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Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP

Inside the Market's roundup of some of today's key analyst actions. This file will be updated often during the trading day so check back for new details.

Canaccord Genuity is downgrading Granite REIT (GRT.UN-T; GRP.U-N) to "Hold" from "Buy" and reducing its target price to $44 from $46.25 (Canadian) following the board's June 12 decision to undertake a strategic review of alternatives to enhance unitholder value.

Canaccord says a strategic review is likely a signal that the board is looking to sell the company. "While few details were disclosed and there is no guarantee that the strategic review will result in any action, most 'strategic reviews' are conducted with an eye towards selling the company. While we initially suggested that there was a good chance of Granite being sold, we do not believe that many REITs will be interested in acquiring Granite, and, in our view, the most likely bidder would be a private-equity firm that would 'lever up' the portfolio, given the REIT's exceptionally low leverage of 24 per cent."

"The lower target price reflects our updated view that a sale of the REIT is not a sure thing. Combined with an annual distribution of $2.30 per unit (5.4 per cent current yield), the forecast total return is 8.9 per cent. With less confidence that the strategic review will lead to a 'value-surfacing' event, we see limited upside."

"In our view, the most realistic and attractive outcome would be for Granite to sell the special purpose properties to Magna. This would allow the REIT to reduce its exposure to Magna, lower the number of countries in which it operates, and transition into a more traditional industrial REIT."

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Credit Suisse has upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP (BIP-N) to "Outperform" from "Neutral" and has raised its target price to $52 from $46 (U.S.) after assessing its proposed acquisition of Australian freight operator Asciano Ltd.

Credit Suisse analyst Andrew Kuske says "we foresee distribution growth from a successful BIP deal for AIO that could generate more than US$5/unit of incremental value."

"The Brookfield Group continues to be positioned with many M&A opportunities and we view BIP facing transformational potential transactions in Brazil. An important issue is Brookfield's funding flexibility from Brookfield Asset Management's private funds business and the underlying public LPs."

"We believe BIP's core asset base provides an attractive amount of growth, but a robust M&A pipeline looks to be coming to fruition and can drive further re-rating potential."

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Rob Chang of Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "buy" rating on Denison Mines Corp. with a target price of $1.80 (Canadian) after it was announced Monday that it has agreed to combine with Fission Uranium Corp.  

The combined company would be valued at approximately $900-million, making it the second largest uranium company behind Cameco with a value of $7.3-billion. Chang says the increased size of the company adds value because many institutional portfolios can only invest in companies with market caps above $1-billion.

"The combined company will be appealing to acquirers that are looking to sweep up a large portfolio of quality assets in the Athabasca Basin," Chang said in a note. "Moreover, the combined company will sport a larger valuation that will be more attractive to institutional investors with minimum market capitalization constraints. On the other hand, the merger does not seem to have many obvious synergies as DML's eastern Athabasca assets and FCU's western basin assets are too far apart to share many costs meaningfully."

"The combined company will effectively hold all notable projects in the Athabasca Basin that is not held by Cameco or NexGen Energy. If someone wanted to make a large move into the Athabasca Basin, the combined Denison-Fission company would make an excellent choice in terms of a one-stop uranium shop for exploration/development stage assets.

Elsewhere, Denison Mines was raised to "speculative buy" from "hold" at TD Securities. The 12-month target price is $1.45 (Canadian) per share. Raymond James analyst David Sadowski kept his rating on Denison at "outperform" but cut his 6-12 month target price to $1.60 from $1.80.

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Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA-Q) fell the most in almost five months after Deutsche Bank AG reduced its buy recommendation on the stock, saying the electric-car maker's share price matches most of its growth prospects.

"We've been bullish on Tesla's prospects, based on the company's electric vehicle opportunity," Rod Lache, a Deutsche Bank analyst, wrote in a report Tuesday. "And we believe Tesla could become a dominant player. But at this point, Tesla's shares appear to already reflect this opportunity."

Tesla also has potential to grow in its stationary battery-storage business, a market that is "in its infancy, making it very difficult to forecast how large this will be," Lache wrote. The Tesla rating was cut to hold, even as the price target was increased to $280 (U.S.) from $245.

The shares slid 4.7 per cent to $266.50 in afternoon trading in New York after dropping 6.8 per cent, the most intraday since Feb. 12. The Palo Alto, Ca.-based company's stock climbed 26 per cent this year through Monday.

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After raising $6.5-million in a private placement, Orezone Gold Corp.'s (ORE-T) balance sheet is under less pressure now, said CIBC analyst Jeff Killeen. This investment "is a positive from the standpoint that it should allow ORE to continue with detailed engineering and permitting work required to see the Bombore project in Burkina Faso move forward to a build decision by the end of 2015 or early 2016," the analyst said.

He reduced his price target to 70 cents from 80 cents and kept its "sector performer" rating.

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In other analyst actions:

Input Capital Corp. (INP-X) was downgraded to "Market Perform" from "Buy" at Cormark Securities. The 12-month target price is $2.80 (Canadian) per share.

Cameron International Corp. (CAM-N) was raised to "Sector Outperform" from "Sector Perform" at Scotia Howard Weil. The target price is $61 (U.S.) per share.

Walt Disney Co. (DIS-N) was raised to "Overweight" from "Neutral" at Atlantic Equities. The 12-month target price is $150 (U.S.) per share.

Fitbit Inc. (FIT-N) was rated new "Outperform" at Robert Baird. The 12-month target price is $52 (U.S.) per share.

Global Payments Inc. (GPN-N) was raised to "Outperform" from "Market Perform" at Keefe Bruyette. The 12-month target price is $121 (U.S.) per share.

Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB-N) was raised to "Focus List" from "Sector Outperform" at Scotia Howard Weil. The target price is $100 (U.S.) per share.

Tyler Technologies Inc. (TYL-N) was rated new "Market Outperform" at JMP Securities. The target price is $152 (U.S.) per share.

Wingstop Inc. (WING-Q) was rated new "Outperform" at Robert Baird. The 12-month target price is $35 (U.S.)per share. The stock was also rated new "Buy" at Jefferies. The 12-month target price is $33 (U.S.) per share.

With files from Bloomberg News

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