Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AL, ALU, AIG, AFL, BUD, ADSK, DRI, DB, DUK, HA, ILMN, IP, ISRG, NWL, NCLH, CRM, SQNM, TEF, V)

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By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published
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These are some of this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall St. research calls.

Air Lease Corp. (NYSE: AL) named Bull of the Day as “earnings takeoff” at Zacks.

Alcatel-Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) raised to Market Perform at Bernstein.

American international Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) cut to Equal Weight and AFLAC Inc. (NYSE: AFL) raised to Outperform at Evercore.

Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A./N.V.(NYSE: BUD) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) raised to Buy with $45 target at Jefferies.

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) cut to Neutral at UBS.

Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB) cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Hawaiian Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: HA) named Bear of the Day as “the turbulence is no joke” by Zacks.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) raised to Buy at UBS.

International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) raised to Outperform at RBC, and BofA/Merrill Lynch reiterated Buy and raised target to $50 from $47.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) raised to Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald and reiterated Buy with $620 price target at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE: NWL) reiterated Buy and raised price target to $28 from $27 at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Norwegian Cruise Line (NASDAQ: NCLH) started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) reiterated Buy and raised price target to $228 from $200 at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Telefonica S.A. (NYSE: TEF) raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) cut to Hold at Argus.

Biotech investors often have one hell of a time picking biotech stocks due to single-company risks that are far greater than in other sectors. Most would just turn to ETFs, but there is a problem with the four top biotech ETFs. The composition of these are all very different and virtually none of them are really what an investor might expect from true sector diversification.

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About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.

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