Yesterday I highlighted three bellwether stocks—Sony (SNE), Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Thomson Reuters (TRI)—that made headlines last week and were on the move. In the cutthroat earnings arena, Time Warner and Thomson Reuters emerged as winners while Sony was a clear loser.
But these are just three examples of how quickly things can change on Wall Street. As further proof of this, internet radio leader Pandora (P) popped nearly 9% during trading today after announcing a strong audience turnout for October. (A Moderately Aggressive stock, P is currently a B-rated Buy.) On the flipside, DIRECTV (DTV) shares retreated after the company announced that subscriber growth slowed in Latin America during the third quarter. (DTV is a C-rated hold.)
During these busy times, it pays to stay on top of the latest profit opportunities. And today’s blog post should be a great place to start. After taking a close look at the latest data on institutional buying pressure and each company’s fundamental health, I decided to revise my Portfolio Grader recommendations for an additional 45 big Blue Chips. Chances are that you have at least one of these stocks in your portfolio, so you may want to give this list a skim and act accordingly.
Upgrades
Last Week’s Holds, Now Buys
Symbol |
Company Name |
Quantitative Grade |
Fundamental Grade |
| ADP | Automatic Data Processing | B | C |
| BX | The Blackstone Group | B | C |
| CL | Colgate-Palmolive | B | C |
| DISCK | Discovery Communications | B | C |
| GSK | GlaxoSmithKline plc | B | C |
| HIG | The Hartford Financial Services | B | C |
| HMC | Honda | B | D |
| MHFI | McGraw Hill Financial | B | B |
| PFE | Pfizer | B | C |
| TRI | Thomson Reuters | A | C |
| TWC | Time Warner Cable | B | C |
| UAL | United Continental Holdings | B | C |
| XLNX | Xilinx | B | B |
Last Week’s Sells, Now Holds
Symbol |
Company Name |
Quantitative Grade |
Fundamental Grade |
| ABT | Abbott Laboratories | D | B |
| BHI | Baker Hughes I | D | C |
| BNS | The Bank of Nova Scotia | C | C |
| BP | BP p.l.c. | D | B |
| BTI | British American Tobacco | D | B |
| CHT | Chunghwa Telecom | D | C |
| DTV | DIRECTV | C | C |
| GE | General Electric | C | C |
| MCD | McDonald’s | D | C |
| MO | Altria | D | B |
| NUE | Nucor | C | C |
| OXY | Occidental Petroleum | C | C |
| PRGO | Perrigo | C | B |
| ROST | Ross Stores | C | B |
Downgrades
Last Week’s Buys, Now Holds
Symbol |
Company Name |
Quantitative Grade |
Fundamental Grade |
| F | Ford | C | B |
| LVS | Las Vegas Sands | C | B |
| MS | Morgan Stanley | C | C |
| MSFT | Microsoft | C | B |
| PAYX | Paychex | C | C |
| PNC | The PNC Financial Services | C | B |
| PSA | Public Storage | C | B |
| SNE | Sony Corporation | B | D |
Last Week’s Holds, Now Sells
Symbol |
Company Name |
Quantitative Grade |
Fundamental Grade |
| BAM | Brookfield Asset Management | D | C |
| BAP | Credicorp Ltd. | D | D |
| BEAM | Beam Inc | D | C |
| C | Citigroup | D | C |
| CMI | Cummins | D | C |
| CS | Credit Suisse Group | D | C |
| DEO | Diageo plc | D | B |
| GS | Goldman Sachs | D | B |
| JPM | JPMorgan Chase | D | C |
| NU | Northeast Utilitites | D | C |
| PAA | Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. | D | C |
| TS | Tenaris S.A. | D | C |
