Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Accenture, Amazon, Bank of America, Broadcom, SunPower and More

Investing

Published: April 25, 2014 8:10 am

Stocks are trying to hit new highs, and wary investors want upside but also to avoid the downside stocks. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning, looking for new ideas of stocks to buy and stocks to sell. These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Accenture PLC (NYSE: ACN) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $92 from $78 by Credit Suisse.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Outperform with a $439 price target at Credit Suisse.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was maintained as Neutral at Credit Suisse on talks of $10 billion mortgage settlement.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) was reiterated as Buy at Argus after news has been out that its corporate trust unit is up for sale.

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) was maintained as a Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Barracuda Networks Inc. (CUDA) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $39.50 price target at Merrill Lynch.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) was downgraded to Buy from Hold at Needham & Co.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $117 from $103 at Credit Suisse.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy on network growth challenges at Argus. The company saw other downgrades earlier this week as well.

Lamar Advertising Co. (NASDAQ: LAMR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform by Wedbush as the company is converting to a real estate investment trust.

Life Time Fitness Inc. (NYSE: LTM) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform and the price target was cut to $50 by Oppenheimer.

Linear Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: LLTC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is trading slightly above $40 after earnings, and Credit Suisse reiterated its Outperform and its above-street target of $42.50 was raised to $47.50.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was to $47 from $39 by a firm called Northland Securities.

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