Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Applied Materials, Citi, Lexmark, PHH, Twitter, Stratasys and More

July 15, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

investor researchStocks were again staging a gain on Tuesday. Investors are moving away from the belief that this is a raging bull market and are looking for individual names in a stock picker’s market. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new ideas for our readers. Some of the analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or stocks to avoid.

Credit Suisse panned its allocation to U.S. stocks in its fresh global allocation changes. Also, Goldman Sachs has slightly raised its S&P 500 target. Also, here are the four stocks that dominated the Dow Jones Industrial Average gains on Monday.

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

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $25 price target (versus a $23.06 close) at B. Riley.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $68 at Oppenheimer.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE) was started as Buy with a $31 price target (versus a $24.05 close) at Stifel Nicolaus. Jefferies started it with a Buy rating and $35 price target. Credit Suisse started it with an Outperform rating and $34 price target.

Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE: LXK) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform and given a $40 price target (versus a $49.44 close) at Bernstein.

Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. (NYSE: MJN) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a price target raised to $107 from $91 (versus a $92.87 close) at Goldman Sachs.

MiMedx Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MDXG) was started as Buy with a $8.50 price target (versus a $7.01 close) at Needham & Co.

PHH Corp. (NYSE: PHH) was raised to Outperform from perform with a $30 price target (versus a $23.87 close) at Oppenheimer.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: RJET) was downgraded to Underperform from an already cautious Neutral rating at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and the price target was put at $10 (versus a $11.08 close).

ALSO READ: J.P. Morgan’s Top Solar Picks Ahead of Earnings

SeaDrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Silver Standard Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: SSRI) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $12.50 price target (versus a $8.88 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) was started as Outperform with a price target of $150 (versus a $104.62) at Cowen.

Transition Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: TTHI) was started as Buy with a $10 price target (versus a $6.58 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Macquarie.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

ALSO READ: World Gold Council Sees Solid Recovery Coming in Gold

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Apple, Charles Schwab, Google, Nasdaq OMX, TripAdvisor, Wells Fargo and a dozen more.

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