Stocks are caught in a tug-of-war, trying to decide if they need to pull back further or hit new highs again. Investors are looking for gains on the upside and want to avoid the bad stocks in the next pullback. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many analyst calls each morning for new ideas that can make money or help investors avoid losses. Some of the research calls cover stocks to buy, and some cover stocks to sell. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) was maintained as Neutral with a $7 target price (versus a $9.18 close) at Credit Suisse ahead of this week’s coming earnings report. It is de-emphasizing devices and said the cash burn rate should start to stabilize.

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was reiterated as Buy with a $32 price target at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but the railroad operator was added to the firm’s key US 1 list as one of its top 2014 picks.

Himax Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) was downgraded to Underperform from Buy, and the price target was slashed almost 30% to $12.50 (versus a $13.38 close), at Merrill Lynch.

Navistar International Corp. (NYSE: NAV) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: NPSP) was started with a Buy rating and a price target of $45 at Goldman Sachs.

Pall Corp. (NYSE: PLL) was reiterated as Outperform at Credit Suisse. The firm says it is a self-help story that is still intact, so it is raising the target price to $102 from $94.

PACCAR Inc. (NASDAQ: PCAR) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $80 from $74 at Goldman Sachs.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $90 from $80 (versus a $73.13 close) by FBR Capital Markets.

PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Barclays, although the $20 price target is slightly higher than the $18.84 closing bell price.

Rackspace Inc. (NYSE: RAX) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley.

Spirit Airlines Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVE) was started as Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys.

Varonis Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNS) saw its quiet period come to an end: Jefferies and Needham started it as Buy, RC Capital Markets started it as Outperform and Barclays started it as Equal Weight.

 

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