Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apple, Infoblox, OmniVision, PNC, Splunk and More

May 30, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

Monkey evilStocks closed at new highs on Thursday, but investors are being told that it is a stock picker’s market rather than a raging bull market. Each morning of the week, 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports for new ideas. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and some cover stocks to sell or to avoid. These are this Friday’s top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel, despite being named last weekend as a buyout candidate by Barron’s.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Buy and the price target was raised to $720 at Goldman Sachs. Argus also maintained its Buy rating but raised its price target to $700.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was started as Buy and given a $25 price target at Sterne Agee.

Infoblox Inc. (NYSE: BLOX) missed earnings and its CEO is leaving, sending shares down 30%. The stock has been downgraded to Hold at Deutsche Bank, downgraded to Market Perform at William Blair, downgraded to Sector Perform by Pacific Crest and downgraded to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

OmniVision Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OVTI) was up almost 20% after earnings, but now shares are indicated up 8% at $21.83 after the stock was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform by Raymond James. Northland Securities raised its rating to Outperform.

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PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) was started with a Buy rating and $100 price target at Sterne Agee.

ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Roth Capital.

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) was maintained as Buy but the price target was slashed to $70 from $115 at Canaccord Genuity.

SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) was started with a Buy rating and $48 price target at Sterne Agee.

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