Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Agilent, Boeing, Herbalife, Nokia, Sprint, Walmart and More

November 4, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated lower on Tuesday. October has come and gone, and the market could simply wonder what sell-off anyone was worried about before. As investors have shown time and again, they want to buy stocks when they go on sale or stocks that are overlooked. 24/7 Wall St. wanted to look over some of the top analyst research calls. We review dozens of analyst research calls each morning of the week to find new investment and trading ideas. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover sell or to avoid.

These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) may have been granted a patent case dismissal on Monday, but R.W. Baird downgraded it to Neutral and Wells Fargo downgraded it to Market Perform. The downgrades on Tuesday were after a 3.3% gain to $40.84 on Monday.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein. Argus maintained a Buy rating but cut the target to $120 from $125.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was reiterated as Buy with a $164 price target at Sterne Agee after strong October plane deliveries.

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Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: PLAY) has seen its quiet period end, and shares hit a post-IPO high on Monday. Jefferies and Stifel started it as Buy. It was started as Overweight at Piper Jaffray and as Outperform at William Blair.

Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) was indicated down 13% after missing earnings. The troubled vitamin and supplements retailer was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys.

Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Navient Corp. (NASDAQ: NAVI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs, although the price target was lifted to $20 from $19 (versus a $20 close).

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Bernstein, and the price target of $6.40 compares to a closing price of $8.36.

Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

RCS Capital Corp. (NYSE: RCAP) fell 16% after backing out of an ARCP deal. Now it was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

SLM Corp. (NASDAQ: SLM) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $11.50 from $9.50 at Goldman Sachs.

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Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) was maintained as Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Travelport Worldwide Ltd. (NYSE: TVPT) saw its quiet period come to an end. Credit Suisse started it as Outperform. UBS, Deutsche Bank and Jefferies each started it as Buy.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was started as Neutral with a $70 price target at Sterne Agee.

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in Dendreon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Home Depot, NVIDIA and a dozen or so more.

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