Equity Brief: Ratings Changes for November 8th: BIP, CCJ, CLH, CLWR, CMI, CNQR, CORT, CQB, CR

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

BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (BIP) to an outperform rating.

JPMorgan Chase downgraded shares of Cameco Co. (CCJ) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating.

Raymond James downgraded shares of Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating.

RBC Capital upgraded shares of Clearwire (CLWR) from an underperform rating to a sector perform rating.

BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Cummins (CMI) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating. BMO Capital Markets now has a $120.00 price target on the stock.

Piper Jaffray downgraded shares of Concur Technologies, Inc. (CNQR) from a neutral rating to an underweight rating. They wrote, "We are downgrading CNQR shares to UW from Neutral for several reasons: 1) the current valuation at 76x untaxed FY13 FCF, or roughly 91x on a taxed basis, represents rare air and could typify the genre of stocks susceptible to de-risking as a broad and sudden wave of Tech earnings disappointments emerges; 2) as we noted in mid-October, airline RPMs and AMEX corporate travel data have arced over into negative territory and should create a headwind for CNQR; 3) investors might be overlooking the fact that CNQR has guided revenue below consensus for two consecutive quarters while billings growth decelerated; 4) intensifying competition from new entrants such as Workday; and 5) any hopes pinned to the large Government contact will require great patience until 2016 to produce meaningful revenue."

Piper Jaffray downgraded shares of Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (CORT) from a neutral rating to an underweight rating. They wrote, "We are downgrading Corcept to Underweight from Neutral and cutting our price target from $3 to $1.10 following a positive FDA panel vote for Novartis's Signifor (pasireotide) a direct competitor to Korlym. As a reminder, we downgraded shares from Overweight to Neutral on September 13 based on physician feedback indicating that Korlym's launch would likely disappoint. We believe Signifor represents a viable alternative to Korlym, and believe the expected launch of a once monthly formulation could lead to further reduction of peak sales estimates."

Janney Montgomery Scott upgraded shares of Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (CQB) from a neutral rating to a buy rating.

UBS AG raised its price target on shares of Crane Co. (CR) from $45.00 to $48.00. They have a buy rating on the stock.

Wedbush initiated coverage on shares of Cree, Inc. (CREE). They issued an outperform rating on the stock. They wrote, "We see Cree as optimally positioned to benefit from broader growth in LED lighting fixtures, given the company's leadership in developing high-brightness LED components and vertical integration with fixtures production. Gross margins appear to have finally bottomed and 2Q13 is positioned to be Cree's fourth straight quarter of improving margins. The outlook for improving 2H13 profitability from the recently introduced C 3 chip platform and the potential for increasing fab utilization in FY14 rising on both internal and external demand growth suggest margins have good prospects for further expansion. We would be buyers at current levels."

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