Top Stocks Upgrades-Downgrades June 20, 2013

UPGRADES

• Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo – Target $30-32
• Wal-Mart (WMT) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James – Target $84

DOWNGRADES

• FedEx (FDX) downgraded at Morgan Stanley
• Disney (DIS) downgraded to Neutral from Conviction Buy at Goldman – Target $70

HEADLINES

World Markets have reacted negatively after the fed announcement yesterday afternoon. European Markets are down across the board, with Germany and France being down the most, both down 2.5% so far in the day. Asian markets were rocked overnight, with the Shanghai Composite closing at 2.8%, the Hong Kong Seng down 2.9%, and the Japanese Nikkei down 1.7%. American futures are pointing towards a negative opening as well.

The Fed Announcement also had a strong impact on gold, as the precious metal has been tanking so far this morning. Gold is down more than 5% on the day already. The metal is trading at around $1300 after hitting a low of $1285 earlier this morning. Gold has been taking a dive after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted that the current quantitative easing could be completely finished by mid-2014.

Oracle (ORCL) is set to release its earnings today after the closing bell, and the general feeling is bullish. Analysts are expecting the tech giant’s EPS rose to $0.87, which would be a growth from $0.82 a year earlier. Analysts also expect the company to report a revenue of $11.12B, right around expectations. “We expect the company to report muted growth as it continues to face significant challenges in its hardware business,” says SA author Trefis. “However, its software business could get back on the growth track after a dismal performance last quarter.”

Manufacturing company Stratasys (SSYS) has come to an agreement with start up company MakerBot to acquire the desktop 3D printing company for an all-stock deal valued at $403M. Makerbot has sold over 22,00 printers since 2009 and estimates that 35,000-40,000 3D printers were sold this past year. The company forecasts a doubling in the market this year. Makerbot reported a Q1 revenue of $11.5M.

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