Analyst Upgrades: Starbucks, lululemon, Infinera

Analysts are weighing in today on coffee concern Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), yoga apparel peddler Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU), and fiber optic name Infinera Corp. (NASDAQ:INFN). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on SBUX, LULU, and INFN.

• SBUX was greeted by a round of upbeat analyst notes after posting strong fiscal first-quarter results. Specifically, Barclays, UBS, J.P. Morgan Securities, RBC, and Wedbush all raised their price targets on the stock. As such, Starbucks Corporation is 5.7% higher out of the gate at $87.44, bringing its year-over-year lead to 16.6%. Earlier, in fact, the equity hit a record high of $87.85. If this momentum continues, the stock could get a lift from potential short-covering activity, as more than 12 million SBUX shares are sold short.


• LULU is already up 3.2% at $65.78, thanks to an upgrade to "overweight" from "neutral," and a price-target hike to $75 from $50, at J.P. Morgan Securities. Today's rally is just more of the same for the shares, which have advanced 38% year-over-year, and hit an annual high of $66.20 moments ago. There's plenty of room for additional bullish brokerage notes, too. Fifteen out of the 26 analysts tracking Lululemon Athletica inc. have doled out "hold" or worse opinions, and its average 12-month price target of $61.16 stands at a discount to current trading levels.


• Finally, INFN posted a fourth-quarter earnings beat last night. The brokerage bunch has responded, with no fewer than four analysts upping their price targets -- led by Barrington and J.P. Morgan Securities, which each boosted their targets to $20 and reiterated "outperform" assessments. As such, Infinera Corp. has popped 20.1% out of the gate to hover near $17.30, and earlier touched a seven-year high of $17.37. Not surprisingly, traders on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) have shown near-extreme levels of optimism toward the stock. INFN's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 46.14 sits just 3 percentage points from a 12-month high. However, it's possible some of these long calls were initiated by short sellers looking to guard against additional upside.