Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Cisco, F5, GNC, Garmin, SunPower, Tyson and More

Investing

Published: June 18, 2014 8:55 am

It is Wednesday and stocks are trying to find direction ahead of the Fed meeting. Investors and traders keep hearing that the market has morphed into a stock picker’s market rather than just a continued raging bull market. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week, hunting for new ideas and potentially hidden gems for our readers. Some of these Wall Street research reports cover stocks to buy, but others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

These are this Wednesday’s top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was started with an Overweight rating and a $30 price target (versus a $24.50 close) at Morgan Stanley. Credit Suisse remains a holdout by maintaining its Underperform rating.

C.R. Bard (NYSE: BCR) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. (NASDAQ: CBRL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus.

Diamond Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $32 price target (versus a $27.58 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

ALSO READ: Four Stocks That Will Hold Up Well in a Down Market

F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) was started with an Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Five Below Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVE) was started as outperform at Wedbush.

Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNC) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) was started with an Underweight rating and given a downside target of $52 (versus a $60.50 close) by Morgan Stanley.

Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) was started as Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight by Barclays.

MeetMe Inc. (NASDAQ: MEET) was started with a Buy rating and a serious upside target of $4.50 (versus a $1.93 close) at Wunderlich.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was started as Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

ALSO READ: 12 Analyst Stock Picks Under $10 With Huge Implied Upside

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.

Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight by Barclays.

In case you missed Tuesday’s analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included DSW, Expedia, Netflix, Orbitz, SanDisk, Southwest Airlines, USG, Williams Companies and more. Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included AMD, AK Steel, American Express, Dish Network, Digital Realty, Exelon, GNC, Medtronic, Micron Technology, Williams Companies and more.

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