Four Stocks With Recent Notable Ratings Changes

Although the market has pulled back slightly in the last two sessions, broadly speaking stocks have been trending up all quarter. Still, when it comes to individual stocks, analyst ratings may have major effects.
 
The following four stocks have experienced significant analyst upgrades or downgrades in the last month:

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS)
 
This colossal, globally renowned financial institution had experienced some drawbacks in the last few weeks (namely, the negative publicity it received after the infamous resignation of Greg Smith). RBS Capital Markets, however, has decided to upgrade Goldman from Sector Perform to Underperform with a price target of $130. Despite losing over $2.15 billion dollars in market capitalization, Goldman remains profitable.
 
Goldman was trading near $95 around the turn of the year. In recent months shares have rallied significantly, and are now trading around $126. Although the company's sales declined 22.7% in the second quarter of 2011 alone, shares of the bank have been steadily rising ever since.
 
Seadrill (NYSE: SDRL)
 
The oil and gas stagnation occurring worldwide might have finally caught up to this offshore drilling company. Due to the increase in prices for crude oil, gas and other related products, the demand for these products has dropped noticeably. This ultimately has left independent oil producers like Seadrill - currently trading at nearly $37 per share - to seek out profits more so than it did before. Dahlman Rose downgraded Seadril from Buy to Hold at a target price of $38.01.
 
UPS (NYSE: UPS)
 
United Parcel Service was downgraded by Stifel Nicolaus to hold (at $81.11) from its previous rating of buy. Although it is trading near $79 and has experienced sustained growth from February 27 onwards, the fact that this global package delivery system relies on an increasingly rare commodity might have hindered its performance. With input costs – primarily oil – rising, it may be understandable that the company could see future declines. Still, Thomson Reuters expects UBS to have a bright future with a 14.71% anticipated growth rate.
 
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS)
 
This one is quite interesting as Deutsche Bank recently downgraded Morgan Stanley to hold (at $22) from buy around ten days ago. Now upgraded to sector perform (at $21) by RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley was named the winner among the largest US banks with shares growing by almost 4%. Although Thomson Reuters projected the company to shrink by about 0.93% in the next quarter, it seems as if analysts may have faith in the company in the long run.
 
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By Raghav Ravichander