- Piper Jaffray upgraded Red Hat (RHT) to overweight from neutral.
- Honeywell (HON) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Cowen.
- Regal-Beloit (RBC) and Actuant (ATU) were upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.
- RW Baird upgraded MedAssets (MDAS) to outperform from neutral.
- Savvis (SVVS) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at William Blair.
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Continue reading Analyst Calls: COST, HON, NFLX, NOC, PCP, RHT, TGT, TXT, WMT ...
Analyst downgrades: Corinthian Colleges, MSC Industrial, HBOS Plc
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Corinthian Colleges, MSC Industrial and HBOS Plc were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Piper downgraded shares of Corinthian Colleges (NASDAQ: COCO) to Neutral from Buy as they expect the company to face difficulty maintaining Title IV lending at its high default rate schools.
- Jefferies downgraded shares of MSC Industrial (NYSE: MSM) to Hold from Buy on valuation, as there is not enough upside to their $50 target to maintain a Buy rating
- Credit Suisse lowered HBOS Plc (OTC: HBOOY) to Underperform from Neutral to reflect the weakening housing and mortgage environment.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein.
- B. Riley lowered Iomega (NYSE: IOM) to Neutral from Buy.
- Goldman downgraded Bare Escentuals (NASDAQ: BARE) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) to Neutral from Buy and Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) to Sell from Neutral.
Analyst upgrades: MSC Industrial, Prudential plc, GrafTech
MOST NOTEWORTHY: MSC Industrial, Prudential plc and GrafTech were today's noteworthy upgrades:
- William Blair upgraded shares of MSC Industrial (NYSE: MSM) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation and improved execution following the company's Q2 results.
- Keefe Bruyette raised Prudential plc (NYSE: PUK) to Outperform from Underperform as they believe the company's targets will be exceeded.
- Oppenheimer upgraded GrafTech (NYSE: GTI) to Outperform from Perform based on strong fundamentals, improving margins, and a strong 2008 order book.
OTHER UPGRADES:
- HFF Inc. (NYSE: HF) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
- Lehman raised Canadian Natural (NYSE: CNQ) to Overweight from Equal Weight.
Analyst downgrades: COGN, MSM, FAST, KPN and KOP
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cognos, MSC Industrial Direct, Fastenal Company, Royal Kpn and Koppers Holdings were today's noteworthy downgrades:- Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman and at Broadpoint following the acquisition by IBM (NYSE: IBM).
- Baird downgraded MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE: MSM) and Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST) to Neutral from Outperform, as they expect the difficult U.S. manufacturing environment to constrain shares.
- Credit Suisse lowered its rating on Royal Kpn (NYSE: KPN) to Neutral from Outperform based on Getronics integration risk and slowing mobile earnings momentum.
- Koppers Holdings (NYSE: KOP) was downgraded to Buy from Aggressive Buy at KeyBanc based on valuation and concerns on 1H08 comps.
- Goldman removed Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) from its Conviction Buy List.
- Gabelli downgraded shares of Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) to Sell from Buy.
- Stifel lowered its rating on Amerigroup (NYSE: AGP) to Hold from Buy.
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