NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- CenturyLink (CTL) - Get Report stock is up 0.37% to $37.77 in morning trading Tuesday after D.A. Davidson upgraded its rating to "neutral" from "underperform," while maintaining a $39 price target. 

"We don't see tremendous downside in the stock, but still think CenturyLink may raise its capex budget more in 2015 as it rolls out Gigabit speeds in more cities and Prism TV to new markets," analysts said. 

CenturyLink reported fourth quarter earnings of 60 cents per share and fiscal earnings of $2.59 per share in 2014. 

Exclusive Report:Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015

Analysts predict first quarter earnings of 2015 to be 58 cents per share, versus 66 cents per share in the year ago quarter.  D.A. Davidson anticipates fiscal year earnings of $2.56 per share in 2015 and $2.57 per share in 2016. 

The integrated communications company reported revenue $18.03 billion in 2014. Analysts expect lower revenue of $17.96 billion in 2015 and $18 billion in 2016. 

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates CENTURYLINK INC as a Buy with a ratings score of B-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate CENTURYLINK INC (CTL) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations, expanding profit margins, notable return on equity and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Net operating cash flow has slightly increased to $1,251.00 million or 8.68% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -27.09%.
• The gross profit margin for CENTURYLINK INC is rather high; currently it is at 56.38%. Regardless of CTL's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year.
• CENTURYLINK INC's earnings per share declined by 19.5% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, CENTURYLINK INC turned its bottom line around by earning $1.35 versus -$0.43 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.56 versus $1.35).
• Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 2.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 2.3%. The declining revenue appears to have seeped down to the company's bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• The change in net income from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the Diversified Telecommunication Services industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income has decreased by 21.3% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $239.00 million to $188.00 million.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: CTL Ratings Report