24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Calls of the Week (BAC, BBY, BIIB, BCSI, GOOG, LXK, MMI, NOK, ODP, ORCL, PAAS, RIMM, RVBD, S, SBUX, TEVA, VRSK, V)

We won’t bother telling you what hard week this was, but we will tell you that at least some smart-money investors are out looking for bargains right now since stocks have sold off so much and since they can’t make any money in bonds now.  We cover about 15 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations each morning that are moving stocks.  After going through these and filtering the noise out, we often find some very smart calls and very intuitive calls that offer great upside.  Unfortunately we also sometimes find some just awful research calls.  These become the Top Analyst Calls of the Week.

This week’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations were seen in shares of the following: Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY); Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB); Blue Coat Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BCSI); Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG); Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE: LXK); Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (NYSE: MMI); Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK); Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP); Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL); Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS); Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM); Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD); Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S); Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX); Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA); Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK); and Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V).

In this week’s calls we have pointed out the summary, the price action, an impact elsewhere, and have added color in on some of the summaries.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) may have been defended a week before by Dick Bove of Rochdale, but the stock slid further to close the week out at $6.97.  Investors better hope that Credit Suisse knows something that no one else knows.  On Wednesday, after a $7.40 close the day before, Credit Suisse maintained its Buy rating but lowered target to $14.00.  This was a downgrade light, but frankly that is a double over the next year “IF” the call is accurate.

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is trying to stabilize now that shares are down another 20% or so from the post-earnings reaction.  The valuation is dirt cheap here when you consider its recent guidance, even if a sensible analysis would say that the estimates might need to come in some more.  It trades at less than 8-times earnings.  S&P Equity Research said “enough is enough” late on Thursday and raised the rating to “Buy” due to dirt cheap valuation and too much of a sell-off.

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) is one that every analyst under the sun had already upgraded when it was above $100, but now shares have sold off with the market.  On Thursday came an upgrade to Outperform with a $109 price target by Oppenheimer.  This implies upside of about 20%, but it is interesting to know that the $109.00 high had been hit back on June 30.

Blue Coat Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BCSI) had a disaster of an earnings report and the stock fell from $17.68 to $13.31 in a day, only to drop the following day and then to close out the week on an even lower down-note at $12.54.  Fugly you say.  The analysts all got it wrong and there were many lemmings here… Downgrades were issues after the fact by Piper Jaffray, BofA/ML, Sten Agee, Needham, Lazard, and Miller Tabak.  Sometimes there is just a case where no one gets the call right. Some were already at “Hold” or at “Neutral” ahead of the report.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was given a controversial call after its Motorola Mobility acquisition this week.  The equity rating was downgraded to SELL with a $500 target at S&P Equity Research late on Tuesday.  What made this one son interesting is that Google had been reaffirmed strongly by S&P Credit Ratings earlier that same day.

Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE: LXK) was perhaps luck perhaps charm…. The printer company was downgraded to Sell early Monday morning at Goldman Sachs.  The stock closed at $31.69  on Friday, opened at $30.42 on Monday, and closed out the week at $28.46.  The analyst will count that as a savings of about 10%, but they still would have saved you about 5% had you taken notice of the call.

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (NYSE: MMI) was very under-loved before Google decided it would plunk down billions to buy the smartphone maker.  Some were bullish, but kudos to Raymond James for having a Strong Buy rating before the buyout.  They downgraded the stock to Underperform after the deal was announced.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) is another one that can use all the help it can get.  Help came, at least verbal help, after it was raised to Hold at Jefferies on Thursday.  Removing another “Sell” equivalent rating is a plus even if that doesn’t sound like much of an endorsement.

Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP) had a bad week and sold off every day except for Monday, so any upgrade is so far not looking too solid.  Still, on Wednesday the beaten office products company was raised to Neutral at UBS after having previously been called a “Sell”.  Neutral might not sound like much, but after losing close to 60% of the stock value from a year-high anything sounds great.

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) was by FBR Capital on Monday to the prized TOP PICK category.  The stock closed down on the week due to a poor market and bad technology stock trading, but this won’t have anything to do with the real ultimate outlook by FBR. The stock is down about 10% from when the call was made and that includes the mix of news from Salesforce.com and from H-P.

Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) has been a wishy-washy and flaky stock with the wild market and with the wild ride of gold and silver.  This one was raised to “Buy” at Canaccord Genuity on Wednesday after having been previously downgraded at the end of July when the stock was close to 10% higher than the current price.  Apparently the devil’s metal is alive and well after having closed above $42.00 on Friday.

Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) had a controversial week, sort of, after the Motorola-Google deal as some are speculating that the smartphone maker of the Crackberry (now called the crap-berry or dingle-berry) could be the next acquisition.  The announced death of what is left of Palm this week may make this one obsolete.  A very late to the game call was given on Tuesday when RIM was Cut to Sell at Societe Generale.  The gutsy call, or at least the ‘less bad’ call came on Friday on RIM when the stock was raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.  Jefferies call is based upon enough is enough…

Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) had an awful week along with the bulk of technology companies.  The stock had already been beaten up and on Tuesday morning it was Raised to Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.  Shares fell almost another 20% before it was all said and done and the stock is now down half from the mid-July pre-earnings report.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) has a bottom fishing call out this last week after the battered cellular carrier was raised to Buy at Collins Stewart.  The price target is $5.00 per share, leaving an implied upside of about 46% from the $3.42 close on Friday if these guys end up being correct.  If any truth to the Clearwire merger possible report is real, this call could become very interesting (and controversial).

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) may have already pulled back to less pricey levels from the $40.00+ peak in July, but on Thursday the research team at Oppenheimer Cut to the rating down to Perform from Outperform.  This is symbolic because it implies that the best juice from its great and successful turnaround has been milked.  Food for thought, or coffee for thought.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA) cannot seem to catch a break anywhere and the stock keeps getting cheaper and cheaper on the valuation front when you consider that it is actually supposed to grow earnings even after the problems it has seen.  The stock was initiated in new coverage on Thursday with an ‘Outperform’ rating and fair value of what was said to be $49 to $50 at Leerink Swann.  Being a Teva Bull has been a painful exercise for many analysts in 2011.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was perhaps a tag-along call and perhaps something else for the risk management and analytics company serving insurance, mortgage, and healthcare markets.  What is interesting here is that an upgrade came after it was listed as a new Warren Buffett stock holding this week.  On Friday it was raised to Outperform with a $39.00 price target at KBW and the stock closed at $31.64 on Friday as well.

Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V) closed up on Monday after the credit card processing giant was raised to the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.  The market knocked the stock way down though by about $6.00 to $79.60.  That is a big discount now to the $96.00 price target.

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JON C. OGG