Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: BP, Netflix, Otonomy, Salesforce.com, Total, Verifone and More

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

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was raised to Hold from Sell at Investec (overseas).

Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) was started as Positive with a price target of $53 (versus a $43.57 close) at Susquehanna.

BP PLC (NYSE: BP) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.

Conn’s Inc. (NASDAQ: CONN) was Downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB) was started as Overweight with a price target of $38 (versus a $32.12 close) Piper Jaffray.

Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ: HZNP) was started as Outperform with a $37 price target (versus a $30.55 close) at Leerink.

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Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE: IR) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $86 price target (versus a $69.52 close) at Argus.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was reiterated as Outperform but the price target went from $600 to $700 (versus a  $623.02 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Otonomy Inc. (NASDAQ: OTIC) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a price target cut to $30 from $42 at JPMorgan.

Qorvo Inc. (NASDAQ: QRVO) was started as Buy with a $98 price target (versus a $81.26 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Buy but its price target was raised from $80 to $85 at Needham.

Sharps Compliance Corp. (NASDAQ: SMED) was started as Buy with a price target of $8 (versus a $5.61 close) at Stifel.

Skyworks Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS) was started as Neutral with a price target of $108 (versus a $103.89 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SGYP) was started as Buy with a price target of $11 (versus a $4.29 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

Total S.A. (NYSE: TOT) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Vascular Biogenics Ltd. (NASDAQ: VBLT) was started as Buy with a $13 price target (versus a $5.05 close) at Roth Capital.

VeriFone Systems Inc. (NYSE: PAY) was started as Outperform at Imperial Capital.

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In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Alibaba, Mobileye, NetApp, Nike, Salesforce.com, Stratasys and over a dozen more.