Analysts' Upgrades, Downgrades: Merck

Change in Ratings

AES (AES Quote) upgraded at Merrill from Underperform to Neutral. $10 price target. Valuation call, as the stock is down 69% year-to-date, and the stock is not crediting recent growth.

Acme Packet (APKT Quote) downgraded at Credit Suisse to Neutral from Outperform. Cites challenging carrier cap-ex environment and deteriorating global macro-environment. Lowered target price to $4 from $6.

Career Education (CECO Quote) upgraded at Piper Jaffray to Neutral from Sell based on valuation and lack of major negative catalysts. See potential for continued difficulty driven by troubled state of culinary and art and design segments, but believe shares adequately reflect this. Price target raised to $14 from $13.

Harris (HRS Quote) upgraded at Barclays from Equal-weight to Overweight. $47 price target. Company is seeing continued momentum in the high focus RF business.

Merck (MRK Quote) coverage initiated at Goldman Sachs with a Neutral rating and $36 price target. Although shares are attractive on many valuation measures, note slow revenue growth and limited visibility into growth assets.

Pfizer (PFE Quote) coverage initiated at Goldman Sachs with a Sell rating and $19 target. See precipitous earnings decline driven by $21 billion exclusivity loss from 2011-2015. Also note lack of new products.

Pepco (POM Quote) upgraded at Merrill to Neutral. Valuation call, after the stock fell 20% this week in reaction to a dilutive equity offering and a less favorable commodity price outlook. $18 price target.

Whole Foods (WFMI Quote) upgraded at Barclays from Underweight to Equal-weight. $11 price target. Company has bridged some liquidity gaps and is bringing its cost structure down.

Stock Comments/EPS Changes