Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades and Initiations: CTXS, DE, GPI, NTAP, VMI, XNPT ...

Analyst Upgrades

JPMorgan upgraded Deere (DE) to overweight from neutral and raised its target on shares to $65 from $52. JPMorgan believes the company's fundamentals are improving and sees signs of a recovery in forestry, turf and earth-moving equipment.
Piper Jaffray upgraded Valmont (VMI) to neutral from underweight on valuation following the company's Q4 results. The firm lowered its target price on shares to $70 from $74.
Soleil upgraded Group 1 Automotive (GPI) to buy from hold on valuation with a $36 price target. The firm believes negative news flow for Toyota has created an opportunity to accumulate shares.
Bernstein upgraded Deutsche Telekom (DT) to outperform from market perform.
Nucor (NUE) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at BofA/Merrill.
American Eagle (AEO) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.

Analyst Downgrades

Deutsche Bank downgraded XenoPort (XNPT) to hold from buy after the FDA issued a Complete Response Letter for Horizant. The firm believes the odds are low the drug gets approved in the near term. Shares were also downgraded to sell from hold at Argus and to equal weight from overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Canaccord sees less upside to NetApp's (NTAP) revenue targets and believes operating margins have peaked. The firm downgraded shares to hold from buy and has a $34 target on the stock. Shares were also downgraded to market perform from outperform at BMO Capital.
Leerink downgraded Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) to market perform from outperform, citing valuation.
Anglogold (AU) was downgraded to neutral from buy at UBS.
Watsco (WSO) was downgraded to hold from buy at KeyBanc.
Andersons (ANDE) was downgraded to neutral from overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Analyst Initiations

UBS started Citrix Systems (CTXS) with a neutral rating and $47 target and VMware (VMW) with a buy rating and $54 target.
Cameron (CAM) was initiated at BofA/Merrill with a buy rating.
Deutsche Bank assumed MDC Partners (MDCA) with a buy rating and $11 target.
AGCO Corp (AGCO) was initiated with a hold rating at Morgan Joseph.
Ziopharm (ZIOP) was initiated with an outperform rating and $7 target at JMP Securities.
Dril-Quip (DRQ) was initiated with a buy rating at BofA/Merrill.