Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ALU, CTRP, D, FLTX, IDTI, NANO, ODFL, RVBD, S, UBS, VLO, DIS, WU, AAPL, ACI, OFC, ARR, ISRG, LOCK, PCS, WIT, LAD, ALL, URI, MPC)

October 31, 2012 by Jon C. Ogg

Source: Jon Ogg
The top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen in Wall St. research calls will be playing catch-up on Wednesday as the markets did not get a chance to react to the analyst calls on Monday and Tuesday while the stock markets were closed due to the hurricane. These are the key research calls for Wednesday, and we have grouped in some of the reports from Monday and Tuesday as well.

Alcatel-Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) reiterated Underperform with 0.66 euro price target (versus 0.80 local price, not ADR) at BofA/ML.

Ctrip.com International Ltd. (NASDAQ: CTRP) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE: D) raised to Buy at Argus.

Fleetmatics Group Limited (NYSE: FLTX) started as Buy at BofA/ML and started as Overweight at Barclays.

Integrated Device Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: IDTI) cut to Neutral at Wedbush.

Nanometrics Inc. (NASDAQ: NANO) raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. (NASDAQ: ODFL) started as Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) cut to Neutral at Baird.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) reiterated Buy with $7.50 target at Argus.

UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) added to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) reiterated Buy with $39 target at BofA/ML.

The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) reiterated Outperform with $58 target by Credit Suisse due to Lucasfilm/Star Wars buyout.

Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU) cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

Here were some of the top analyst calls made while the markets were closed Monday and Tuesday:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was covered by Stern Agee and by Credit Suisse after Tim Cook reshuffled management in firings. FULL DETAILS

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) cut to Sell at CRT Capital.

Armour Residential REIT (NYSE: ARR) started as Outperform with $7.50 target at Credit Suisse.

Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC) raised to Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) was added to the US 1 Focus List at BofA/ML.

LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) started as Buy at Needham, started as Buy at Deutsche Bank, started as Buy at Goldman Sachs and started as Buy at Canaccord Genuity.

MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE: LAD) was named as Value Stock of the Day at Zacks on Tuesday, and United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) was named value stock of the day at Zacks on Monday.

Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) was named Bull of the Day at Zacks on Monday, while Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) was named as Bull of the Day at Zacks on Tuesday.

Credit Suisse showed which insurance companies had the most and least exposure to hurricane damages against their fourth-quarter earnings from this storm.

Also, here were the changes for November in the Argus Model Portfolio.

JON C. OGG

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