Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AcelRx, Alcoa, Costco, Lululemon, Walmart, Trulia and More

Investing

Published: July 29, 2014 8:40 am

Stocks were indicated higher on Tuesday morning despite sanctions in Russia. Investors still want upside from their investments, but they seem to be looking at individual companies and sectors rather than the broad market as a whole. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week to find new investment and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy. Others feature stocks to sell or stocks to avoid.

These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street firms.

AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACRX) already took at least one downgrade on Monday as its stock fell 41% after the FDA rejected its pain device. Now on Tuesday it was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $20 from $17 at Goldman Sachs.

Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $385 from $360 (versus a $336.39 close) at Argus.

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) was started as Neutral at Sterne Agee.

BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BBEP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

CoreLogic Inc. (NYSE: CLGX) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) was raised to the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs. The prior rating was Neutral, and the firm raised its price target to $136 from $117 (versus a $117.12 close).

Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets after its deal news.

Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at Piper Jaffray.

ALSO READ: Large Cap Stocks That Are Being Sold Now by Mutual Funds

Ferrellgas Partners L.P. (NYSE: FGP) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU: NASDAQ) was maintained as Hold with a $42 price target at Canaccord Genuity. The firm simply said that a leveraged buyout (LBO) appears to be a long way off.

MarkWest Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: MWE) was raised to Buy from Hold at Wunderlich, and the price target is now $83 (versus a $72.02 close).

Provident Financial Services Inc. (NYSE: PFS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Sterne Agee after a recent deal and on solid organic growth. Its new price target is $19 (versus a $16.56 close).

Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SBH) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Trulia Inc. (NYSE: TRLA) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham, and it was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with an $83 price target (versus a $75.71 close) at Goldman Sachs.

ALSO READ: 6 Analyst Stock Picks Under $10 With Massive Upside Potential

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Cisco Systems, CIT, Juniper Networks, Pfizer, Xerox and about a dozen more companies.

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