Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (AOL, CBS, BEN, MYL, NWS, ORCL, RIMM, SFLY, VIA, DIS)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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These are ten of the most important analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Thursday morning.  You will probably notice a substantial focus on media-related shares:

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) Started as Sell at Merriman Curhan Ford.
CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) Started as Buy at Needham.
Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN) Started as Hold at Jefferies.
Mylan Labs (NASDAQ: MYL) Started as Buy at SunTrust.
News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS) Started as Buy at Needham.
Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) Reiterated Buy/$27 and raised 2010-12 estimates at Goldman Sachs.
Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) Target cut to $120 from $150 at RBC.
Shutterly, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFLY) Raised to Buy at Janney.
Viacom (NYSE: VIA) Started as Buy at Needham.
Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) Started as Hold at Needham.

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JON C. OGG

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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