24/7 Wall St.

It is the Monday ahead of Thanksgiving, the markets are at new highs, and earnings season is over for the most part. Now investors have to consider research ideas on how to position themselves for 2014. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of Wall Street research reports each morning with an aim of finding new ideas for our readers. Some research notes are stocks to buy. Some are stocks to sell. These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) may have been booted out of the DJIA recently, but that is not stopping favorable research on it. Goldman Sachs raised Alcoa from Hold to Buy and raised its price target from $8 up to $11 on the aluminum giant. Shares are trading up over 3% at $9.55 against a 52-week trading range of $7.63 to $9.97.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target is $100 versus $82.88. The firm believes that the downside scenario is already priced into the stock at current prices. The move is after visiting its SOLAR turbine facility in San Diego, noting that Caterpillar’s Power Systems unit will source close to 50% of the company’s profits in 2014. The firm said, “Undoubtedly, there are still pressures, but rising US GDP, growing global mine production, and normalizing dealer inventories could be positive offsetting drivers.”

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is trading higher after Barron’s opined that shares could rise 50% or so to $5.50 or $6.00. The publication cited Rainier Investment Management, but also cited ISI Group showing declining content costs per subscriber and a $4.40 price target from the firm. Shares are indicated up 5% at $3.83 against a 52-week range of $2.67 to $4.18.

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) was said to be worth up to $160.00 per share in a joint Comcast/Charter takeover deal according to Wells Fargo. The firm noted the heightened speculation ever since John Malone took a 27% stake in Charter. The firm also sees around $1.4 billion in combined synergies, or $700 million on a partial deal. In another call, Argus downgraded Time Warner Cable to Hold from Buy as the firm said it is growing cautious about a merger roulette and the firm also pointed out that the stock has blown through its fair value of $130 per share.

Other analyst calls from Monday morning were as follows:

Burger King Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: BKW) was started as Buy and with a $25 price target (versus $20.38 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

CDW Corp. (NASDAQ: CDW) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Energizer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ENR) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

8×8 Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT) was started as Buy with a $13 price target at BofA Merrill Lynch; started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ: FINL) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Sterne Agee.

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

Springleaf Holdings (NYSE: LEAF) was started as Outperform with a $25 price target (versus $20.18 close) at Credit Suisse; started as Neutral at BofA Merrill Lynch; started as Buy at Citi.

Deutsche Bank issued a report calling on the best large cap exporting stocks to buy for 2014.