Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) was cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) was cut to Neutral from Buy at HSBC.

Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) was cut to Perform from outperform at Oppenheimer.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

iGATE Corp. (NASDAQ: IGTE) was cut to Perform from outperform at Oppenheimer.

Joy Global Inc. (NYSE: JOY) was cut to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Privatebancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: PVTB) was cut to Perform from outperform at Oppenheimer.

Read also: Is this a 2013 Solar Stock Bubble?

Rosetta Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: ROSE) was cut to Neutral from Outperform at Cowen.

SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA) was cut to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

See also: Top Analyst Upgrades and Positive Calls This Wednesday

SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) was cut to Perform from outperform at Oppenheimer.

UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) was cut to Underperform from Market Perform at KBW.

BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on both Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS) with Market Perform ratings.

These are some of this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, initiations and positive analyst research calls seen from Wall Street today.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie.

FLIR Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at J.P. Morgan.

Lifepoint Hospitals Inc. (NASDAQ: LPNT) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Madison Square Garden Inc. (NASDAQ: MSG) was initiated as an Outperform with a $68 price target at Credit Suisse.

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

PVH Corp. (NYSE: PVH) was maintained as Outperform but added to the Focus List at Credit Suisse.

SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at FBR Capital Markets.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Here are six stock picks from Merrill Lynch expected to avoid the Sell in May and Go Away trend.

Read also: Top Analyst Downgrades and Cautious Calls

The 11 servicers that will be making payments include Aurora, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET), PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC), Sovereign, SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). Payment information for the remaining two banks, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), is still to be announced.

The payments are part of an $8.5 billion settlement of claims related to shoddy mortgage foreclosure procedures, including the notorious robo-signing practice. The remainder of the settlement amount will be used to resolve other issues, including loan modifications. The settlement, which was announced in January, was made in addition to a $26 billion settlement the banks and servicers reached in 2012.

These are some of this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from select Wall St. research calls. A new wave of initiations at UBS is skewing the calls to include many more technology and Internet names compared to normal.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) started as Neutral at UBS.

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) started as Buy with $44 price target at UBS.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) maintained Buy but removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs (FULL SUMMARY).

Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) started as Buy with $64 target at UBS.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) cut to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) started as Neutral at UBS.

Read also: 5 big dividend hikes to watch for in April

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) started as Buy with $945 target at UBS.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) cut to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) started as Sell at UBS.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) cut to Sell from Neutral with $16 target price at Goldman Sachs.

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) started as Neutral at UBS.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) started as Buy with $825 price target at UBS.

Read also: UBS Sees 25% or More Upside in These Key Stocks

Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX) cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) started as Buy with $27 target at UBS.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) started as Buy with $30 target at UBS.

Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) started as Neutral at UBS.

We have offered two views on the bull market trends. First is the bull market roadmap for April and beyond. The second and contrarian view is in the 10 things thich could wreck the bull market.

A small number of banks serviced or acted as trustee in the vast majority of the mortgages in foreclosure — and it is the same banks that now find themselves having to deal with those mortgages and deflated property values. As of February, Bank of America was servicing more than 95,000 loans in foreclosure, followed by Wells Fargo, which was servicing 85,000 loans. Based on RealtyTrac’s February 2013 data, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 banks foreclosing the most homes.

Click here to see the banks foreclosing on the most homes

The banks foreclosing on the most homes may not directly own the bulk of the mortgages. Rather, they often service them for other entities, which means collecting payments from homeowners and foreclosing on those properties when they become delinquent. In other cases banks act as a trustee, representing a pool of mortgage loans held in a trust.

As of 2012, according to Mortgage Daily, the banks foreclosing on the most mortgages — Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase — were the three biggest servicers of all mortgages.

According to RealtyTrac’s Vice President Daren Blomquist, the majority of loans originated prior to the recession. The banks that actually own the loans, Blomquist explained, are now stuck with these mortgages in foreclosure. Bank of America in particular is struggling to unload the assets it absorbed through its acquisition of Countrywide Financial.

Despite not being directly on the hook for the majority of the losses incurred when a home enters foreclosure, these servicing banks still stand to lose money, both from the lost fees they would have collected with each mortgage payment and the costs they have to incur to deal with the foreclosure. “All things being equal” Blomquist explained “they would prefer to have that as a performing mortgage, rather than as a non-performing mortgage, because they’re actually generating income as opposed to not.”

According to Sam Garcia, founder and publisher of Mortgage Daily, many of these banks have had to contract companies that specialize as servicers for distressed mortgages to work with borrowers that are delinquent or going through the foreclosure process. “It doesn’t really cost anything to service a loan that’s being paid on time,” Garcia said. However, “Once you have to start talking to the customer, that loan becomes unprofitable.”

To determine the 10 banks foreclosing the most home loans, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data provided by RealtyTrac, an online real estate marketplace and data source on distressed homes properties. All data are as of February 2013 and reflect the amount and value of both homes and mortgages serviced or held in trust by the nation’s major banks. At RealtyTrac’s suggestion, because Bank of America acquired Countrywide’s assets and liabilities in 2008, we treated loans in foreclosure that were serviced or held in trust by Countrywide as part of Bank of America’s portfolio. RealtyTrac also tracks the percentage of foreclosed properties it considers to be “seriously underwater” — defined as having a loan-to-value ratio of at least 125%. Additional data on the total amount of mortgage loans originated in 2012 and the size of the mortgage portfolio serviced or held in trust by banks as of December 31, 2012, come from Mortgage Daily.

These are the banks foreclosing on the most homes.

Following a rigorous round of stress tests, all but one U.S. bank passed with reasonably good numbers. The analysts at UBS believe that the overall situation at Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) may be the most favorable of all the large banks. They anticipate upside from Citigroup will be driven by the following four legs, with the story playing out over the next several years:

1. The earnings headwind from Citi Holdings should start to fade this year.
2. The reduction in risk weighted assets (RWAs) in Citi Holdings could free up more than $10 billion in trapped capital in just the next two years.
3. Management’s new efficiency ratio adds about $0.75 per share in earnings versus UBS estimates.
4. The deferred tax assets (DTA) will release tremendous amounts of capital over time, and the team at UBS found that none of that accretion is priced in to the stock.

„In addition they see Citigroup as a lagging play on the housing recovery. Citigroup has more capital trapped on its balance sheet than any other universal bank, and the analysts firmly believe a healing housing market and moderately improving economic outlook in the U.S. provides a much needed tailwind for Citigroup to release it.

Shares closed Friday at $46.49, and UBS raised its price target from $43 to $63. The Wall St. consensus price target is $50.

We recently reported that banking analyst Richard Bove took a similar view of the upside possible for Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). Bove, who is a well-known banking analyst at Rafferty Capital, was very positive on Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), but his preferred bank stock pick is Bank of America.

As far as the formal Bank of America call was concerned, Dick Bove said he thinks that the bank, the best DJIA performer of 2012, is his hands-down choice and that its stock is heading back up to $30 per share. The caveat was that it may take two or three years to get there. Bove also was positive on SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) for understating its assets, and he said that KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) was a good bank stock to buy as well.

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) also was mentioned positively among some of the regional banks. The firm believes that regional banks will see more positive news on the dividend front, rather than from the share buyback front, after the Federal Reserve approves the return of capital plan.

The bottom line for investors is that quality bank stocks have raised their capital levels well above what they used to hold as a precaution against another economic meltdown. With an improving economy and housing market, the time may be ripe to see the cream of the crop go even higher.

The adverse scenario was a moderate U.S. recession that would have begun in the fourth quarter of 2012 and lasts until early 2014. In this period, real GDP would fall by 2%, unemployment would jump up to 9.75%, CPI would reach 4% by the middle of 2013, and equity prices would fall by 25% by the middle of 2013. The VIX (volatility index) would also rise to more than 40 at the start of the scenario, housing prices would drop more than 6% during 2013, and commercial real estate prices would fall by 4.5% during 2013.

The Federal Reserve said that the nation’s largest banks have continued to improve their ability to withstand an extremely adverse hypothetical economic scenario and are now in a much stronger capital position than before the financial crisis.

The full results are here.

We expect that Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC) and others will all have sought to request higher dividends and to resume share buybacks.

In the full CNBC video, Bove talked about many of the big banks having share prices that are still under the book values. He also noted how banks in good times can trade at up to 2.5 times their book values, and right now you can still buy some of them at discounts to their stated book values due to the regulatory issues and due to the hangover of the recession. Today’s call sounds almost like a value investor’s dream. Bove noted that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) just hit new 52-week highs. Bove thinks that the stress tests will highlight that the balance sheets have excess capital and that the majors all will be able to increase dividend payouts. U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) wants to increase its dividend payout substantially.

As far as the formal Bank of America call, Dick Bove said he thinks that the bank, the best DJIA performer of 2012, is his hands-down pick and that its stock is heading back up to $30 per share. The caveat was that it may take two or three years to get there. Bove also was positive on SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) for understating its assets, and he said that KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) was a good bank stock to buy as well.

Bank of America shares are surging on the news, with a gain of 2.6% at $12.23 so far this morning. This compares to a 52-week range of $6.72 to $12.42. If Bove is right, let’s just say that investors will make about 150% on their money.

Bove is even more bullish on Bank of America than the other most well-known analyst, Meredith Whitney. She called for Bank of America to go to $15.00, and she has the highest official price target of the major analysts covered by Thomson Reuters. We would also point out that the mean price target is $12.40 and the median price target is $12.75.

Bank of America did not make our own proprietary list of the safest banks in America for depositors, but it may be eligible again in 2014 or beyond if the Federal Reserve allows the bank to return more capital to shareholders.

To show both sides of the coin: an article from Wednesday on TheStreet.com shows what seems like a different look and feel after Bove’s comments from attending banking presentations.

There is a good-news bad-news argument here. Dow Jones showed a decision by the Federal Reserve that will make the stress tests released on next Thursday. The Fed’s formal decision on which banks will be freed up to increase returning capital to shareholders via higher dividends and buybacks will not be for another week.

Read Also: The Seven Safest Banks in America for 2013

The too-big-to-fail banks like Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) remain as “challenged” or “problem” banks but how they will do in the stress test remains up for debate. That being said, we cannot go out on a limb and assure readers that the Federal Reserve will allow either one of these banks to increase dividends and share buybacks. The reality is that they are likely in a fine spot to do so, but reality and regulation have not normalized between each other yet.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has a yield of only about 0.4% and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) yields only 0.1%. Our take remains the same as before that BofA may get to increase its payout before Citi. Still, that is opinion rather than fact. There are still many pending legal cases against BofA from borrowers and from various government agencies and trading partners. If these banks are not allowed to lift their dividends this year, then we would almost certainly expect that to take place in 2014.

We do expect that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) will be allowed to increase their dividends and buybacks again now that the dust settled after the London Whale losses have been realized. Due to J.P. Morgan’s fortress balance sheet, even the strictest of regulators probably understands that this was a line-item now that did not really jeopardize taxpayers, depositors, and trading partners. Things are strong enough at Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) that they already jumped the gun and raised their dividend early this year.

Here are some other banks which may have a shot at dividend hikes or resuming some share repurchase programs:

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) has a $11.2 billion market cap and only a 0.5% dividend yield. We went back and saw that Regions cut the payout from $0.38 to $0.10 in 2008 and then in 2009 it cut that payout from $0.10 all the way down to only $0.01 per share per quarter.

SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) has a $14.99 billion market cap and only a 0.7% common stock dividend yield. This bank raised its payout to $0.05 per share quarter from $0.01 in mid-2011 but that has been static ever since at the one-penny level.

Zions Bancorp. (NASDAQ: ZION) has more than a $4.5 billion market cap and only a 0.2% common stock dividend yield. This dividend fell from $0.43 to $0.32 per share per quarter very briefly in 2008 and then down to $0.04 for two quarters before the dividend fell down to $0.01 per share quarter where it has been since mid-2009.

Again, it is too soon to predict that the Federal Reserve will allow each of these largest banks to increase their common dividends and share buybacks. It is likely that many will be allowed to do so, but we are not yet ready to say that each of these banks deserve to be able to raise their common stock dividends by enough that they would be among the category of the other seven safest banks in America.

At issue is that the banks are expected to pass these tests. If so, there is going to be one serious advantage that has not been there in years. That will come from returning capital to the shareholders. Companies like Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) have such low dividend yields that they might as well not be counted as dividend payers at all. Some of the banks likely will be freed up to begin returning capital via higher dividends and common stock buybacks.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has a yield of only 0.36% and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) yields only 0.1%. Our take is that Bank of America may get to increase its payout before Citigroup, but that may be solely due to management remaining the same. There are still many pending legal cases against Bank of America from borrowers and from various government agencies and trading partners. If these banks are not allowed to lift their dividends this year, then we almost certainly would expect that to take place in 2014.

Here are some other banks that may have a shot at dividend hikes or resuming some share repurchase programs:

• Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) has a $10.8 billion market cap and only a 0.52% dividend yield. Regions cut the payout from $0.38 to $0.10 in 2008, and then in 2009 it cut that payout from $0.10 all the way down to only $0.01 per share per quarter.
• SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) has a $14.7 billion market cap and only a 0.72% dividend yield. This bank raised its payout to $0.05 per share quarter from $0.01 in mid-2011, but that has been static ever since at the one-penny level.
• Zions Bancorp. (NASDAQ: ZION) has a $4.4 billion market cap and only a 0.17% dividend yield. This dividend fell from $0.43 to $0.32 per share per quarter very briefly in 2008 and then down to $0.04 for two quarters before the dividend fell down to $0.01 per share quarter, where it has been since mid-2009.

The good news is that most banks are expected to pass the stress tests. The bad news is that merely passing a stress test does not come with assurances that the Federal Reserve will allow these banks to automatically hike dividends and begin repurchasing common stock.