Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: VZ, CHS, DLTR, RGC ...

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Analyst initiations

• Jefferies upgraded Ansys (NASDAQ: ANSS) shares to Buy from Hold following the company's reduced guidance as it now believes estimates are much more achievable. Despite the upgrade, the firm lowered its target price to $25 from $29.
  


• Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Signet Jewelers (NYSE: SIG) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from a capacity reduction in U.S. jewelry retailing.
  


• Thomas Weisel upgraded Omnicare (NYSE: OCR) to Overweight from Market Weight citing improving fundamentals and misunderstandings regarding Obama's healthcare proposal.


• Verizon (VZ) was lifted to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.
  


• The Inventure Group (NYSE: SNAK) was raised to Buy from Hold at Roth Capital.
  


• Chico's FAS (NYSE: CHS) was upgraded at Friedman Billings to Outperform from Market Perform.

• Stephens downgraded Wilbros Group (NYSE: WG) to Equal Weight from Overweight to reflect a lack of visibility into earnings and deterioration in the company's end markets. The firm lowered its target price to $9.


• Jefferies downgraded Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) to Hold from Buy as it believes the company can not sustain profits or cash flow this year given its capex requirements. The firm lowered its target price to $3 from $4.
  


• Barclays cut SLM Corp (NYSE: SLM) to Equal Weight from Overweight following President Obama's proposal to eliminate Federal Family Education Loan Program.


• Synta Pharma (NASDAQ: SNTA) was lowered to Hold from Buy at Roth Capital and to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital.
  


• U.S. Cellular (NYSE: USM) was downgraded at Baird to Underperform from Neutral.
  


• Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman.

• ThinkEquity expects Emulex (NYSE: ELX) to generate positive FCF in 2010 and views valuation as attractive. Shares were initiated with a Buy rating and $7 target.
  


• Lazard Capital initiated Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT) with a Buy rating and $19 target. The firm believes the company is well positioned in the Software as a Service category of E-mail Marketing.


• Morgan Stanley assumed Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) with an Overweight rating and $45 target and Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO) with an Equal Weight rating.
  


• Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC) was started at Barclays with an Overweight rating and $14 target.

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: VZ, CHS, DLTR, RGC ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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