24/7 Wall St.

Stocks are trying to bounce on Friday, ahead of a three-day weekend. Investors are getting used to hearing that this is now a stock picker’s market rather than a raging bull market. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports for new ideas each morning of the week. Some of the analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while other others cover stocks to sell or to avoid. These are this Friday’s top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Aeropostale Inc. (NYSE: ARO) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform by RBC Capital Markets.

Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL) downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) was started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $40 price target at Barclays.

Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

ALSO READ: Telecom and Networking Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2014

L Brands Inc. (NYSE: LB) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel.

Northern Trust Corp. (NASDAQ: NTRS) was started with a Hold rating by Deutsche Bank.

PetSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PETM) was reiterated as Underperform with a $48 price target at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAA) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Janney Capital Markets.

ALSO READ: Should Alcatel-Lucent Really Sell Its CyberSecurity Unit?

RetailMeNot Inc. (NASDAQ: SALE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) was reiterated as Outperform with an $8.50 price target at Credit Suisse, although the firm expects some choppy near-term results before growth reaccelerates in 2015 and 2016.

State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) was started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Taubman Centers Inc. (NYSE: TCO) was reiterated as Outperform as the top mall REIT portfolio pick at Credit Suisse.