Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Carnival, Intel, Micron, Pulte and More

Investing

Published: August 15, 2013 8:30 am

Investors are on the hunt for solid research ideas now that stocks have pulled back a bit. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many analyst research calls from Wall Street and from boutique firms to find great ideas in value stocks, growth stocks and dividend stocks. Some are stocks to buy, while some ideas are even stocks to sell. These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from select Wall Street research calls this Thursday.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) was started in coverage at Underweight by Barclays.

Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $58 price target by RBC Capital Markets.

Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $42 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at R.W. Baird.

MDC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: MDC) was raised to Buy from Neutral, but the price target remained at $36, at Sterne Agee.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at R.W. Baird.

National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with an $86 price target at RBC Capital Markets.

PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) was downgraded to Outperform from the Top Pick list at RBC Capital Markets.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) was downgraded to Underweight from Hold at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Westport Innovations Inc. (NASDAQ: WPRT) was started as Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

Morgan Stanley has a two-for-one downgrade in the international drug giants: both GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK) and AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) were downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight.

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