Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Altera, Anadarko, Atmel, GrubHub, Potash, Rackspace, Seadrill and More

Investing

Published: December 19, 2014 8:50 am

Last Updated: December 19, 2014 8:52 am

Stocks were indicated higher yet again after a monster snapback stock market rally. What has held true is that investors keep buying stocks on sell-offs, and they are constantly looking for underlying value stocks and overlooked stocks. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, and some cover stocks sell or to avoid.

These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls.

Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) was started as Buy with an $89 price target (versus a $81.01 close) at Guggenheim.

Atmel Corp. (NASDAQ: ATML) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $8 price target (versus a $8.21 close) at Merrill Lynch.

B/E Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAV) was started as Buy at Citigroup.

GrubHub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) was started as Outperform at Oppenheimer, just a day after a big Goldman Sachs upgrade as well.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: HIG) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $41 price target (versus a $41.94 close) at Citigroup.

iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT) was started as Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

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

Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

ALSO READ: 9 Big Stocks That Have Doubled in 2014

Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX) was started as Buy with a $56 price target (versus a $47.16) at Stifel.

Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) beat earnings and we have seen many analysts lift targets and estimates. Shares were indicated up 10% at $68 or so, a new 52-week high. BMO Capital Markets raised its target to $77, Needham raised its target to $75, Oppenheimer raised its target to $80 and other calls are out as well.

Seadrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL) was downgraded to Sell from an already cautious Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs.

Stericycle Inc. (NASDAQ: SRCL) was started as Outperform at Macquarie.

Telefonica S.A. (NYSE: TEF) was started as Sell at Deutsche Bank.

Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: TNK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades from 24/7 Wall St., they included Advanced Micro Devices, Baker Hughes, Corning, FedEx, Halliburton, HCA, Intel, Tyco International and over a dozen more.

ALSO READ: 10 Big Stocks Down Over 50% So Far in 2014

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