Wall St. Watchdog reveals information about companies for which stock analysts either upgraded or downgraded the shares at the start of this year:

Upgrades

PAREXEL (NASDAQ:PRXL): BB&T Capital Mkts upgraded its rating on this company from Hold to Buy.

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC): Canaccord Genuity upgraded its rating on this company from Sell to Hold and changed its price target from $60 to $59.

EQT Corp. (NYSE:EQT): Canaccord Genuity upgraded its rating on this company from Sell to Hold and changed its price target from $45 to $50.

Nike (NYSE:NKE): Argus upgraded its rating on this company from Hold to Buy and changed its price target to $118.

Under Armour (NYSE:UA): Needham upgraded its rating on this company from Hold to Buy and changed its price target to $86.

Downgrades

Carnival (NYSE:CCL): Barclays Capital downgraded its rating on this company from Overweight to Equal Weight and changed its price target from $30 to $26.

Plum Creek (NYSE:PCL): UBS downgraded its rating on this company from Neutral to Sell and changed its price target to $36.

NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX): RBC Capital Mkts downgraded its rating on this company from Outperform to Sector Perform and changed its price target from $34.5 to $30.

Hyperdynamics (AMEX:HDY): Howard Weil downgraded its rating on this company from Market Outperform to Market Perform and changed its price target from $11 to $4.

Rex Energy (NASDAQ:REXX): Brean Murray downgraded its rating on this company from Buy to Hold.

Enbridge Energy (NYSE:EEP): Morgan Keegan downgraded its rating on this company from Outperform to Mkt Perform.

Thomas & Betts (NYSE:TNB): Morgan Keegan downgraded its rating on this company from Outperform to Mkt Perform. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded its rating on this company from Buy to Hold.

Pep Boys (NYSE:PBY): BB&T Capital Mkts downgraded its rating on this company from Hold to Underweight. The Benchmark Company downgraded its rating on this company from Buy to Hold and changed its price target from $14 to $15.

ONEOK Partners (NYSE:OKS): Oppenheimer downgraded its rating on this company from Outperform to Perform.

Sensata Tech (NYSE:ST): Oppenheimer downgraded its rating on this company from Outperform to Perform and changed its price target from $35 to $33.

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