Friday's analyst upgrades and downgrades

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Inside the Market's roundup of some of today's key analyst actions. This file will be updated during the trading day.

Goldman Sachs has given a further vote of confidence in Barrick Gold Corp., so much so that it's now one of the bank's favourite investing ideas in the entire United States equities market.

Goldman today added the Canadian gold miner to its "Americas Conviction Buy List." It was already rated as a "buy" by Goldman, and today it also lifted its price target to $22 (U.S.) from $21.

The action comes just one day after RBC raised its own price target on Barrick, to $25 (U.S.) from $23, saying the producer is reaching "a turning point" in its operations.

Goldman analyst Andrew Quail cited progress on Barrick's costs, expectations of it soon being free cash flow positive, and rising copper production for his more bullish view.

According to Barrons, Mr. Quail said, "Key positive catalysts are: (1) Improving operational profile: We expect the company's high-quality core assets to contribute c.80% to total cash flows leading to a decline in overall costs; (2) Inflection in FCF (free cash flow) generation: On our estimates, Barrick Gold should turn free cash flow positive beginning in 3Q14, generating more than $5-billion of FCF over 2014 to 2018; (3) Continued portfolio optimization: We expect Barrick to continue divestments in 2014 and beyond which, combined with strong FCF generation, should lower the company's net debt and improve its financial flexibility; and (4) Growth in copper production: An ahead-of-schedule restart at Lumwana and commissioning of the Jabal Sayid project (company expects in 4Q15) should lead to higher copper production."

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Canada's biggest life insurers posted strong earnings in the second quarter, as the sector continues to stabilize, leading RBC to hike its price targets.

Both Manulife Financial Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc. handily beat analysts' profit expectations, while Great-West Lifeco Inc. was in line on strong year-over-year earnings growth.

RBC Dominion Securities raised its price targets on all three lifeco stocks: Manulife rose to $24 from $23, Sun Life to $41 from $38, and Great-West to $34 from $32.

In addition to the earnings beat, Manulife also surprised the market with a 19-per-cent dividend increase, its first hike since cutting its payout in half five years ago.

"Management suggested that if Manulife continues to deliver 'on plan' to 2016 that somewhere between now and then there might be another dividend increase," RBC analyst Darko Mihelic said. "It was not as explicit as we thought it could be, but perhaps MFC is once again being cautious on dividends and we may be altering our dividend forecasts in the near future."

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Keyera Corp. is realizing higher volumes of natural gas, with more on the way, RBC Dominion Securities analyst Robert Kwan said.

The midstream natural gas company posted a big earnings beat on Thursday, largely as a result of a volume pickup in gathering and processing natural gas products.

"With increased producer activity aimed at liquids-rich gas plays … Keyera's assets are well positioned to capture increasing volumes via existing facilities, expansions of existing facilities and higher natural gas liquids production regardless of where in the field it comes from," Mr. Kwan said.

He upgraded Keyera stock to "outperform" from "sector perform" and raised his price target to $97 (Canadian) from $79.

Both BMO Nesbitt Burns and TD Securities also raised their price targets on Keyera, to $85 from $81, and to $86 from $75, respectively

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In other analyst actions:

BCE was downgraded to "underperform" from "Neutral" at Macquarie. The 12-month target price is $47 (Canadian) per share.

Linamar was raised to "buy" from "hold" at TD Securities. The 12-month target price is $75 (Canadian) per share.

TD Securities upgraded Just Energy to "hold" from "reduce" with a price target of $5.50 (Canadian).

Raymond James upgraded Bird Construction to "strong buy" from "outperform" and hiked its price target to $17 (Canadian) from $16.

Raymond James upgraded Semafo to "outperform" from "market perform" and hiked its price target to $6 (Canadian) from $5. But National Bank Financial downgraded Semafo to "sector perform" form "outperform," with a price target of $5.15 a share.

Industrial Alliance Securities upgraded Pason Systems to "top pick" from "strong buy" and raised its price target to $41.50 (Canadian) from $37.

BMO Nesbitt Burns downgraded Lightstream Resources to "underperform" from "market perform" and cut its price target to $6 (Canadian) from $7.50.

BMO Nesbitt Burns downgraded Inter Pipeline to "market perform" but raised its price target to $34 (Canadian).

With files from Bloomberg