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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Bluebird Bio, Boston Beer, Etsy, Gilead, Pfizer, PMC-Sierra, Valeant and More

Stocks were down marginally on Tuesday morning, and indicated much better than the early-bird lows. Investors keep indicating that they will buy their favorite stocks and other value stocks or opportunities when the opportunity is there.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst research reports cover stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Bluebird Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE) was started as Outperform with a $162.00 price target (versus an $81.83 prior close) at Oppenheimer. Bluebird dropped over 4% to $81.83 on Monday and was indicated lower on Tuesday on the heels of a presentation at an anemia symposium on Monday. Bluebird shares have a 52-week trading range of $35.00 to $197.35.

Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM) was raised to Neutral from Sell and the price target was raised to $244.00 from $208.00 (versus a $241.34 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Wedbush Securities, but the $9.00 price target is under the $10.94 prior close. Etsy has a consensus target above $14.00 and a post-IPO range of $10.29 to $35.74.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was reiterated as Outperform at Oppenheimer, and the firm raised its price target up to $124.00 from $120.00 (versus a $103.61 close). The consensus analyst price target is $124.25, and the 52-week range is $85.95 to $123.37.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the $35.00 prior price target was raised to $43.00 (versus a $34.50 close) at Cowen. The consensus price target is $39.33. The 52-week range is $28.00 to $36.46.

PMC-Sierra Inc. (NASDAQ: PMCS) has now received a higher bid of $11.35 and it closed at $11.75 on Monday. The chipmaker was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with an $11.00 price target at Northland Securities.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Sector Outperform at CIBC. Valeant closed down 7.7% at $163.83 on Monday, against a 52-week range of $123.96 to $263.81.

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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday were in the following:

Apartment Investment and Management Co. (NYSE: AIV) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.

AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) was reiterated as Buy with a $93.00 price target at Canaccord Genuity. The firm sees solid earnings this week.

DepoMed Inc. (NASDAQ: DEPO) was reinstated as Buy with a fair value estimate of $35.00 at Janney Capital Markets.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. (NYSE: MAA) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

PACCAR Inc. (NASDAQ: PCAR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Primerica Inc. (NYSE: PRI) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James.

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Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (NYSE: BIN) is lower after guiding sales expectations down. The stock was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Wedbush Securities and downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel. CIBC downgraded it to Sector Perform from Sector Outperform as well.

Rice Energy Inc. (NYSE: RICE) was raised Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets. It was also given big upside in a competing analyst call last week.

Tallgrass Energy G.P. (NYSE: TEGP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at R.W. Baird.

Targa Resources Partners L.P. (NYSE: NGLS) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at R.W. Baird.

Ubiquiti Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: UBNT) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight with a $24.00 price target (versus a $32.06 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Varian Medical Systems Inc. (NYSE: VAR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with an $82.00 price target (versus a $78.47 close) at R.W. Baird.

VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) was reiterated as Buy with a $90 price target by Canaccord Genuity ahead of earnings. The firm sees above-consensus earnings.

ALSO READ: 9 Big Oil Stocks Analysts Say to Buy Now

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Cablevision, Carrizo Oil & Gas, Nike, Oracle, Pure Storage, Regions Financial , Ecolab, Itron and over a dozen more companies.

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