BloggingStocks

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: LSI, ESI, UBS, CS JBHT ...

Eric Buscemi — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:40:00 EST

Analyst upgrades:

Friedman Billings upgraded LSI Corp (NYSE: LSI) to Outperform from Market Perform as it believes the risk/reward is attractive at current levels as the company's near-term business trends are stabilizing. The firm maintains a $4 target on the stock.
Merriman upgraded shares of Medarex (NASDAQ: MEDX) to Neutral from Sell on valuation following the stock's 40% decline year-to-date.
Morgan Stanley upgraded ITT Educational (NYSE: ESI) to Overweight from Equal Weight. The firm believes valuation appropriately discounts risks from its internal lending program.
Noble (NYSE: NE) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman and added to the Conviction Buy List.
Energizer (NYSE: ENR) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Arch Chemicals (NYSE: ARJ) was upgraded at KeyBanc to Hold from Underweight.

Eric Buscemi — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:28:00 EST

Analyst upgrades:

Jefferies upgraded shares of Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) to Buy from Hold after their checks indicated Red Hat's November quarter results will be in-line due to solid Jboss sales. The firm also believes a potential new partnership with Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) could provide share upside.
Barclays upgraded Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) to Overweight from Equal Weight as they believe the company's competitive position will strengthen during the current downturn and that the company will gain share.
JP Morgan upgraded YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ:YRCW) to Neutral from Underweight following the announcement that the company and the Teamsters will vote on contract modifications.
Del Monte Foods (NYSE:DLM) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Stephens.
Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) was upgraded at Morgan Stanley to Equal Weight from Underweight.
Reliant Energy (NYSE:RRI) was lifted to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.

Analyst downgrades:

B. Riley downgraded shares of Hot Topic (NASDAQ:HOTT) to Neutral from Buy to reflect a lack of visibility into 2009 and valuation but raised their target price to $9.30 from $8.20.
Citigroup cut KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ:KLAC) to Hold from Buy to reflect their more offensive stance on the semi group as they view KLA-Tencor as a more defensive name. The firm lowered their target to $22 from $31.
KeyBanc downgraded Arch Chemicals (NYSE:ARJ) to Underweight from Hold citing global economic headwinds, the stronger dollar, pension costs, and continued weakness in North American housing, among other reasons.
Jo Ann Stores (NYSE:JAS) was cut to Hold from Buy at Soleil.
Calyon downgraded Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) to Outperform from Buy.
Amdocs (NYSE:DOX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman.

Eric Buscemi — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:43:00 EST

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The Aerospace sector, Boeing, Aurora Oil & Gas and Syniverse were today's noteworthy downgrades:

Goldman downgraded the Aerospace sector to Cautious from Neutral to reflect high oil prices and the weak economy. The firm also downgraded Boeing (NYSE: BA) shares to Sell from Neutral and added the stock to their Conviction Sell List as they expect the economic weakness and high fuel prices to drive slowing orders.
Jefferies downgraded shares of Aurora Oil & Gas (AMEX: AOG) to Underperform from Hold to reflect the company's falling production, minimal cash flow through the remainder of 2008, and limited access to capital.
Baird cut Syniverse (NYSE: SVR) to Neutral from Outperform as they believe the impact from the Verizon (NYSE: VZ)-Alltel merger could be greater than investors think.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

Arch Chemicals (NYSE: ARJ) was lowered at Oppenheimer to Perform from Outperform.
New York Community Bancorp (NYSE: NYB) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Citigroup.
Sonic (NASDAQ: SONC) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Stephens.