These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall St. research calls this Wednesday.

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AXL) raised to Outperform at RBC.

Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: BKD) started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Capital Senior Living Corp. (NYSE: CSU) started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Cbeyond Inc. (NASDAQ: CBEY) cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) maintained as Outperform with a $25 target at Credit Suisse, but it said that it is migrating in its stage from a growth company to a value company.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) named Bull of the Day at Zacks and cut to Hold at Argus.

EPL Oil & Gas Inc. (NYSE: EPL) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.

Health Care REIT Inc. (NYSE: HCN) started as Outperform at RBC.

McGraw Hill Companies Inc. (NYSE: MHP) started as Buy with $64 target at UBS.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) started as Outperform at William Blair.

Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) cut to Neutral at Lazard.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) cut to Neutral at Lazard.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) maintained Hold but also maintained Long-Term Buy at Argus.

SBA Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SBAC) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.

Scientific Games Corp. (NASDAQ: SGMS) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Westport Innovations Inc. (NASDAQ: WPRT) started as Buy with $38 target at UBS.

Credit Suisse changed their methodology for covering stocks yesterday and the changes affected about 65 U.S. companies and 20 or so Canadian companies. Most resulted in downgrades, many of which went from an already cautious stance of Neutral to a much worse Underperform rating. The wave of downgrades would make a simple market observer think a crash was coming.

JON C. OGG

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