24/7 Wall St.

Investors and traders are usually on the lookout for new research ideas that will generate higher income or more profits. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many analyst research calls from Wall St. and from boutique firms to find great ideas in value stocks, growth stocks and dividend stocks. Some are stocks to buy, while some ideas are even stocks to sell. These are 10 of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from select Wall Street research calls this Thursday.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was raised from a Long-Term Buy rating up to a Buy rating from a boutique wealth management firm called Hilliard Lyons, which is based in Louisville, Ky.

F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Nomura.

Federal-Mogul Corp. (NASDAQ: FDML) was raised to a still-cautious Neutral rating from a Sell rating at Goldman Sachs.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was downgraded to Neutral at Citigroup and downgraded to Neutral at J.P. Morgan after earnings; shares are down a sharp 12% or so after the report.

McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. (NYSE: MHP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) was upgraded going into the reverse T-Mobile acquisition/merger to a new Overweight rating at J.P. Morgan.

Read also: Sell in May and Go Away, 2013 Edition

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) was raised to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust after the fresh post-earnings reaction took shares lower, and the price target was raised to $88 from $80.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) was downgraded to Hold from Buy late on Wednesday by Capital IQ ahead of the new merger plan.

TC Pipelines (NYSE: TCP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Raymond James.

Read also: The Best Big Earnings Indicators This Earnings Season