Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: 3D, Hasbro, Dollar Tree, Tyson and More

August 26, 2013 by Jon C. Ogg

This will be an interesting week for Wall Street analyst coverage as many traders, investors and analysts are out ahead of Labor Day. Still, we are seeing a surprising number of research calls from analysts now that stocks have pulled back from their recent all-time highs. Some investors want to know if they should sell or avoid certain stocks, while others are looking for stocks to buy.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of Wall Street analyst research reports each day to find new ideas for investors. Some picks are growth, some are value, some are stocks to buy and some are stocks to sell. These are Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street.

Citigroup has initiated coverage in the 3D printing market positively on Monday: 3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD) was started as Buy with a $60 price target and Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) was started as Buy with a $125 price target.

Deutsche Bank is making a change in its coverage of dollar store themes on Monday: Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was raised to Buy from Hold and Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) was downgraded to Hold from Buy, but the price target was raised to $74 from $70.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) was reiterated as Hold as shares are perceived to be fully valued at Argus.

Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at J.P. Morgan.

Darling International Inc. (NYSE: DAR) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $25 from $22 at Canaccord Genuity.

Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) was raised to Buy all the way from Sell by Citigroup.

Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) may not be a formal upgrade, but shares are up 3% after Barron’s covered it over the weekend, calling for it to potentially double off of its lows. One analyst was quoted as saying that it could rise to $30 or $35, as business already hit a bottom and is poised to recover.

ResMed Inc. (NYSE: RMD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) was downgraded to Neutral rom Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

We saw the analyst quiet period end for American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) and we have seen some mixed coverage in the name: BofA/Merrill Lynch was at Neutral, Goldman Sachs was at Neutral, Wells Fargo was at Market Perform and J.P. Morgan was at Overweight.

Credit Suisse has identified solid earnings winners that refuse to use smoke and mirrors in their reporting. Also, after seeing the Amgen-Onyx deal, we want readers to revisit superior growth companies via the 10 companies expected to double revenues in the next two to four years.

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