24/7 Wall St.

Investors and traders are frequently looking for fresh research ideas that will lead to higher income or more profits. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many fresh research calls each morning to find great ideas from value stocks to growth stocks to dividend stocks. We are breaking out the positive analyst calls as far as stocks to buy and positive research calls. These are some of this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, initiations and positive analyst research calls seen from Wall Street today.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) was upgraded to Buy from Underperform at BofA/Merrill Lynch, and it was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was started as Positive at Susquehanna.

Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ADI) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO) was upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was started as Positive at Susquehanna.

Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by J.P. Morgan.

Liberty Global PLC (NASDAQ: LBTYA) was started on the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) was started as Positive at Susquehanna.

Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) was started as Positive at Susquehanna.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank, echoing a Cowen & Co. call earlier this week. On the flip side, Sprint was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Oppenheimer has defended the high-yielding MLP units.