The Five Unusual Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades of the Day

Each and every morning 24/7 Wall St. reviews the top analyst upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street analysts.  Some of these move stocks in a serious way while others sometimes miss the mark.  After reviewing the top calls and those which stood out, these become the unusual analyst calls of the day.  We have tracked the move and added color on each.

Here are the unusual analyst calls for this Monday:

Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) fell harshly on Friday, and shares were soft again on Monday after BMO Capital Markets cut the rating down to Market Perform from Outperform. Shares were down 4% at $9.49 in early afternoon trading on Monday.

Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) managed to buck the selling trend of Monday after S&P Capital IQ upgraded the prepaid and no-contract wireless provider to Buy from Hold.  Shares were up 1.7% at $5.91 late in the day but trading volume was light.

Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) got the ultimate face slap as financial anchor Maria Bartiromo said after years that she finally gave in and has dumped her Blackberry in favor of the iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).  There was more to that live news disclosure than meets the eye. Also today came two more downgrades from GMP Securities and also from Morgan Stanley. RIM shares were down 7% at $9.15 in early afternoon trading and its market cap is now worth over $5 billion.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) may have gotten a bump on any other day after Goldman Sachs raised the rating to Buy from Neutral.  Unfortunately the market did not cooperate and the stock saw a gap & tank reaction.  Shares opened close to 2% higher this morning and the mid-day trading shows SanDisk trading down 1.2% since the market slid further.  This was a “Thanks for nothing” call which might have received more attention had it been a different day.

Web.com Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: WWWW) was started with a Buy rating and a $23 price target by Citigroup based upon the company’s growing model for domain services and web services for many websites for individuals and small businesses.  This was down only 0.7% after having early been above-positive in early trading this morning.  The growth and forward valuation have just been very underappreciated by Wall Street so far as it has been too small to get the attention this special situation deserved.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox.  We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

JON C. OGG