It is going to be hard to get traders to care about mere upgrades and downgrades on a day when the Federal Reserve did an inter-meeting emergency rate cut to stave off a 500+ point drop in the DJIA. But here are some of the calls from analysts today:
- AFLAC inc. (AFL) raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
- American Express (AXP) downgraded to Hold at Citigroup.
- Barrick Gold (ABX) upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
- Cardtronics (CATM) started as Buy at Banc of America; started as Buy at Deutsche Bank; started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
- Kohl’s (KSS) & Lowe’s (LOW) raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
- lululemon althletica (LULU) downgraded to Underperform at BMO Capital.
- MedAssets (MDAS) started as Buy at Deutsche Bank; started as Neutral at Piper Jaffray; started as Market Perform at Wachovia.
- MetLife (MET) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.
- Medco Health Solutions (MHS) cut to Neutral at UBS.
- Teekay Tankers (TNK) started as Overweight at JPMorgan; started as Hold at Citigroup.
Jon C. Ogg
January 22, 2008