Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alcatel-Lucent, BP, Gap, Teva and More

November 4, 2013 by Jon C. Ogg

This week marks the beginning of the end for earnings season, and both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 hit new all-time highs last week. Now investors and traders alike are considering which stocks to buy, which to sell and which to avoid or just hold on to. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many Wall Street analyst research notes each trading day, looking for new ideas for our readers. These are Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

Abaxis Inc. (NASDAQ: ABAX) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $6 price target (versus a $4.60 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Alcatel-Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) shares are trading lower after the announcement that it will raise $2 billion or so. Still, it was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS, and it was also raised to Neutral in Europe by BNP Paribas.

Antero Resources Corp. (NYSE: AR) started as Outperform with a $66 price target at Credit Suisse; Barclays assigned an Overweight rating.

BP PLC (NYSE: BP) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) was started as Buy with a $4 price target (versus a $1.63 close) at boutique firm H.C. Wainwright.

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was lowered to $40 from $42 (versus a $36.78 close) at Goldman Sachs.

General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) was reiterated as Buy and the price target raised to $100 from $98 (versus a $87.15 close) at Argus.

Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ) was reiterated as Buy with a target price of $38 (versus a $33.84 close), based on positive momentum and valuation, at Argus.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at HSBC.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (NYSE: RBS) was raised to Hold from Sell at Soc-Gen.

Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) was reinstated as Buy with a $102 price target (versus a $91.72 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $22 price target (versus a $18.44 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $30 price target (versus a $25.78 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Hedge funds may have started a great rotation out of U.S. stocks.

Also read: 10 Serious Reasons Apple Sold Off Rather Than Rallying

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