Upgrades and Downgrades (BLL, CERN, CPX, CNQR, ETN, ESE, HGSI, POM, TSS, CMTL, ECA, FSGI, GCA, OI, PTV, PJC, SWI, SEIC)

Published on Thursday, 22 July 2010 08:10 Written by Danny Miller

New York, July 22^nd (TradersHuddle.com) – Following are some of the top upgrades and downgrades before the market open.

Upgrades:

Ball Corp (NYSE:BLL), the maker of rigid metal and plastic packaging products, was upgraded to a Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

Cerner (NASDAQ:CERN), the worldwide supplier of healthcare solutions and services, was upgraded to a Buy from Hold at Jefferies. The firm set its target price at $87, given an improving purchasing environment, they believe that the ~20% pullback in share price since late April is overdone.

Complete Production Services (NYSE:CPX), the service provider to the oil and natural gas industry, was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Concur Technologies (NASDAQ:CNQR), was upgraded to a Buy from Hold at Jefferies. The firm raised its target price to $55 from $43, citing notable improvement in corporate travel in the last 3-4 months, higher conviction of improved international growth via the Amadeus and other relationships and higher conviction of SMB penetration with the Breeze product.

Crown Holdings (NYSE:CCK), the maker of packaging products for the consumer goods industry, was upgraded to a Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

Eaton (NYSE:ETN), the diversified power management company, was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

Esco Technologies (NYSE:ESE), the provider of hardware and software to support advanced metering applications used in the utilities market, was upgraded to a Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Human Genome (NASDAQ:HGSI), the drug developer based on the discovery on human and microbial genes, was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Robert W. Baird. The analyst raised his target price to $32 from $28 noting stock pullback this year, despite likely timely Benlysta approval (possible late 2010). Firm says while they have long been skeptics of consensus estimates on this drug, compelling new survey data have made them believers. The Firm will be a buyer into low-$30 range.

Pepco Holdings (NYSE:POM), the Washington, DC based diversified Energy Company, was upgraded to a Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan

Total System Services (NYSE:TSS), the electronic payment-processing provider, was upgraded to a Buy from Hold with a $17 target price at Duncan Williams. The analyst said he believes business trends continue to incrementally improve as consumers are slowly increasing their credit card usage, and saying the new business pipeline is improving including in the U.S., which is a positive surprise to them and seems to mirror positive comments about bank spending/outsourcing from Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS) earlier in the week.

Downgrades:

Comtech Telecom (NASDAQ:CMTL), the maker of technology electronic products and systems, was downgraded to a Hold from Buy at Needham.

EnCana (NYSE:ECA), the natural gas producer, was downgraded to a Neutral from Buy at UBS.

FIrst Security Group (NASDAQ:FSGI), the national commercial bank, was downgraded to a Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee.

Global Cash Access (NYSE:GCA), the provider of cash access and customer relationship marketing technologies to the gaming industry, was downgraded to a Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee. The firm set its target price at $4.80.

Owens-Illinois (NYSE:OI), the maker of glass packaging products, was downgraded to a Neutral from Buy at Goldman.

Pactiv Corp (NYSE:PTV), the maker of Hefty plastic bags, was downgraded to a Neutral from Buy at Goldman.

Piper Jaffray (NYSE:PJC), the international middle-market investment bank, was downgraded to a Neutral from Buy at Goldman.

SolarWinds  (NYSE:SWI), the enterprise-class network management software provider, was downgraded to a Hold from Buy at Jefferies. The analyst lowered his target price to $14 from $22; citing concern that continued licenses weakness could be more than Federal and FX issues. The firm says network management market is mature and storage is just beginning to flourish. Solarwinds was also downgraded to a Hold from Buy at Needham.

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette.