Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Abercrombie, GE, Garmin, Whole Foods and More

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) was downgraded to Underperform from Buy with a new $30 price target at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) was maintained as Buy with a $41 price target (versus a $33.89 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $74 from $82 (versus a $61.40 close) at Credit Suisse.

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) was downgraded to a Neutral rating from a Buy rating at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but at the same time the firm increased 2014 estimates and raised its price target to $51 from $46.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), which we discussed in terms of how the stock could rise to $30 in 2014, was reiterated by Oppenheimer as Outperform ahead of the year-end meetings, and the firm also raised its price target to $29 from $28 in the call.

Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) was reiterated as Outperform with a $63 price target (versus a $54.40 close) at Credit Suisse. The firm called it a core holding for long-only funds as an irresistible commitment. Sterne Agee reiterated its Buy rating and $63 price target as well.

Manitowoc Co. Inc. (NYSE: MTW) was started as Outperform with a $26 price target (versus a $18.90 close) at Credit Suisse.

Ritchie Bros Auctioneers Inc. (NYSE: RBA) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the target price was lowered to $17 from $18 (versus a $20.53 close) at Credit Suisse.

Rocket Fuel Inc. (NASDAQ: FUEL) was one of the hottest IPOs of 2013, but shares have pulled back handily. The stock closed at $44.88, against a post-IPO trading range of $44.25 to $68.56, and now we see that Oppenheimer has raised its rating to Outperform from Perform and given it a $66 price target.

Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) already has four positive analyst calls with big upside price targets even ahead of the IPO.

Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM) has seen some cautionary comments after Wednesday’s guidance showed perhaps “peak organic” trends. Merrill Lynch took a different stance and said the weakness is a buying opportunity. The team maintained its Buy rating and even went out and raised the price target to $68 from $62 in the call.

UBS has a list of short sale candidates from its least preferred stocks list.

J.P. Morgan also has a list of stocks that should benefit from the Obamacare rollout debacle.