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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Abraxas, Barracuda, Citigroup, Dow, Lululemon, UnitedHealth and More

Stocks were looking for direction on Friday morning ahead of the unemployment report and after the major banks passed the Federal Reserve stress tests. If there is one trend that has remained the rule, it is that investors still want to buy stocks whenever there is a pullback.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning to find new investment and trading ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst research reports cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades.

Abraxas Petroleum Corp. (NASDAQ: AXAS) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $3.75 price target (versus a $3.11 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at Pacific Crest.

Barracuda Networks Inc. (NYSE: CUDA) was started as Overweight with a $44 price target (versus a $38.61 close) at Piper Jaffray.

CyberArk Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYBR) was started as Neutral with a $54 price target (versus a $62.87 close) at Piper Jaffray.

Carlyle Group L.P. (NASDAQ: CG) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price objective was raised to $32 from $30 (versus a $26.97 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

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Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $61 price target (versus a $53.56 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. As a reminder, all 31 major banks passed their stress tests.

Clean Harbors Inc. (NYSE: CLH) was raised to Outperform from In-Line at Imperial Capital.

Cyberonics Inc. (NASDAQ: CYBX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $56 (versus a $48.89 close) at J.P. Morgan.

Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: HST) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral, with a price target cut to $18 from $23 (versus a $20.66 close), at Goldman Sachs.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) was raised to Positive from Neutral at Susquehanna.

Physicians Realty Trust (NYSE: DOC) was started as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.

Proofpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT) was started as Overweight with a $65 price target (versus a $56.89 close) at Piper Jaffray.

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State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. J.P. Morgan also downgraded it to Underweight from Neutral.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was raised to Neutral from Underperform with a $126 price target (versus a $114.79 close) at Sterne Agee.

In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of BP, Exxon Mobil, Exelon, Home Depot, Sirius XM, McDonald’s, Walt Disney and a dozen more.

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