Analyst calls: CRM, MEE, ARTC, ACI, AET, WB ...

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Aetna Inc (AET), Wachovia Corp (WB), Analyst initiations, salesforce.com inc (CRM)

Analyst upgrades:

• William Blair raised Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) to Outperform from Market Perform. The firm believes that the long-term fundamentals of the clinical laboratories sectors are still strong.
  


• UBS upgraded Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE) to Buy from Neutral on valuation.
  


• ArthroCare (NASDAQ: ARTC) was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Lazard, since the firm expects a small restatement while they believe a large restatement is priced into the shares.


• Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by UBS.


• Merrill Lynch raised Southern Peru Copper (NYSE: PCU) to Neutral from Underperform.

• Piper downgraded Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) to Neutral from Buy to reflect the company's lower than expected deferred Q2 revenue.


• Goldman Sachs removed Amylin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: AMLN) from its Conviction Buy List.
  

• Aetna (NYSE: AET) was initiated with a Buy by Banc of America, which believes the company will experience industry-leading member growth.
  


• Banc of America initiated Wellpoint (NYSE: WLP) with a Buy rating, as the firm expects the shares to rebound from near trough valuations.
  


• Wachovia (NYSE: WB) was reinitiated by Friedman Billings with an Underperform rating, as the firm expects the company to incur higher credit losses than the Street expects due to its outsized exposure to residential real estate.
  


• Six Flags (NYSE: SIX) was started with an Above Average rating by Caris.

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