Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AKS, APH, MT, AN, CHK, GSK, GMED, IACI, KNXA, MTB, PCYC, VMW, NOK, AAPL, F, GM, DELL, HPQ)

August 28, 2012 by Jon C. Ogg

These are the top analyst calls of upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall St. research calls this Tuesday morning.

AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) cut to Sell at UBS.

Amphenol Corp. (NYSE: APH) cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

AutoNation Inc. (NYSE: AN) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) maintained Hold at Argus.

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) cut to Neutral at UBS.

Globus Medical Inc. (NYSE: GMED) started as Buy at Goldman Sachs, started as Buy at Canaccord Genuity, started as Outperform at Oppenheimer and started as Buy at BofA/ML.

IAC/InterActiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI) reiterated Buy with $62 target at Canaccord Genuity.

Kenexa Corp. (NYSE: KNXA) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) maintained Neutral but raised target to $102 from $96 at Credit Suisse.

Pharmacyclics Inc. (NASDAQ: PCYC) cut to Sector Perform at RBC.

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) reiterated Buy with $120 price target at BofA/ML.

BofA/Merrill Lynch said that Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) benefits from the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) litigation victory over Samsung are likely to be minor.

A firm named CLSA has started Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) with an Outperform rating and started General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) with an Underperform rating.

Argus has maintained a Buy rating on Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) with an $18 price target; Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) reiterated Buy but cut target to $25 from $30. The problem is that Argus calls Dell in a painful transition away from PCs and said difficulties persist at HP while a deep value story is there.

JON C. OGG

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