Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AMD, ACI, BBY, BCC, CNP, CRL, BREW, GNRC, HPQ, ISRG, KMB, OMX, ODP, ONNN, ORLY, BTU, RGLD, SI, STAN, SYMC, UTX, VZ)

March 18, 2013 by Jon C. Ogg

Investors and traders are always looking for good research-driven ideas for stocks to buy and stocks to sell. Some of these come from independent research and some come from sell-side firms on Wall St. Some research calls are value stocks and some are based on momentum. These are some of this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from select Wall St. research calls.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) raised to Outperform at Macquarie.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) raised to Neutral from Reduce at Nomura.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) raised to Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

Boise Cascade Co. (NYSE: BCC) started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo, started as Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch and started as Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP) cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (NYSE: CRL) started as Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Craft Brew Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ: BREW) raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNRC) started as Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) raised to Buy at Canaccord Genuity.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.

OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX) and Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) were both raised to Buy from Hold at KeyBanc.

ON Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: ONNN) raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.

O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY) named Bull of the Day by Zacks.

Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) raised to Neutral from Reduce at Nomura.

Royal Gold Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) started as Buy at BB&T.

Siemens A.G. (NYSE: SI) raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Standard Parking (NASDAQ: STAN) named Bear of the Day with struggling earnings growth by Zacks.

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) reiterated Outperform with $27.50 target at Credit Suisse.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Here is a list of small cap stocks to buy now by Deutsche Bank.

J.P. Morgan offers a list of 15 stocks to buy based on current market conditions.

Credit Suisse gave a list of MLPs that will thrive and continue high distributions even under the risk of rising interest rates.

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