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Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: MCD, BKC, F, GOOG, OZM, WMT

Analyst upgrades:
  • Goldman added McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) to its Conviction Buy List as they believe the company will beat their earnings expectations over the next couple quarters. Note that Burger King (NYSE:BKC) was removed from the list.
  • Baird upgraded Woodward Govenor (NASDAQ:WGOV) to Outperform from Neutral citing increased confident in its outlook following the better-than-expected Q1 report.
  • Citigroup upgraded Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) to Hold from Sell and removed shares from their Top Picks Live List as a Sell as they believe current expectations are very low following the recent weakness. Citigroup lowered their target price to $13 from $18.
  • Ford (NYSE:F) and Lear (NYSE:LEA) were upgraded to Hold from Sell at Deutsche Bank.
  • KT Corp (NYSE:KTC) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at HSBC.
  • Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Collins Stewart and to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
Analyst downgrades:
  • Goldman removed Burger King (NYSE:BKC) from its Conviction Buy List citing recent share strength. Note that McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) was added to the list.
  • Keefe Bruyette downgraded shares of Och-Ziff Capital (NYSE:OZM) to Market Perform from Outperform to reflect the company's near-term headwinds. The firm lowered their target to $5 from $6.50.
  • Morgan Stanley downgraded Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX), Alcoa (NYSE:AA), and Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) to Equal Weight from Overweight as they believe industrial metals will be depressed through next year.
  • Air France (Other OTC:AFLYY) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
  • Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) was lowered to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
  • Radware (NASDAQ:RDWR) was cut at Argus to Hold from Buy.
Analyst initiations:
  • Merriman initiated Suntech (NYSE:STP) with a Sell rating. The firm is concerned by the company's debt load and narrowing maturity and thinks further cost reduction in China could be a challenge. The firm believes a fair price target range is $3.50-$4.50 per share.
  • JMP Securities views Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) as a long-term "must buy" given its dominant market position, strong balance sheet, and low valuation. Shares were initiated with an Outperform rating and $400 target.
  • Auriga started Micron (NYSE:MU) with a Buy rating and $5 target. The firm expects DRAM oversupply to ease in the second half of 2009 and believes Micron will not burn significant cash this year.
  • Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) was initiated at Morgan Stanley with an Equal Weight rating and $41 target.
  • Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) was initiated with a Buy rating and $80 target at Wunderlich.
  • Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL) was started with a Buy rating and $16 target at Citigroup.

Analyst downgrades: RVBD, SIRI and ASML

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Riverbed Technology, Sirius Satellite and ASML Holdings were today's noteworthy downgrades:
  • Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD) to Hold from Buy after it negatively preannounced to reflect economic conditions and the company's lack of visibility.
  • Credit Suisse said shares of Sirius Satellite (NASDAQ: SIRI) are trading near fair value and that shares will probably trade in a range between mid-$2s to $3 in 2008. Shares were downgraded to Neutral from Outperform.
  • JP Morgan lowered ASML Holdings (NASDAQ: ASML) to Neutral from Overweight as they believe chip manufacturing equipment orders are suffering from the weak DRAM memory market.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
  • Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) was cut at Goldman to Neutral from Buy.
  • Tesco PLC (OTC: TSCDY) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Societe Generale.
  • RBC Capital cut Radware (NASDAQ: RDWR) to Sector Perform from Outperform.

Newspaper wrap-up: Some see bubble in oil

MAJOR PAPERS:
  • The office of the Massachusetts secretary of state is investigating whether Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) improperly traded mortgage-backed securities for its own account with two hedge funds that failed this past summer, without notifying in advance the funds independent directors, reported the Wall Street Journal.
  • The Schork Report's Stephen Schork sees an oil correction coming and predicted oil in the $65-$68 range, according to the Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" column.
OTHER PAPERS:
  • Insurer Aetna (NYSE: AET) has instituted a tighter reimbursement policy for Amgen's (NASDAQ: AMGN) anemia drugs, creating a setback for Amgen, reported the Los Angeles Times.
  • A consortium led by Icelandic investor Baugur is interested in making an offer for Saks (NYSE: SKS), reported the New York Post, but Saks will not consider a sale until the credit market improves.
  • From BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" section:
    • BusinessWeek suggested that US Airways' (NYSE: LCC) poor performance compared to it's competitors makes it an attractive target to be bought.
    • Rami Rosen of investment firm Oscar growth believes pacts like Radware's (NASDAQ: RDWR) venture with International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) will help to drive growth.
    • BusinessWeek hailed Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) performance, saying it is one of the few internet companies that has beaten Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Analyst upgrades 6-07-07: Semiconductor sector, DGX and FNM

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The semiconductor sector, Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) and Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE: FNM) were today's noteworthy upgrades:
  • Bernstein upgraded the semiconductor sector to Overweight form Market Weight on expectations that utilization will rise starting in Q2. The firm upgraded ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ: ASML) to Outperform from Market Perform and Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX) to Market Perform from Underperform.
  • UBS upgraded Quest Diagnostics to Buy from Neutral, citing Laboratory Corporation Of America Holdings' (NYSE: LH) contract renewal with Cigna HealthCare, which should ease concerns regarding deteriorating pricing.
  • Fannie Mae was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings, citing improving fundamentals, better business mix and the possibility the company reports current financials in the next 12-18 months.
OTHER UPGRADES:

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+30.6910,464.40
NASDAQ+6.872,176.05
S&P 500+4.981,110.63

Last updated: November 25, 2009: 06:56 PM

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