Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: BBY, K, SNDK, H, ERIC

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Best Buy (BBY), Kellogg Co (K), Hershey Co (HSY), Activision Inc (ATVI), Analyst initiations, SanDisk Corp (SNDK)

• Thomas Weisel upgraded SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) to Market Weight from Underweight. Thomas Weisel said they are less negative on the outlook for memory industry dynamics but they do expect SanDisk shares to be range bound.
  


• Citigroup upgraded shares of Hershey (NYSE:HSY) to Buy from Hold as they believe Hershey is benefiting from increased advertising spending and the consumer trade-down to less expensive chocolate. The firm maintains a $39 target on the stock.
  


• Deutsche Bank upgraded Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) to Buy from Holdas they believe the company will be a beneficiary from the Circuit City liquidation.


• Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman.
  


• Advance Auto Parts (NYSE:AAP) and Virgin Media (NASDAQ:VMED) were raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
  


• NewMarket (NYSE:NEU) was upgraded at KeyBanc to Buy from Hold.

• Citigroup downgraded Kellogg (NYSE:K) to Hold from Buy as they believe the company's U.S. trends are decelerating and that FX trends will have a negative impact. The firm lowered their target price to $47 from $58.
  


• Jefferies downgraded Cerner (NASDAQ:CERN) to Hold from Buy following Eclipsys' (NASDAQ:ECLP) negative pre-announcement as they believe both companies are suffering from a downturn in hospital spending. Jefferies lowered their target on Cerner to $38 from $51.
  


• Oppenheimer cut Amdocs (DOX) to Perform from Outperform following the weak Q1 results citing lack of near-term catalysts and the macroeconomic slowdown.


• Eclipsys (NASDAQ:ECLP)was downgraded to Underperform from Buy at Jefferies and to Neutral from Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  


• PetSmart (NASDAQ:PETM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  


• Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) was lowered to Underperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette.

• Wunderlich initiated Republic Services (NYSE:RSG) with a Buy rating and $30 target and believes the company should enjoy sustainable pricing leverage following the merger with Waste Management.
  


• RBC Capital initiated Elan Corp (NYSE:ELN) with an Underperform rating and $4 target based on Tysabri uncertainty, bapineuzumab clinical risk, MS competition, and debt overhang.
  


• Oppenheimer expects Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) to become an aggressive acquirer of financially distressed biotech companies with the completion of the acquisition of Pharmacopeia. Shares were assumed with an Outperform rating and $5 target.


• Zebra Tech (NASDAQ:ZBRA) was initiated with a Neutral rating and $25 target at JP Morgan.
  


• Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI) was reinitiated at Friedman Billings with an Outperform rating and $14 target.
  


• Ameren (NYSE:AEE) was assumed with a Hold rating at Jesup & Lamont.

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: BBY, K, SNDK, H, ERIC originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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