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First Financial posts

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: LEN, RDC, FFIN, SII, AN, ACHN, UA, LULU, JST

Analyst upgrades:

Citigroup upgraded Lennar (NYSE: LEN) to Buy from Hold as it believes the company's near-term liquidity profile is improved following the $400M debt issuance. The firm raised its target price to $12 from $11.
Jefferies upgraded Rowan Companies (NYSE: RDC) to Buy from Hold as it believes jack-up drillers will continue to outperform deepwater names. The firm raised its target price to $27 from $20.
Keefe Bruyette upgraded First Financial (NASDAQ: FFIN) to Market Perform from Underperform to reflect more positive loan data for the Texas banks. The firm raised its target price on shares to $44 from $38.
MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at JMP Securities.
Brinker (NYSE: EAT) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: First Financial, TriZetto and General Electric were today's noteworthy downgrades:

Keefe Bruyette downgraded shares of First Financial (NASDAQ: FFBC) to Underperform from Market Perform on valuation, as they believe the stock trades at a premium to the group despite limited upside to normalized earnings and near term revenue headwinds.
TriZetto (NASDAQ:TZIX) was cut at Jefferies to Hold from Buy based on Friday's go-private announcement, as they view the $22 deal price as fair.
General Electric (NYSE: GE) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns and to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer following the company's earnings miss and reduced guidance.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

Deustche Bank downgraded SPX Corp (NYSE: SPW) to Hold from Buy.
Morgan Stanley cut British Airways (OTC:BAIRY) to Underweight from Equal Weight.
Cymer (NASDAQ: CYMI) was lowered at Credit Suisse to Underperform from Neutral.