Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: ADP, Facebook, FireEye, Potash, Tyson, Vodafone and More

December 5, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

Monkey evilStocks were marginally higher but not in a set direction ahead of the key unemployment and payrolls report on Friday morning. Regardless, investors keep proving that they want to buy stocks with a value story or that are overlooked or oversold. 24/7 Wall St. looks over dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and some cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades from 24/7 Wall St.

ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE: EXP) was maintained as Buy but was removed from the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has a new street-high analyst price target. The social media giant was started as Buy with a $105 price target (versus a $75.24 close) at MKM Partners. The consensus analyst price target is $87.38, and the highest analyst price was $103.

FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was started as Market Perform at JMP Securities.

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IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein.

National Retail Properties Inc. (NYSE: NNN) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) was maintained as Buy but was added to the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs, and the price target was raised to $165 from $163. It was also raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and given a $40 price target (versus a $34.93 close) at J.P. Morgan.

Rockwell Automation Inc. (NYSE: ROK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Rocket Fuel Inc. (NASDAQ: FUEL) was started as Sell at Maxim Group.

Spansion Inc. (NYSE: CODE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee based on the pop after the acquisition announcement by Cypress Semiconductor.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) was reiterated as Outperform at Wells Fargo after the outlook to 2019, but the firm raised its valuation range to $94.00 to $96.00 from a prior range of $89.00 to $91.00.

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Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: TNK) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) was maintained as Buy but was added to the prized Conviction Buy List with a $51 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in Avago Technologies, Avis Budget, BHP Billiton, Blackstone, CSX, MobilEye, Walmart and a dozen or so more stocks.

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