Equity Briefing: Upgrades and Downgrades for August 24th: MCRS, MCRS, MDR, MENT, MMS, MRK, MSFT, NKE, ONTY

A number of stocks were upgraded and downgraded by equities research analysts today, as reported by Analyst Ratings Network (http://bit.ly/arndailyr) and Equity Briefing:

Needham & Company  reiterated its buy rating on shares of Micros Systems Inc MCRS.

Jefferies Group  reiterated its buy rating on shares of Micros Systems Inc MCRS.

Stephens  initiated coverage on shares of McDermott International MDR. They issued an overweight rating on the stock and set a $15.00 price target.

Needham & Company  reiterated its buy rating on shares of Mentor Graphics Corp MENT.

Canaccord Genuity  reiterated its buy rating on shares of Mentor Graphics Corp MENT.

JMP Securities  initiated coverage on shares of Maximus Inc MMS. They issued an outperform rating on the stock.

Bank of America  downgraded shares of Merck & Co Inc MRK from a buy rating to a neutral rating. Their analysts now have a $45.00 price target on the stock.

Nomura  reiterated its buy rating on shares of Microsoft Corp MSFT.

UBS AG  raised its price target on shares of NIKE, Inc. NKE from $99.00 to $106.00. They have a buy rating on the stock.

Stifel Nicolaus  initiated coverage on shares of Oncothyreon Inc . ONTY. They issued a buy rating on the stock and set a $10.00 price target.

Stifel Nicolaus  initiated coverage on shares of Pharmacyclics, Inc. PCYC. They issued a hold rating on the stock.

ThinkEquity  initiated coverage on shares of PDL BioPharma Inc. PDLI. They issued a hold rating on the stock.

Jefferies Group  initiated coverage on shares of Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc. PLX. They issued a hold rating on the stock.

Needham & Company  reiterated its hold rating on shares of Par Pharmaceutical Companies Incorporated PRX.

Jefferies Group  reiterated its buy rating on shares of Rackspace Hosting, Inc. RAX.

Janney Montgomery Scott  reiterated its buy rating on shares of Rue21 RUE.

Nomura  reiterated its neutral rating on shares of Rue21 RUE.

Sterne Agee  downgraded shares of Scholastic Corp SCHL from a buy rating to a neutral rating.

Sterne Agee  downgraded shares of Shoe Carnival SCVL from a buy rating to a neutral rating. They noted that the move was a valuation call.

Avondale Partners  raised its price target on shares of Shoe Carnival SCVL from $24.00 to $28.00. They have an outperform rating on the stock.

Goldman Sachs  upgraded shares of Seadrill Ltd SDRL from a sell rating to a neutral rating.

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