Up/Downgrades (ACE, CRI, E, GE, LNKD, PCS, OWW, TXN, ADTN, ADS, CNI, CP, FTNT, HUN, IR, STO, TSO)

Published on Tuesday, 06 December 2011 09:06 Written by Danny Miller

New York, December 6^th (TradersHuddle.com) – Following are some of the top upgrades and downgrades before the market open.

Upgrades

ACE Limited (NYSE:ACE), the specialty insurance and reinsurance products provider, was upgraded to a Buy from Neutral at Ticonderoga. The firm set its target price at $85.

Carter Holdings (NYSE:CRI) was upgraded to a Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

ENI S.p.A. (NYSE:E), the Italian energy giant, was upgraded to a Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

General Electric (NYSE:GE), the diversified conglomerate maker of power turbines and jet engines, was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein.

LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), the social networking site for professionals, was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.

MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS), the pay as you go wireless provider, was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at William Blair.

Orbitz (NYSE:OWW) was upgraded to a Buy from Hold at The Benchmark Company. The firm raised its target price to $5 from $3.

Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), the maker of digital signal processing (DSP) and microcontroller (MCU) semiconductors, was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at JMP Securities.

Downgrades

ADTRAN (NASDAQ:ADTN) was downgraded to a Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Alliance Data Systems (NYSE:ADS), the provider of data-driven and transaction-based marketing and customer loyalty solutions, was downgraded to a Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI), the largest freight railroad in Canada that provides transportation and intermodal service throughout North America, was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Canadian Pacific (NYSE:CP), the Class 1 transcontinental railway, was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) was downgraded to a Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird. The firm set its target price at $27.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) was downgraded to a Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE:IR), the maker of industrial air compressed systems, was downgraded to a Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee.

Statoil ASA (NYSE:STO), the Norwegian energy giant, was downgraded to a Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Tesoro (NYSE:TSO), the crude oil refiner based in San Antonio, TX, was downgraded to a Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.