24/7 Wall St.

Stocks were up in the premarket yet again on Wednesday, as earnings season is getting underway with a very positive bias. Investors are looking for upside, but perhaps via stock picks rather than expecting that the frothy market will just keep rising and rising. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of brokerage analyst reports each morning to find new ideas for our readers. Some of the research reports cover stocks to buy, while some of these analyst reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

We have seen a data security coverage from Goldman Sachs. Also Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is being given a catch-up game by analysts after pleasing skeptics with its earnings. These are this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street firms.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was started with a Buy rating and given a $110 price target (versus a $95.32 close) at Citigroup.

Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: BKD) was started with a Buy rating and was given a $44 price target (versus a $34.14 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Cash America International Inc. (NYSE: CSH) was raised to Buy from Neutral and given a $50 price target (versus a $41.52 close) at Sterne Agee.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Diageo PLC (NYSE: DEO) was downgraded to Sell From Hold at Societe Generale.

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

FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was started with a Buy rating and given a $42 price target (versus a $33.82 close) at Goldman Sachs.

IMAX Corp. (NASDAQ: IMAX) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) did incredibly well with its earnings report, and now we have more analysts playing catch up. Intel was raised to Buy from Neutral at B. Riley and raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS. Sterne Agee maintained a Neutral but raised the target to $30.

Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX) was raised to Buy from Hold with a new $50 price target (versus a $35.77 close) at Jefferies.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. (NYSE: NSM) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

ALSO READ: Top Communications Tech Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2014

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) was started on the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs, and the stock was given a $97 price target (versus a $75.98 close).

Proofpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT) was started with a Buy rating and given a $42 price target (versus a $33.26 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee.

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Syngenta A.G. (NYSE: SYT) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse

United Natural Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: UNFI) was started as Outperform and given a $75 price target at Oppenheimer.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $120 price target (versus a $26.61 close) at R.W. Baird.

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

In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were included Applied Materials, Citigroup, Lexmark, Mead Johnson, PHH, Stratasys, Twitter, Whiting Petroleum and a dozen more stocks.