Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: BofA, CA, CBOE, CSX, FedEx, ITT, Potbelly and More

February 27, 2015 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were looking for direction with minimal losses Friday morning ahead of the revised GDP reading. The one trend that has been set in stone is that investors want to buy stocks whenever they can, pullbacks or not. For over two years, the investment community has bought every single pullback.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning of the week with a goal of finding new investment and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

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

Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS, but the price target was maintained at $16, versus a $16.04 close.

CA Inc. (NASDAQ: CA) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $27.50 price target (versus a $32.82 close) at Credit Suisse.

CBOE Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price objective was lowered to $63 from $68 (versus a $60.85 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $40 from $38 (versus a $34.31 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $203 price target (versus a $174.60 close) at Credit Suisse.

Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

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Insulet Corp. (NASDAQ: PODD) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform and the price target was cut to $33 from $39 (versus $32.91 close) at Oppenheimer.

Pharmacyclics Inc. (NASDAQ: PCYC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs, but the firm maintained its $184 price target, versus a $217.82 close. Credit Suisse also cut its rating to Neutral from Outperform, but its price target went up to $233 from $163. This stock had risen roughly 10% this week on news and rumors that it may be acquired.

Potbelly Corp. (NASDAQ: PBPB) was downgraded to Underweight from Overweight and the price target was cut to $12 from $16 (versus a $14.69 close) at Piper Jaffray. This is on the heels of its CFO resignation, and shares were indicated down over 6% in early Friday trading.

Walter Investment Management Corp. (NYSE: WAC) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse and to Underperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT) was started as Outperform with a $52 price target (versus a $41.21 close) at Cowen.

Restaurant Brands International Inc. (NYSE: QSR) was started as Perform at Oppenheimer.

Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ: ZION) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $31 price target (versus a $26.43 close) at Macquarie.

ALSO READ: Alibaba Lockup Expiration May Take Shares to New Low

In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations, they included American Express, Cablevision, Groupon, Salesforce.com, T-Mobile, Yelp and a dozen more.

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