Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: MET, COST, WAG, CAG...

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Walgreen Co (WAG), Costco Wholesale (COST), Analyst initiations, Lloyds TSB Group plc ADS (LYG), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI)

Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded MetLife (NYSE: MET) to Outperform from Market Perform as they believe the company's capital and liquidity profile are very solid relative to this week's sell-off.
  


• The firm also upgraded shares of MSCI (NYSE: MXB) to Outperform from Market Perform on valuation as they believe near-term challenges are already priced into shares.
  


• Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan based on valuation and strong pricing outlook.


• Costco (NASDAQ: COST) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  


• Pali Capital lifted Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) to Neutral from Sell.
  


• Merrill upgraded Pall (NYS: PLL) and Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) to buy from Neutral.

• Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Trimble Navigation (NASDAQ: TRMB) to Perform from Outperform as they believe the company's Engineering and Construction division is facing a challenging period due to the credit market strain.
  


• Stephens downgraded Seacoast Banking (NASDAQ:SBCF) to Underweight from Equal Weight as they believe a dilutive capital raise is possible given future losses from real estate credits in coastal Florida.

• Friedman Billings cut Xyratex (NASDAQ:XRTX) to Market Perform from outperform at lowered its target to $13 to reflect credit concerns and risk of Western Digital (NYSE:WDC) reducing orders after the potential acquisition of Fujitsu operations.


• Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) was lowered to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  


• Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP) was downgraded at Merrill Lynch to Underperform from Buy.
  


• Lloyds TSB Group (NYSE:LYG) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Societe Generale.

• Janney Montgomery believes FuelCell Energy's (NASDAQ:FCEL) products are reaching an inflection point where it will be able to see a path to positive gross margins. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $8 target.
  


• Jefferies initiated TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) with a Buy rating and $38 target and believes the company's off-price business model offers a strong value proposition to price-sensitive consumers.
  


• Kaufman Bros. believes BTU International (NASDAQ:BTUI) will transition to a major equipment supplier for the thin-film and crystalline solar cell sector; shares were assumed with a Buy rating and $14 target.


• Spectranetics (NASDAQ:SPNC) was initiated at Caris with an Average rating and $5 target.
  


• Healthways (NASDAQ:HWAY) was started with a Hold rating at Deutsche Bank.
  


• ConAgra (NYSE:CAG) and Mentor (NYSE:MNT) were initiated with Neutral ratings and a $21 target and $26 target, respectively, at UBS.

 

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