Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ARX, AMSF, AMAT, MT, BP, BTI, CRZO, LFC, DOLE, ITMN, LNKD, MCD, MHP, NCR, ONXX, PTEN, PAA)

These are some of this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen having an impact from Wall Street research calls.

Aeroflex Holding Corp. (NYSE: ARX) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Amerisafe, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMSF) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Arcelor Mittal (NYSE: MT) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
BP PLC (NYSE: BP) Started as Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
British American Tobacco plc (NYSE: BTI) Raised to Overweight at CRedit Suisse.
Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (NYSE: LFC) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Dole Food Company Inc. (NYSE: DOLE) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Intermune, Inc (NASDAQ: ITMN) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) Started as Hold at Argus.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Reiterated Buy with $102 target at Argus.
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP) Raised to Buy at Argus.
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) Started as Buy at Oppenheimer.
Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ONXX) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PTEN) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE: PAA) is the Value stock of the day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG