Stocks were weak on Thursday after negative news overseas. Still, investors keep proving that they are willing to buy discounted or overlooked stocks. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports from brokerage firms each morning, hunting for new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while some of them cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Adept Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: ADEP) was started with a Buy rating, called an undervalued differentiated robotics play and given an $11 price target (versus a $8.58 close and a consensus price target above $14) at Canaccord Genuity.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was started as Market Perform at Bernstein.

Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) was started as Outperform at Imperial Capital

Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was started as Outperform at Bernstein.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank. We just asked on Wednesday if Cliffs is going off the cliff.

Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

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Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE: DNR) has seen multiple downgrades and was just named as one of our companies that will not be saved by a bull market alone. Now it was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) was started as Market Perform at Bernstein.

International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) was started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse, with the aim that cutting legroom and charging baggage fees is a better plus for shareholders than it is a negative for travelers.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) posted earnings and guidance was not exactly thrilling, but the customer relationship management software player was reiterated as Buy and called the top large-cap growth pick at Canaccord Genuity, with the price target raised to $70 from $65. Sterne Agee reiterated its Buy rating and $70 price target.

Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at HSBC.

Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) just filed for a huge $7.5 billion debt offering and the lender was started as Outperform at Bernstein.

TrueCar Inc. (NASDAQ: TRUE) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

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Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Janney Capital Markets.

Zoetis Inc. (NYSE: ZTS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.

In case you missed Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included BlackBerry, ConEd, Enbridge, Halliburton, Rackspace, TransCanada and a dozen or so more companies.

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