Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AMGN, AOL, BBVA, BEBE, SCHW, CLGX, ELN, HIG, KR, NKE, SIAL, TSO, USAC, USB, VMW, WFC)

These are some of this Monday's top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall St. research calls.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) cut to Market Perform at William Blair.

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) raised to Outperform at RBC.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.

Bebe Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: BEBE) named Bear of the Day as the fashion retailer is unlikely to see better days anytime soon by Zacks.

Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) cut to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

CoreLogic Inc. (NYSE: CLGX) named Bull of the Day by Zacks as it will continue to benefit from the current mortgage refinancing boom.

Elan Corp. (NYSE: ELN) cut to Neutral at UBS.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: HIG) reiterated Buy and raised target to $28 at Argus.

Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) raised to Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (NASDAQ: SIAL) cut to Sell at UBS.

Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO) raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

USA Compression Partners L.P. (NYSE: USAC) started as Overweight at J.P. Morgan, started as Buy at Goldman Sachs and started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) raised to Overweight at Evercore Partners.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

There are two macro-calls this morning worth a read. Goldman Sachs has lowered its expectations on near-term equity performance, while BofA/Merrill Lynch has issued some key small- and mid-cap secular stocks to buy.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: AMGN, AOL, BBVA, BEBE, CLGX, ELN, HIG, KR, NKE, SCHW, SIAL, TSO, USAC, USB, VMW, WFC