Costco (COST), Eli Lilly (LLY), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) and Walmart (WMT) were among some of the widely held stocks upgraded by Louis Navellier in his latest fundamental stock analysis on April 12, 2010.
Popularity: 65% [?]
Williams-Sonoma (WSM) and Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) are both begun at Hold by BB&T Capital Markets.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Midpriced department store chain J.C. Penney is likely to benefit as consumer spending recovers, a Goldman Sachs analyst said Friday, and upgraded the company to “Buy” from “Neutral.”
Goldman Sachs analyst Adrianne Shapira also added J.C. Penney to her “Conviction Buy” list, which indicates top stock picks.
Popularity: 31% [?]
Upgrades
Nokia (NOK): The mobile phone maker gets a Buy from Neutral boost at UBS, though the broker notes it still has “challenges remaining” in the high end of the market.
Cedar Fair (FUN): The stock is upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform with Wells Fargo.
California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI): Cowen raises its California Pizza Kitchen rating to Neutral from Underperform.
KeyCorp (KEY): Keycorp gets upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Darden Restaurants (DRI): The stock is now Outperform from Neutral at Cowen.
Allied Irish Banks (AIB): Celtic cooperation as Allied Irish Banks gets a 180 degree (Buy from Sell) upgrade at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
CIBER (CBR): Citing improving trends in their IT professionals’ survey, Robert Baird boosts CIBER to Outperform from Neutral and increases its price target to $5 from $4.
Popularity: 34% [?]
Shares of CardioNet Inc., which have lost two-thirds of their value in the last year, advanced Tuesday after an analyst upgraded the heart device maker’s stock.
Matt Dolan of Roth Capital Partners said reimbursement rates for procedures using CardioNet’s wireless heart-monitoring devices should remain steady or increase after being slashed by 33 percent last year. That could give a significant boost to the company’s revenue, and patient volume growth is strong, he said. Dolan upgraded the stock to “Buy” from “Hold.”
Popularity: 30% [?]
Collins Stewart upgrades Equinix Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) to Buy. Price target $110.
Collins analyst says, “With a solid report and a strong 20% (plus) revenue growth outlook with at least stable margins for 2010, that we believe contains an element of upside, we believe the stock has again become attractively priced for purchase…
Popularity: 27% [?]
JPMorgan upgrades Gaylord Entertainment (NYSE: GET) from Neutral to Overweight. The firm also raised its price target on the stock from $20 to $24.
This morning’s upgrade follows yesterday’s Q4 results from Gaylord. The stock rose about 1.6% yesterday amid the news.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Best Buy (BBY) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Rochdale.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Kaufman Bros. upgraded Amazon.com (AMZN) to buy from hold as it finds the risk/reward on shares attractive following the recent pullback and expects the company to report strong Q4 results. Kaufman maintains a $155 price target on the stock.
Popularity: 5% [?]
