Alcatel-Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight by Morgan Stanley. Shares were down almost 4% in local trading in Paris on this downgrade, but New York ADRs were down closer to 5% in early trading indications.
CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) always remains a controversial stock due to its super-high yield of 7.5% or so. The stock was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie on Tuesday. Another boost is that the price target was raised to $33 from $31, after closing at $28.93 on Monday. Fitch Ratings also affirmed its BB+ rating with a Stable outlook late on Monday.
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was maintained with a Buy rating at Sterne Agee, just a day ahead of earnings. The firm also kept the $25 price target, but further said that there is downside protection to $21 based on eight-times adjusted 2015 earnings. We also gave our own preview for Cisco earnings for Wednesday.
FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was reiterated Buy and the price target was raised to $85 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. FireEye was up more than 8% on Monday after an analyst initiation from Wells Fargo, with an Outperform rating and fair value target of $83 to $87 ahead of earnings.
Infoblox Inc. (NYSE: BLOX) is getting slaughtered after earnings because it lowered its second-quarter and annual guidance. Sterne Agee cut the rating to Neutral from Buy and slashed the price target to $20 from $47. Needham also downgraded Infoblox to Hold from Buy.
Other Key Analyst Calls
Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) was reiterated as Buy with a higher $80 price target at Merrill Lynch.
Annie’s Inc. (NYSE: BNNY) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $36 from $54 at Credit Suisse.
Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $102 from $104 at Credit Suisse.
ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) was raised to Overweight from Neutral by HSBC.
Constellium N.V (NYSE: CSTM) was already at a Buy rating at Goldman Sachs, but now the company was added to the prized Conviction Buy List and its price target was raised to $35 from $27 (versus a $24.79 close).
Perrigo Co. (NYSE: PRGO) was reiterated as Buy and with a blended value target price of $175 (versus a $147.32 close) at Argus, and the firm called the sell-off a buying opportunity.
UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) was reiterated as Buy and named as core holding for 2014 (with an implied 15% upside to the price target in Swiss francs) at Merrill Lynch.
U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) was downgraded to Sell from an already cautious Neutral rating at Citigroup.
W.W. Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW) was downgraded to Sell from an already cautious Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs, and the target was cut to $232 from $250 (versus a $234.29 close).
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