A number of stocks were upgraded and downgraded by equities research analysts today, as reported by Analyst Ratings Network (http://bit.ly/equitybriefdaily) and Equity Brief: Jefferies Group reiterated its buy rating on shares of Apple, Inc (AAPL). They have a $900.00 price target on the stock. They wrote, "After our hands-on experience with the new iPad mini, we believe it will be a top seller this Christmas. Unexpected: refreshed 10" iPad (we expected Mar), refreshed iMacs. Expected: 13" Retina MacBook Pro. The iTunes refresh looks like a CQ1 event. Finally, Apple implied CQ3 iPad shipments of 16M so we are trimming our prior 18M estimate but maintain our well above consensus CQ4 and FY13 estimates." Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein Holding LP (AB) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating. Sandler O'Neill upgraded shares of AllianceBernstein Holding LP (AB) from a hold rating to a buy rating. Goldman Sachs downgraded shares of Ancestry.com Inc (ACOM) from a buy rating to a neutral rating. Piper Jaffray downgraded shares of Ancestry.com Inc (ACOM) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating. Zacks reiterated its neutral rating on shares of AFLAC (AFL). They have a $52.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Akamai Technologies (AKAM) from a perform rating to an outperform rating. Oppenheimer now has a $50.00 price target on the stock. They wrote, "The company is a major beneficiary of the migration to cloud computing. We see this migration accelerating in the next two years due to wireless broadband network and device adoption, combined with more cloud services standards (OpenStack, etc.). AKAM helps a vast majority of eCommerce companies to deliver their services over the Internet (cloud), and this is becoming more important over wireless networks. Given the company's strong growth profile, stable margins and solid balance sheet, we think the stock is attractively valued at ~7x 2013E EBITDA." Canaccord Genuity upgraded shares of Akamai Technologies (AKAM) from a hold rating to a buy rating. Canaccord Genuity now has a $45.00 price target on the stock. They wrote, "With yet another strong quarterly report and an increasingly solid outlook being driven by newer video applications, we are increasing estimates and raising our rating on Akamai to a BUY from a Hold and establishing a $45 price target (10.0x 2013E EBITDA). Although Q4/12 sequential growth will be lower than Q3/12, we note the Q3 base is also significantly higher. It would appear that management has sustainably re-ignited top-line growth while maintaining a strict focus on costs that should result in a continued improving stock price." BMO Capital Markets raised its price target on shares of Amgen, Inc. (AMGN) to $83.00. They have a market perform rating on the stock. Barrington Research upgraded shares of Angie's List (ANGI) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating. Barrington Research now has a $13.00 price target on the stock. They wrote, "We like Angie's revenue visibility, differentiated offering, ability to increase advertising prices, and operating leverage potential. The company's first cohort of territories demonstrates its ability to achieve newer-cohort profitability, in our view. . Angie targets 25 million U.S. households that are affluent, educated, busy, and have more money than time. We expect its 6% penetration rate to increase to 15-20% over time. Likewise, only 33,209 (3%) of the 1 million service providers with Angie reviews have inked advertising contracts." Longbow Research downgraded shares of Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI) from a buy rating to a neutral rating. JPMorgan Chase downgraded shares of Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating. Their analysts now have a $29.00 price target on the stock. UBS AG upgraded shares of AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) from a neutral rating to a buy rating. Zacks reiterated its neutral rating on shares of Baxter International Inc. (BAX). They have a $64.00 price target on the stock. Stay on top of analysts' coverage with Analyst Ratings Network's free daily email newsletter that provides a concise list of analysts' upgrades, downgrades and initiations. Register at http://bit.ly/equitybriefdaily Content and Media Contact: newseditor@equitybrief.net
This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of Thomson Reuters clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Equity Brief via Thomson Reuters ONE
HUG#1652450