Crazy analyst moves you NEED to know about

There are some CRAZY analyst moves you need to know about today.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank late on Thursday afternoon. The shares fell in the after-hours, but the implication of the downgrade was not big at all after looking at the notes.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) was downgraded to Reduce from Buy at Nomura, just after Wells Fargo warned of severe downside earlier this week.

Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham. Canaccord Genuity maintained its Buy rating but lowered the price target to $41 from $64.

CDW Corp. (NYSE: CDW) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.


Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform and was given a $9 price target (versus a $7.08 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight with a $63 price target at Morgan Stanley.

Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital Markets.

Proto Labs Inc. (NYSE: PRLB) was raised to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity after the recent pullback created an attractive entry point.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (NYSE: PPC) was started with a Neutral rating and $33 price target (versus a $30.64 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was started with a Buy rating at Sterne Agee late on Thursday, and another call shows that it was started as Buy at Societe Generale as well.

Silver Spring Network Inc. (NYSE: SSNI) was started with an Outperform rating and was given a $13 price target (versus a $9.48 close) at Raymond James.

Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: SLXP) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and was given a $43 price target (versus a $32.56 close) at J.P. Morgan.