Stocks are effectively at all-time highs, and this is the first full week of trading for 2014. Wall Street firms are making their annual outlook reports and calling on the top stocks to buy and the top stocks to sell. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many fresh research reports each morning to find new ideas for our readers. These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, initiations and positive analyst research calls seen from Wall Street.
American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was reinstated as Outperform and with a $59 price target at Credit Suisse. The positive stance is based on its non-bank leadership position and on it having a lower valuation than the firm feels is merited.
Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE: GNW) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS, with the price target raised to $18 from $13 (versus a $15.39 closing bell price). Keep in mind that this one is still turning around and that shares are up almost 100% from the lows of 2013 as Genworth continues to get its mortgage insurance woes behind it.
SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) was raised to the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs. The upgrade was actually a raise from Neutral, making it a larger jump than the traditional move onto the Conviction Buy list. Goldman raised the price target to $80 from $65 in the call. Shares were indicated up 7% and above $63, versus a $65.30 all-time high.
Other key analyst upgrades and positive research calls were seen in the following stocks:
Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley. This is another turnaround upgrade that is already after the stock has doubled off the lows of 2013.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was reiterated as Buy with a $63 price target (versus a $54.56 close) at Argus. Despite a 17% rise from the S&P 500 addition, the firm feels that shares appear undervalued based on both peer comparisons and on the firm’s discounted cash flows model.
Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV) was listed as a top value stock in Barron’s over the weekend ahead of its break-up. The publication said this could unlock value, with its shares having 30% upside.
Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $46 from $36 at Credit Suisse.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup based on its Macau earnings upside.
We have also taken analysts’ top cybersecurity stocks to buy for 2014 in another montage of fresh calls.
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