Stocks were hit hard early Friday before the preliminary fourth-quarter gross domestic product reading. What has been observed over and over is that investors have bought the dips and pullbacks religiously for more than two years now. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning on the hunt new for new investment and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

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

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $52 from $50 (versus a $45.26 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at JMP Securities.

Cameron International Corp. (NYSE: CAM) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.

ALSO READ: Jefferies Has 5 Large Cap Tech Stocks to Buy Now

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was started as Buy with a $80 price target (versus a $67.90 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE: GNW) was started as Buy with a $10 price target (versus a $6.94 close) at Jefferies.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) was raised to Buy from Sell at a boutique firm named Ascendiant Capital Markets.

JA Solar Holdings Co. (NASDAQ: JASO) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $13 price target (versus a $7.77 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $21 to $22 price valuation range (versus $21.82 close) at Wells Fargo.

Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

Silicon Graphics International Corp. (NYSE: SGI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with an $11 target (versus a $10.61 close) at Sterne Agee.

Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (NYSE: SWK) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $36 price target (versus a $23.98 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $50 from $44 (versus a $42.56 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

ALSO READ: The 5 Most Shorted NYSE Stocks So Far This Year

Valero Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: VLP) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $57 from $49 (versus a $49.17 close) at Credit Suisse.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at FBR Capital Markets.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) was raised to Buy from Hold at Evercore.

In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Apple, Arch Coal, Boeing, Petrobras, Qualcomm and about a dozen more.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.