After a gain over 1,000 Dow points last week from the lows of the prior Friday, stocks were simply directionless on Monday. The one trend that lives on though is that investors have proven over and over that they will buy the top stocks on weakness. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $29 price target (versus a $27.86 prior close) at Jefferies. This is going into the Dell acquisition, and it leaves little real ambition considering a go-shop provision in the deal.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup. Goldman Sachs closed at $179.19 and has a 52-week trading range of $167.49 to $218.77 and a consensus price target of $211.33.

Linn Energy LLC (NASDAQ: LINE) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform and the price target was cut to $2 from $6 (versus a $3.36 close) at FBR Capital Markets.

MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with an $11.50 price target (versus a $9.63 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $12 from $14 (versus a $9.41 close) at Nomura Securities.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $40 from $35 (versus a $33.16 close) at R.W. Baird.

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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations Monday morning were seen in the following:

Advisory Board Co. (NASDAQ: ABCO) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $55 price target (versus a $45.29 close) at FBR Capital Markets.

Blue Buffalo Pet Products Inc. (NASDAQ: BUFF) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was put at $24 (versus a $18.73 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE: BDN) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $16.00 price target (versus a $12.88 close) at Credit Suisse.

Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (NYSE: CRL) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Wells Fargo.

Citizens Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: CFG) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

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CONMED Corp. (NASDAQ: CNMD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Ladenburg Thalmann.

CVR Refining L.P. (NYSE: CVRR) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays, and the price target was raised to $27 from $25 (versus a $20.37 close).

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

DineEquity Inc. (NYSE: DIN) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy and the price target was lowered to $110 from $120 (versus a $91.64 close) at Raymond James.

ENI SpA (NYSE: E) was raised to Neutral from Reduce at Nomura Securities.

Federated National Holding Co. (NASDAQ: FNHC) was started as Buy at Janney Capital Markets. Its fair value estimate is $35.00 (versus a $26.12 close), and the call was based on expectations for another quiet storm season unlocking their reinsurance profits.

Halyard Health Inc. (NYSE: HYH) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight and the price target was cut to $27 from $38 (versus a $30.13 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Harris Corp. (NYSE: HRS) was started as Outperform and was assigned a $90 price target (versus a $75.73 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Kaiser Aluminum Corp. (NASDAQ: KALU) was started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and the price target was raised to $198 from $185 (versus a $175.75 close) at JPMorgan.

Pentair PLC (NYSE: PNR) was started as Neutral with a $53 price target (versus a $57.15 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Rice Energy Inc. (NYSE: RICE) was started as Buy with a $28 price target (versus a $17.87 close) at Topeka Capital Markets.

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Ruth’s Hospitality Group Inc. (NASDAQ: RUTH) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

Tech Data Corp. (NASDAQ: TECD) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

In case you missed out on Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of AT&T, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Facebook, Flextronics, Gap, Tesla Motors and over a dozen more.

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