This last week had many top analyst calls, but each week we review all of the calls looking for those which were very bold calls or that go against the grain.  These make up the Top Analyst Calls of the Week.

The standout research calls this last week were in the following stocks: ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB); Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ALSN); Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN); Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL); CafePress Inc. (NASDAQ: PRSS); Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG); Demandware, Inc. (NYSE: DWRE); Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES); Infosys Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFY); McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD); SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK); Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT); Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA); Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX); Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC); Banco Santander (NYSE: STD); and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (NYSE: BBVA).

We have outlined a summary of each call and added in color on each to show why (and if) the analysts made calls worth watching.

ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB) is about to see a drop due to its ex-dividend date and we saw two simultaneous downgrades after an acquisition strategy was outlined this last week.  On Thursday ABB shares were downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan and they were also removed from he coveted Conviction Buy List but maintained as a ‘Buy’ over at Goldman Sachs.  This one lost about 5% from earlier in the week by the time Friday’s close came around.

Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ALSN) saw its quiet period end on Tuesday.  Shares recovered on Friday due to stronger numbers elsewhere but the stock had been weak after the coverage started.  We saw the following initiations: Started as Outperform at Baird; Started as Neutral at Citigroup; Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse; Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs; Started as Neutral at J.P. Morgan; and Started as Hold at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was a Johnny Come-Lately call where several analysts decided all at once that they had to upgrade the online retail giant after it blew out its earnings:  Raised to Buy at BofA/ML; Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs; Raised to Buy at Nomura; Raised to Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) blew the door off the hinges this last week with earnings.  While it was already rated and effective buy rating, the new street-high official target is $1,111 and that will make it the first company worth more than $1 trillion by market cap if it comes true.  This newest street-high call came from Topeka Capital Markets’ Brian White this last Wednesday.

CafePress Inc. (NASDAQ: PRSS) saw its quiet period end this last week and these are the calls we saw for analyst initiations: Started as Buy at Janney; Started as Outperform at Raymond James; and Started as Overweight at J.P. Morgan.  The initiations being positive did not help the shares.