El Paso Electric (EE) to hold from buy and lowered its target to $22.50 from $23 due to lower projected 2012 base rate.
• France Telecom (FTE) was downgraded to neutral from overweight at JPMorgan.
• Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was downgraded to sell from reduce at WestLB.
• Endo Pharma (ENDP) was downgraded to equal weight from overweight at Barclays.

Analyst Initiations

• Kaufman Bros. finds Baidu (BIDU) shares fairly valued and believes the stock is likely to be range-bound in near-term due to the Phoenix Nest transition. The firm started shares with a hold rating and $470 target.
• Time Warner Cable (TWC) was initiated with a buy rating and $55 target at Needham.
• Motorola (MOT) was initiated with an outperform rating and $11 target at Bernstein.
• Apple (AAPL) was initiated with a buy rating and $260 target at Calyon.
• Baker Hughes (BHI) was initiated with a hold rating at Stifel Nicolaus.
• Healthcare Realty Trust (HR) was initiated with a hold rating at KeyBanc.