Thursday, October 10, 2013

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: CSX, Facebook, Valero, Wynn and More

Investors and traders alike are stuck trying to determine what to do with their stocks during a government shutdown and ahead of the debt ceiling debate. Each morning 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of Wall Street analyst research reports with a goal of finding fresh ideas for investors and traders. It turns out that Wall Street still thinks some stocks should be bought even as others should be sold. These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

Acuity Brands Inc. (NYSE: AYI) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Sterne Agee on better-than-expected unit growth and nonresidential construction recovery.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was reiterated at Buy with a street-high $164 price target (versus a $115.24 close), based on strong September quarter plane deliveries, according to Sterne Agee.

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup, sending shares down 2%.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $58 (versus a $49.18 close), now that the Instagram monetization will begin before year-end, according to Sterne Agee.

HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $54 from $52, based in part on the restructuring program taking $2.5 billion out of its cost structure by 2015, according to Argus.

Northern Tier Energy L.P. (NYSE: NTI) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $29 from $28 at Credit Suisse.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) was reiterated at Outperform and the price target was raised to $6 from $5 after comparable sales were better than expected, according to Credit Suisse.

Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform, but the price target was raised to $160 from $149, at Credit Suisse.

Zoetis Inc. (NYSE: ZTS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

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