Alcatel-Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.
Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $150 from $125 (versus a $127 close) at Jefferies. Despite not winning in any Time Warner deal, Charter remains a likely M&A player or deal maker on a smaller scale.
Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at BB&T Capital markets, on the heels of bad earnings and a sharp sell-off last week.
VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) was reiterated as Outperform at Credit Suisse, but the big part of the call was that its price target was raised to $130 from $110 (versus a $101.51 close) in the call. The consensus target is closer to $106, and the prior street high was $121. Mizuho Securities also raised its target price to $120 from $110.
Other Key Analyst Calls
Alon USA Energy Inc. (NYSE: ALJ) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $103 at Argus, based mostly on its $7 billion in asset sales turning its focus to North America.
ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at William Blair.
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.
Athenahealth Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) was downgraded to Underperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.
HSN Inc. (NASDAQ: HSNI) was started with a Buy at UBS.
Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. (NYSE: QIHU) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $160 from $115 (versus a $120.79 close) at Citigroup.
Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
UIL Holdings Corp. (NYSE: UIL) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
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