Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: DSW, Expedia, Orbitz, SanDisk, USG, Williams and More

June 17, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

It is Tuesday and stocks are trying to hold gains ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. Investors have seen some volatility arise again, and they keep hearing that the market has moved on from a raging bull market to a stock picker’s market. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week. We are simply hunting for new ideas and potentially hidden gems for our readers. Some of these Wall Street research reports cover stocks to buy, and some of them cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Please note that this report summary has been updated for Netflix and Southwest.

These are this Tuesday’s top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Apollo Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: AINV) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $9.50 price target (versus a $8.53 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price target was cut to $68 from $77 (versus a $72.18 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

DSW Inc. (NYSE: DSW) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $35 from $27 (versus a $27.38 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $42.50 target (versus a $36.11 close) at Jefferies. Keep in mind that it was just on Monday that Credit Suisse added Exelon to its Focus List.

ALSO READ: 12 Analyst Stocks Under $10 With Huge Implied Upside

Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was raised to Positive from Neutral with a $90 price target (versus a $74.58 close and prior target of $79) at Susquehanna.

Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) saw even more upgrades on Tuesday after two key upgrades on Monday. RBC Capital markets raised it to Outperform from Sector perform, and Morgan Stanley raised it to Overweight from Equal Weight.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was moved to an Overweight rating and $500 target (full upgrade details available) by Morgan Stanley.

Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: OWW) was started as Buy and given a $10 price target (versus a $8.12 close) at UBS.

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (NYSE: PEG) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $44 price target (versus a $37.99 close) at Jefferies.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was reiterated as Buy at Sterne Agee after the Fusion-io acquisition, and the new price target is $125 (versus a $102.00 close).

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $30 price target (versus a $26.10 close) at Stifel, and more details have been added on the full upgrade synopsis.

ALSO READ: Getting Intel From $30 to $36, or Even $40

Superior Drilling Products Inc. (NYSEMKT: SDPI) was started with a Buy rating and $8 price target (versus a $5.74 close) at Wunderlich.

Triumph Group Inc. (NYSE: TGI) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $73 price target (versus a $71.24 close) at Merrill Lynch.

USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) was started as Buy with a $38 price target (versus a $40.87 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE: WMB) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $60 price target at Deutsche Bank after the transformative acquisition. Keep in mind that Jefferies just raised it to Buy on Monday, and the stock closed up a whopping 18% at $56.02.

ALSO READ: 10 Large Cap Stocks to Hold Forever

Other Key Calls on Tuesday

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA) was started with a Neutral rating at Susquehanna.

Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

In case you missed Monday’s analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included AMD, AK Steel, Amercan Express, Dish Network, Digital Realty, Exelon, GNC, Medtronic, Micron Technology, Williams Companies and more.

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