Stocks surged higher on Wednesday morning despite new sanctions in Russia. A strong ADP payrolls report was tempered by the notion that it won’t make the FOMC more aggressive on ending stimulus. Investors are now looking for upside from individual companies or sectors rather than from the broad market. After all, the bull market is now nearing five and a half years old. 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, while some of them feature stocks to sell or to avoid.

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

Aerohive Networks Inc. (NYSE: HIVE) was started as Outperform with a $12 price target (versus a $8.01 close) at Pacific Crest.

American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ: AGNC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (NASDAQ: AMCC) was maintained as Buy at Canaccord Genuity, but the price target was cut to $12 from $16. The firm said that its first server sales were ahead of expectations, but it expects a more gradual X-Gene ramp-up and softer legacy sales.

Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

Carbonite Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price target was cut to $9 from $12 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Eaton Corp. PLC (NYSE: ETN) fell by 8% after its post-earnings reaction. Now we have seen Goldman Sachs downgrade it to Neutral from Buy, and J.P. Morgan downgraded it to Neutral from Overweight.

Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) was maintained as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but the oil infrastructure operator was removed from the prized Conviction Buy List.

Financial Engines Inc. (NASDAQ: FNGN) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform by Raymond James.

Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. (NYSE: FSL) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

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Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at R.W. Baird.

National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. (NASDAQ: PSUN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at B. Riley.

Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU) was raised to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Ruckus Wireless Inc. (NYSE: RKUS) was started as Outperform with a $15 price target (versus a $12.58 close) at Pacific Crest.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) has seen a slew of analyst calls after its earnings blowout. Merrill Lynch raised its rating to Buy and Goldman Sachs raised its target handily. There were still some downgrades and many other calls as well. FULL TWITTER ANALYST COVERAGE.

United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Macquarie.

Windstream Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN) saw its shares surge on the IRS allowing it to conduct a REIT conversion with a spin-off. So far there have been two analyst calls. It was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James, and Nomura raised the rating to Neutral from Reduce with a $13 price target from a $7.50 price target.

YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Raymond James.

ALSO READ: Could AT&T and Verizon Chase Windstream Into a REIT Structure?

In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included shares of AcelRx, Alcoa, Costco, Walmart, Lululemon, Trulia, Allstate and more.

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