Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Charter Communications, DreamWorks, FedEx, Wells Fargo, Yahoo! and More

June 30, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were looking for direction this Monday, ahead of a shortened week that actually will be full of economic reports. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week, hunting for new research ideas for our readers. Some of these key analyst calls cover stocks to buy, but some reports cover stocks to sell or stocks to avoid.

These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street firms.

Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) had a monster move up Friday, and the stock was raised to Hold from Sell at Deutsche Bank. The price target was raised to $14 from $8 in the call.

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $180 from $120 (versus a $154.84 close) at Evercore Partners.

ALSO READ: Nine Analyst Stock Picks Under $10 With Huge Implied Upside

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA) was started with a Buy rating and given a $86 price target (versus a $72.95 close) at Jefferies.

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NASDAQ: DWA) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at Piper Jaffray, and the price target was raised to $22 from $19.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) was reiterated as Outperform at Oppenheimer, and the price target was raised to $168 from $161 (versus a $151.41 close).

Fresenius Medical Care A.G. & Co. (NYSE: FMS) was downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies.

KLA-Tencor Corp. (NASDAQ: KLAC) was raised to Buy from Neutral at B. Riley, and the price target was raised to $82 from $65 (versus a $70.97 close).

Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $112 from $100 (versus a $101.65 close) at Barclays.

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: RYAAY) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price target is now $48 (versus a $52.90 close) at Macquarie.

Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE: WPZ) was started with a But rating at UBS.

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WisdomTree Investments Inc. (NASDAQ: WETF) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $17.50 from $15.50 (versus a $11.99 close) at Sterne Agee.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $43 from $37 at Piper Jaffray.

We also just identified four high-yield dividends of 9.5% or more using UBS and FBR Capital Markets research targets.

In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Alcoa, Cigna, Intel, Molina, Teva, UnitedHealth and more.

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