Top 12 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ASTM, ARIA, BIIB, LULU, NKE, RYAAY, UA, UTX, VHS, VFC, MS, GS)

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By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published
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Investors and traders are constantly looking for new ideas that will generate profits. 24/7 Wall St. looks over research calls from all over to find great ideas, from value stocks to dividends to growth stocks. Many research-driven ideas for stocks to buy and to sell come from independent research firms. Some also come from the large sell-side investment banking firms on Wall St.

These are some of this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from select Wall St. research calls.

Aastrom Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTM) imploded on Wednesday. Needham threw in its towel with a downgrade yesterday being reported today: cut to Hold from Buy. As we noted, that implosion may be even worse than the bad stock reaction indicated yesterday.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA) started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) started as Outperform at JMP Securities.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) started as Buy with $70 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: RYAAY) raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA) started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Vanguard Health Systems Inc. (NYSE: VHS) cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) started as Buy with $200 price target at Goldman Sachs.

A firm called Guggenheim has initiated coverage on brokers, with a Neutral rating on Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and with a Buy on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).

Here are five big dividend hikes to watch for in April.

Deutsche Bank has two big lists with the first being a list of the next winners for the secular bull market. This list is great and includes themes for global growth, capital expenditure, dividend growth, debt capacity and economic profit growth.

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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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