Analyst Upgrades: Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Silver Wheaton, AT&T

Analysts are weighing in on biotech Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), mining firm Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE:SLW), and telecom titan AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on VRX, SLW, and T.

• After giving up more ground on Monday, VRX is attempting to pare some of its recent losses today, adding 0.5% to $110.54. Apparently, an upgrade to "buy" at Mizuho is outweighing price-target cuts from three other brokerage firms. Elsewhere, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli said he has unwound his long position on the shares, which were off over 23% year-to-date coming into today -- with most of the losses triggered by Citron Research's short-seller report. What's more, activist investor Bill Ackman said he will be discussing his investment in the company during a conference call this Friday. Despite Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc's dramatic struggles, it still has fans on Wall Street. Eight of 12 covering analysts say the equity is a "buy" or better, with not a single firm handing out a "sell" rating.

• Barclays initiated coverage on SLW with an "overweight" opinion and $18 price target this morning. The stock is 0.7% higher out of the gate at $14.38, but remains more than 29% lower over the past 12 months. At least one group is betting on more troubles ahead for Silver Wheaton Corp., which is slated to release earnings one week from tonight. Specifically, short interest on the security jumped by over 40% during the past two reporting periods. 

• T is off 0.2% at $33.60 this morning, failing to take advantage of a price-target increase to $41 from $40 at Cowen and Company. On the charts, the telecom giant is fighting to overcome its 200-day moving average, a level that served as support during the summer months, but may be switching roles to act as resistance. Short-term speculators don't seem to be betting on AT&T Inc. to break out, though, even after the company's recent earnings report came in better than expected. The stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.24 is only 6 percentage points from an annual high. This means that traders targeting options that expire within three months are much more put-skewed than what's normally seen.