Each morning we review our top upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall St. research notes. We then look back over these at the end of the week to more closely review calls that highlight underlying catalysts or developments that go far beyond just a one-day impact. Many calls turn out to offer keen insight, but some get a failing grade.

This last week’s top analyst calls of the week were in the following: Carbonite Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB); Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW); Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG); Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC); Logitech International SA (NASDAQ: LOGI); Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU); MAKO Surgical Corp. (NASDAQ: MAKO); McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD); Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP); Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG); Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P); Renren Inc. (NYSE: RENN); Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO); Yandex NV (NASDAQ: YNDX); Youku.com Inc. (NYSE: YOKU); Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS); Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC).

Carbonite (NASDAQ: CARB) was one of the most mispriced IPOs for 2011, but to the downside by our take due to poor market conditions. The cloud storage player saw its quiet period end and the firms were mostly positive on the stock:

• Started as Buy with a $16 target at Canaccord Genuity;
• Started as Outperform with a $17 target at Oppenheimer;
• Started as Outperform at William Blair;
• Started as Overweight at JP Morgan;
• Started as Buy with a $16 target at BofA/ML.

Corning (NYSE: GLW) is truly a tech value stock. Unfortunately, it is going to have a crummy Christmas in TVs and monitors unless can be massively offset and overcome by smartphones. The company already talked down its numbers a week or so earlier. On Friday it was named as the dubious Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Dollar General (NYSE: DG) may have come closer to being fully valued, if Deutsche Bank is correct. The king of dollar stores was started as Hold with a $38 price target. What is interesting is that this secular winner in hard times hit a new high of $36.71 on Friday and the consensus price target is $39.50. We have this as a secular winner and it is no accident that Warren Buffett’s new portfolio manager has bought shares. Still, at some point we can only say “Buy on pullbacks due to valuation.” We are not there yet, but Deutsche Bank thinks we are close.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was raised to Buy with a $27 price target at Bank of America Merrill Lynch this last Thursday. What is amazing about this call is that it is coming at a time when so many are calling for a slowdown. Perhaps the “September is the month to buy tech” will work this year too.

Logitech International (NASDAQ: LOGI) warned this week and one research report could have saved investors piles and piles of cash if they followed the call. The company warned on earnings and sales mid-week on peripheral sales. On Tuesday, a day before the warning, Logitech was downgraded to the dubious Sell rating by Goldman Sachs. Shares were flirting with $9.00 all day with the downgrade but this one closed out the week at $7.75. Goldman Sachs could have saved investors almost 15% here on this call. This was one of the best of this week’s Top Analyst Calls, even if it was a negative call.

Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) is no longer on a runaway bull drive, and the yoga and fitness leader in apparel has been on hold since its last earnings report. This last Thursday it was initiated in coverage by Argus with a Buy rating and with $75 target. What is interesting is that the consensus target is just over $56.50 and the current price is $55.77. That is a street-high price target objective.

MAKO Surgical (NASDAQ: MAKO) was just shown to be one of our Top 7 Performing Stocks of 2011 but one key firm believes that it has rallied enough. It is above the consensus price target anyhow. The MAKO shark was removed from the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs on Thursday and this took shares down from roughly $39.00 to $35.25 on Friday.

McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) had been one incredible stock, hitting new highs before its most recent store sale trends. Still, it raised its dividend by 15% as an overlooked dividend hiker this week. Mickey Dee’s was raised to Strong Buy at S&P Equity Research on Thursday. Maybe there is still upside after all? After a 1.6% gain to $87.37, the 52-week range is $72.14 to $91.22 and the consensus price target is just north of $97.50.

Molycorp (NYSE: MCP) was given the heave-ho this week after losing a backer. JP Morgan downgraded the rare earth metals leader to Neutral from Overweight on Tuesday based upon lower rare earth prices. Shares were at $53.01 on Monday and shares fell each day this week to close at $35.93 on Friday. Ouch.

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is bruised, battered and humiliated. We still wonder if a near-term bottom has been seen in this media player. It can still be acquired in a takeunder too. Several analysts opined this week as it was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS and Wedbush went ahead and raised it to Overweight from Underweight as well. Still, Janney Capital remains very negative and has a fair value of $102 on the stock. At $129.36, this was a $300 stock as recently as July.

National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG) took it on the chin yet again on Friday after Moody’s issued a “surprise” debt rating downgrade when it cut seven other Greek banks … like anyone knew there still seven others left. How much of a surprise is this call? About as surprising as the next downgrade.

Pandora Media (NYSE: P) is one of our top mispriced IPOs of 2011, but business is business. On Friday, this rose almost 7% to $10.75 after it was raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley, even though its price target was cut to $16 from $19 in the call.

Renren (NYSE: RENN) is another post-IPO we can’t stand and we called it one of the greatest mispriced IPOs of 2011. Apparently we are not alone. “The Face%$#& of China” was initiated as Underperform at Macquarie with a $5.25 price target on Monday. Despite nearly a 5% gain on Friday, its price of $5.27 compares to a post-IPO range of $4.96 to $24.00. On Friday its Sell rating was removed by Maxim Group, but it only was given a Hold rating.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is getting closer to and closer to either being acquired or to having its value broken out of the company. Stifel Nicolaus gave it an 80% chance or so, and started coverage with a Buy rating and an $18 target on Thursday. Shares rose over 5% on Friday to $14.71 ad the 52-week range is $11.09 to $18.84.

Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX) had a rough week and shares are close to a post-IPO low at $25.54. On Wednesday the Russian internet search provider was initiated with a Buy rating with a $40 target at Jefferies.

Youku.com (NYSE: YOKU) had such a recovery you would not have believed it without seeing it. On Friday this one was raised to Positive at Susquehanna. Shares rose more than 21% to $17.41, but what was interesting here is that the Chinese online television company had been removed from Goldman Sachs’ Conviction Buy List just the day before. Shares closed even higher than it was when Goldman Sachs made its call. Keep in mind that Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating and has a $50 target. Wait a second … $50??? That is almost 200% upside!

In the world of casinos, maybe the 2012 period is not going to be as large of a disaster as the economic trends are indicating. Both Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) were started with Buy ratings at Deutsche Bank on Wednesday.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) probably did not appreciate the debt and credit rating downgrades this week, but the downgrades came regardless. What is interesting is that there was praise for shoring up capital and improving the balance sheet. Sadly, the call was made based upon a lower belief of government support if the you-know-what hits the fan again.

As you can tell, there were many calls affecting stocks. In good markets and in bad markets there are analyst calls which matter.

JON C. OGG

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