AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Societe Generale.

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NASDAQ: DWA) was started with an Underperform rating.

Rangold Resources Ltd. (NASDAQ: GOLD) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Societe General.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) was removed from the Conviction Buy List and downgraded to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (NYSE: RBS) was downgraded to Sell from Hold by Deutsche Bank.

Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WM) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Here is housing sector piece over whether rising rates will harm the home builders.

Here are the top upgrades and stocks to buy this morning.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (NYSE: CP) was raised to Hold from Sell at Canaccord Genuity.

Cintas Corp. (NASDAQ: CTAS) was started as Buy at Jefferies.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO and it was also raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $64 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Fusion-io Inc. (NYSE: FIO) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) was added to the Conviction Buy List and raised from Neutral with a new $127 price target at Goldman Sachs.

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) was maintained Buy but added to the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) was raised to Outperform at Wedbush.

Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Deutsche Bank has a new call advising clients to buy the airline stocks.

See also: Top Analyst Downgrades and Stocks to Sell

The Institutional Portfolio team at Oppenheimer ran extensive screens and filtered for stocks that have the qualities needed at this lofty level of the markets. Scanning everything from market breadth to companies that beat sales expectations, they have a list of stocks to buy that should hold their ground even in the event of a market correction.

Here are the institutional stocks to buy at Oppenheimer broken out by sector.

Materials: Celanese Corp. (NYSE: CE) is the stock to buy in this sector. Celanese engages in the manufacture and sale of value-added chemicals, thermoplastic polymers and other chemical-based products. The Thomson/First Call estimate for the stock is $54.

Industrials: Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) is one of three names to buy in this sector. Owens Corning produces and sells glass fiber reinforcements and other materials for composite systems and residential and commercial building materials worldwide. The consensus price target is $49.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) is one of the largest waste management companies in the United States. Bill Gates’s investment company Cascade holds a large position in the stock. The consensus target for the stock is $37. Republic pays a 2.8% dividend.

Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC), although a railroad, it is placed in the industrials category at Oppenheimer. With coal shipments rebounding, earnings have grown smartly. The consensus is $84.50. Shareholders receive a 2.60% dividend.

Consumer Discretionary: Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE: JCI) has hit new highs recently as sales surge to home builders and automakers. The consensus price target is $36. Investors are paid a 2.20% dividend.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) makes the Oppenheimer list. Often a target of short sellers, Chipotle continues to expand at a fast pace. The consensus price objective for the stock is $375.

Consumer Staples: Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) is the largest drug retailing chain in the United States, with stores in all 50 states. With the long running dispute with Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX) settled, the stock has been on fire. The consensus estimate is $50. Shareholders receive a 2.20% dividend.

Health Care: Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) is the managed care pick in this sector at Oppenheimer. Investors are carefully watching how the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) will affect corporate earnings. The consensus price target for the stock is $60. Aetna pays a 1.40% dividend.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) is also a stock to buy. With the company’s explosive “orphan drug” pipeline, the stock hit a 52-week high on Friday. The consensus price target for BioMarin is $67.

Technology: Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) is another stock that hit a 52-week high on Friday. With five different segments generating revenue, the stock could be poised for a substantial breakout. The consensus target is $15. Investors receive a 2.80% dividend.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) is the other top tech stock to buy at Oppenheimer. The company designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The consensus price target is $50.

With giddy traders pushing all of the indices to either record or multiyear highs, investors need to be selective when putting any capital to work. Generally, knowing when to sell is much harder than knowing when to buy. Readers may want to examine their portfolios and sell partial positions of any big winners and hold the cash to purchase new shares after a market correction.

These are this Monday’s top analyst downgrades and cautious research notes from Wall St.

BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BBEP) was downgraded to Neutral from outperform at Baird.

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird.

Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) was downgraded to Underweight at from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Gold Fields Inc. (NYSE: GFI) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at HSBC.

JetBlue Airways Inc. (NASDAQ: JBLU) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Leap Wireless Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

NGL Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: NGL) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Targa Resources Partners L.P. (NYSE: NGLS) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird.

Union Pacific Co. (NYSE: UNP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at TD Securities.

HSBC joined in as the latest firm to slash its gold and silver price targets. Gold was downgraded with a new target of $1,542 this year and down to $1,600 for 2014. Silver was cut down to $26 from $33 for this year and to $27 from $31 for 2014.

See also: Top Analyst Upgrades and Positive Calls

The comments on each are as follows:

• Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WM) “Raising target price based on a 7.5x multiple on our normalized EBITDA estimate of $3.6 billion. Our 7.5x multiple is a slight discount to what the sector trades in a normalized environment given choppy execution. raised target to $38 from $35.”
• Republic Services (NYSE: RSG) “Raising TP based on an 8x multiple on our normalized EBITDA estimate of $2.6 billion; raising target to $38 from $34.”
• JB Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ: JBHT) “reported 4Q12 EPS of $0.70. The company noted that it intends to focus on developing the LTL mode. That should put further pressure on revenue per load, but LTL freight carries higher margins. Our O.R. forecast in this division was largely unchanged.”
• Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK) “reported F1Q13 EPS of $0.60 (vs cons $0.31) and management raised its 2013 EPS to $2.80-$3.05. While expectations were low for Oshkosh going into the print, execution was solid, driving increased confidence in the company’s ability to hit its longer-term 2015 EPS targets.”
• Teekay Corporation (NYSE: TK) “remains well positioned to expand into both the LNG and Offshore Energy sectors. While Teekay has had its hands full with the construction of the FPSO Knarr nearing completion (early 2014) and the repair/upgrade of the FPSO Banff (restarting in Q4 2013) we expect Teekay to return to making project investments in the next few quarters.”

ADTRAN Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTN) cut to Sell at Citigroup.

Allegheny Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATI) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) raised to Buy with $40 target at Argus.

Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD) started as Outperform with $7 target at Credit Suisse.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) cut to Sector Perform at RBC.

Genpact Ltd. (NYSE: G) started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) cut to Underperform at Raymond James.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) reiterated Buy with $235 target at Argus.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: KMP) maintained Outperform but cut estimates and target to $92 at Credit Suisse.

Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ONXX) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) maintained Neutral but cut target to $10 from $13 at Credit Suisse.

Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX) started as Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Sanchez Energy Corp. (NYSE: SN) started as Sector Perform at RBC.

TIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Tupperware Brands Corp. (NYSE: TUP) raised to Buy with $72 target at Argus.

United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

VeriFone Systems Inc. (NYSE: PAY) raised to Buy at UBS.

Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WM) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

WhiteWave Foods Co. (NYSE: WWAV) started as Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, started as Overweight at J.P. Morgan and started as Outperform at CLSA.

Want to see 2013 S&P 500 targets? Here are the price targets for up to more than 20% total market upside with projections from everyone.

Here is a gold pairing trade from Jefferies for 2013.

JON C. OGG

AGCO Corp. (NYSE: AGCO) director Mallika Srinivasan has been accumulating shares. Some 304,066 shares were bought on Friday to take the position up to 2.348 million shares worth some $13.12 million. In the last week and a half that position was grown substantially as this stake has more than doubled before the buying began on November 9.

Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY) saw President Kevin Keyes purchase 100,000 shares at $13.90 on November 15, worth some $1.39 million. This is after weakness has persisted.

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA) continues to see Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) purchase more and more shares. We already saw the full Buffett holdings last week, and we knew that the stake was larger than it was on the September 30 cutoff date. After purchases on three days last week, the stake is at some 11.88 million shares.

The Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) saw 10% owner Carl Icahn (and related entities) buy another 75,000 shares, worth $4.4 million, to lift his stake to 7.239 million shares.

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) saw director Steven Vincent Tesoriere make two purchases: 1.338 million shares and 1.9 million shares at $2.27 each. He now holds 18.43 million shares.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) saw Bill Gates increase his stake in the company, with his Cascade Investment vehicle buying another 8.14 million shares worth some $218 million. The 10%+ owner now holds more than 86.1 million shares.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) has seen more of that formal control being taken by John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ: LMCA). Some 25.89 million shares were bought on November 14, another 44.725 million shares on November 15 and another 11.81 million shares were purchased on November 16. The total shares held now are 1.9392 billion shares.

Take-Two Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) saw more than 300,000 shares purchased from $11.43 to $11.50, and Icahn now holds over 12 million shares.

JON C. OGG

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) cut to Market Perform at BMO.

Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY) raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Capstead Mortgage Corp. (NYSE: CMO) raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) raised to Buy at Nomura.

DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) cut to Neutral at boutique firm Global Hunter Securities.

Franklin Street Properties Corp. (NYSEMKT: FSP) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.

Frontier Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: FTR) cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) raised to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Hatteras Financial Corp. (NYSE: HTS) raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (NYSE: IVR) raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU) cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

MFA Financial Inc. (NYSE: MFA) raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) raised to Buy at Argus.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

SeaDrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Triumph Group Inc. (NYSE: TGI) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

Akorn Inc. (NASDAQ: AKRX) started as Buy with $18 target at BofA/ML.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) reiterated Buy with $46 target at Argus.

Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) cut to Hold at Jefferies and raised to Buy at S&P Equity Research.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

China Telecom Corp. Ltd. (NYSE: CHA) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) reiterated Neutral with $23 target at BofA/ML.

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: GTAT) cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

MarketAxess Holdings Inc.(NASDAQ: MKTX) cut to Underperform with $28 target at Credit Suisse.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) started as Hold at KeyBanc.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) cut to Market Perform at JMP Securities.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WM) started as Hold at KeyBanc.

Western Refining Inc. (NYSE: WNR) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

JON C. OGG

The Clean Energy Renewable Fuels unit of Clean Energy noted that this agreement is the second of its kind between the two industry leaders.  The first agreement at Republic’s Sauk Trails Landfill in Canton, Michigan is expected to come online in September 2012.

Clean Energy Renewable Fuels will build the plant to process landfill gas, a natural byproduct of decomposition, and it will then inject it into the US natural gas network.  After that the gas may be compressed and distributed for a variety of different uses, including vehicle fuel and as renewable power or other industrial use customers.

The companies claim, tha the plant is anticipated to produce approximately 4 million diesel gallon equivalents of renewable natural gas fuel annually during its first year of operations. This may not be a total game-changer for repurposing waste but the report says it could fuel about 260 trucks for a year.  Through the first ten years production is expected to increase to more than 5.7 million diesel gallon equivalents annually and production is expected to begin in late 2013.  The claim is that the environmentally friendly renewable natural gas derived from landfill biogas generates up to 88% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than diesel fuel or gasoline.

We’ll see, but it is another start. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE) is still down almost 1% to $13.25 against a 52-week range of $9.02 to $24.75.  Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) is down almost 1% more at $27.86 against a 52-week range of $25.15 to $31.32.

It is important to keep Republic’s size in mind here.  As of December 31, 2011 (according to Yahoo! Finance), Republic owned and operated 334 collection companies, 194 transfer stations, 191 active solid waste landfills, and 74 recycling facilities in 39 states and Puerto Rico; and it operates 69 landfill gas and renewable energy projects.

JON C. OGG