NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- CHANGE IN RATINGS
Accenture ( ACN) initiated at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch with a Buy rating. $58 price target. Company is well-positioned and has plenty of runway. Berry Petroleum ( BRY) was upgraded by Keybanc from Hold to Buy. $42 price target. Company has attractive oil assets. Concur Technologies ( CNQR) initiated at Goldman Sachs with a Neutral rating. Company has strong margins, but already trades at a premium valuation. Coinstar ( CSTR) downgraded at Thomas Weisel to Market Weight from Overweight as the market is factoring in too much upside. Price target lifted to $38 from $26. FPL Group ( FPL) upgraded at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to Buy from Neutral. Price target lifted to $54 from $51. Only diversified utility that can produce positive earnings growth next three-four years. Petrohawk Energy ( HK) upgraded at FBR from Market Perform to Outperform. $30 price target. Company is closing its funding gap with asset sales and lower cap-ex spending. Interpublic ( IPG) upgraded at Argus Research from Hold to Buy. $12 price target. Consumer economy is rebounding and the company should benefit from higher advertising spending. Microchip Technology ( MCHP) upgraded at UBS from Neutral to Buy. $34 price target. Estimates also raised, as the company is positioned well coming out of the recent industry downturn. Monster Worldwide ( MWW) upgraded at Credit Suisse to Outperform from Neutral on improving labor conditions and rising operating metrics. Price target jumped to $22 from $15. 2009 and 2010 EPS estimates lifted to 35 cents and 3 cents, respectively. Protective Life ( PL) downgraded at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to Neutral from Buy on valuation. Price target lifted to $25 from $23. R.R. Donnelley ( RRD) was initiated at Robert Baird with an Outperform rating. $27 price target. Company is positioned to benefit from a cyclical recovery in advertising spending. SuccessFactors ( SFSF) upgraded at Janney Montgomery to Buy. $24 price target. Sales and margins have improved from trough numbers in the third quarter. Sensata Technologies ( ST) initiated at Barclays with an Overweight rating and $24 price target. Visibility to growth, healthy margins and solid cash generation. Waddell & Reed Financial ( WDR) downgraded at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to Neutral from Buy on valuation. Price target raised to $40 from $36. Zions Bancorporation ( ZION) upgraded at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from Underperform to Market Perform. $25 price target. Estimates also raised, as the company is seeing lower net charge-offs.
