Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AOL, AAPL, BLK, CAL, COCO, CREE, BEN, MWW, PNRA, SYNA, LCC, VZ, V, WU)

These are this Thursday’s top analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls:

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) Raised to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Raised to Market Perform at First Global.
Blackrock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) Maintained Buy but removed from Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Continental Airline (NYSE: CAL) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Corinthian Colleges (NASDAQ: COCO) Cut to Neutral at at BofA/Merrill Lynch.
Cree Inc. (NASSDAQ: CREE) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA) Cut to Neutral at SunTrust.
Synaptics (NASDAQ: SYNA) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
US Airways (NYSE: LCC) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

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JON C. OGG
FEBRUARY 4, 2010