Following its results yesterday, oilfield services giant Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) came under broker scrutiny today with Argus, upgrading the shares to 'buy' from 'hold'.
The broker also repeated a target price of US$78 (current price around US$55).
Shares in the group were lifted yesterday, despite the firm anticipated less drilling in the current quarter due to reduced customer spending.
Baker Hughes, which is being taken over by larger competitor Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), has eliminated thousands of jobs and shut down facilities as plummeting crude prices have prompted many of its customers to shrink or cancel projects.
The Texas-based company reported a net loss of $159mln, or $0.36 loss per share, in the July-to-September quarter, compared with a profit of $375mln, or $0.86 per share, a year earlier.
Also receiving an upgrade was Energy Recovery (NASDAQ: ERII), the device manufacturer, which was lifted to 'outperform' from 'neutral'.
Lonmin caught the attention of JP Morgan, which moved its rating to 'overweight' from 'neutral'.
On the downgrade front, Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI), the US's fourth largest energy company was cut by Stifel and Credit Suisse today. Credit Suisse trimmed it to 'neutral' from 'outperform', whie Stifel moved it to 'hold' from 'buy'.
Swiss broker UBS looked at SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK), downgrading the shares to 'neutral' from 'buy', but boosting the target price up to US$86 from US$68 (current price around US$77).
The same broker started coverage on web hosting firm GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) with a 'buy' rating and US$40 target price - a fair chalk from the current price of around US$28