Equity Briefing: Upgrades and Downgrades for August 13th: PRSC, PWE, RBN, RKT, ROST, S, SCBT, SCHN, SCLN

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:

Noble Financial  downgraded shares of The Providence Service Co. PRSC from a buy rating to a hold rating.

Credit Suisse  downgraded shares of Penn West Energy Trust PWE from an outperform rating to a neutral rating.

Robert W. Baird  downgraded shares of Robbins & Myers RBN from an outperform rating to a neutral rating. Their analysts now have a $60.00 price target on the stock.

Credit Suisse  upgraded shares of Rock-Tenn Company RKT from a neutral rating to an outperform rating.

Piper Jaffray  upgraded shares of Ross Stores, Inc. ROST from a neutral rating to an overweight rating.

Bank of America  upgraded shares of Sprint Nextel S from a neutral rating to a buy rating. Bank of America now has a $6.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $4.50.

Wunderlich  raised its price target on shares of SCBT Financial Co. SCBT from $40.00 to $48.00. They have a buy rating on the stock.

Bank of America  downgraded shares of Schnitzer Steel SCHN from a neutral rating to an underperform rating. Their analysts now have a $28.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $31.00.

Cowen  downgraded shares of SciClone Pharmaceuti SCLN from an outperform rating to a neutral rating.

Morgan Stanley  downgraded shares of Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc SGNT from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating.

Deutsche Bank  initiated coverage on shares of Silicon Motion Technology Corp. SIMO. They issued a buy rating on the stock.

Goldman Sachs  upgraded shares of The J.M. Smucker Company SJM from a neutral rating to a buy rating.

Canaccord Genuity  initiated coverage on shares of Sodastream International SODA. They issued a hold rating on the stock and set a $45.00 price target. They noted that the move was a valuation call.

Jefferies Group  upgraded shares of Spreadtrum Comms SPRD from an underperform rating to a hold rating.

B. Riley  upgraded shares of Stoneridge, Inc. SRI from a neutral rating to a buy rating.

Desjardins  upgraded shares of Sunopta Inc. STKL from a hold rating to a buy rating.

Ascendiant Capital Markets  lowered its price target on shares of Firsthand Technology Value Fund Inc SVVC from $24.00 to $21.00. They have a buy rating on the stock.

JPMorgan Chase  downgraded shares of Syntel, Inc. SYNT from an overweight rating to a neutral rating.

Raymond James  upgraded shares of Solazyme Inc SZYM from a market perform rating to an outperform rating.

Macquarie  downgraded shares of Thompson Creek Metals Co Inc TC from a neutral rating to an underperform rating.

Caris & Co.  downgraded shares of Time Warner Inc. TWX from an above average rating to an average rating. Their analysts now have a $42.00 price target on the stock.

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