Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ALKS, CS, EBAY, AMZN, EXPE, FDX ...

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, eBay (EBAY), Amazon.com (AMZN), Expedia Inc (EXPE), FedEx Corp (FDX), Analyst initiations

• Jefferies upgraded shares of Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS) to Overweight from Neutral on valuation, as they believe the current share price undervalues Risperdal Consta and provides little to no value for other pipeline drugs.
  


• JP Morgan upgraded ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) to Buy from Hold following the company's Q1 results, as they believe further estimate reductions are unlikely.
  


• UBS expects ITT Educational (NYSE: ESI) to benefit from strong enrollment growth and they see less private student lending risk. Shares were upgraded to Buy from Neutral.


• BMC Software (NYSE: BMC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman and added to the firm's Conviction Buy List.
  


• Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  


• Covance (NYSE: CVD) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at First Analysis.

• UBS downgraded Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) to Neutral from Buy and added shares to its Short-term Sell list citing the significant reduction in 2009 coal prices and estimates.
  


• Friedman Billings cut Century Aluminum (NASDAQ: CENX) to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered its target to $8 from $18 shares to reflect a lowered aluminum price forecast and financing concerns.
  


• Bernstein downgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Market Perform from Outperform citing recent share performances and the difficult macro environment.


• CommVault (NASDAQ: CVLT) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman and added to the Conviction Buy List.
  


• TomoTherapy (NASDAQ: TOMO) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.
  


• Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) was lowered to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

• Morgan Keegan initiated Brinker (NYSE: EAT) with a Market Perform citing the difficult macro economy, relative debt levels and the competitive environment.
  


• Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) was initiated at Oppenheimer with an Outperform rating and $12 target. The firm expects the company to benefit from growing demand for higher acuity assisted living.
  


• Baird initiated Healthcare Realty (NYSE: HR) with an Underperform rating and $19 target citing the company's premium valuation vs. the group.


• UBS initiated Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN), and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) with Neutral ratings citing the difficult near-term demand environment.
  


• FedEx (NYSE: FDX) was started at Jesup & Lamont with a Hold rating.

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ALKS, CS, EBAY, AMZN, EXPE, FDX ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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