NuStar (NS) (AEP) (SN) (ARG) (NSC) (SOA) Ratings, Price Targets

NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE: NS), American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), Sanchez Energy (NYSE: SN), Airgas, Inc. (NYSE: ARG), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) and Solutia Inc. (NYSE: SOA) ratings and price targets.

Jefferies Group (NYSE:JEF) reiterated its “Buy” rating on American Electric Power (AEP).

Jefferies Group reiterated its “Buy” rating on Airgas, Inc. (ARG).

Capital One initiated coverage on Sanchez Energy (SN). They placed an “Add” rating on the company.

NuStar Energy L.P. (NS) was downgraded by Raymond James (NYSE:RJF) from an “Outperform” rating to a “Market Perform” rating.

Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) was downgraded by Atlantic Equities from an “Overweight” rating to a “Neutral” rating.

Solutia Inc. (SOA) was downgraded by Macquarie to a “Neutral” rating.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Looks at NuStar (NYSE:NSH), Energy Transfer (NYSE:ETE) for General Partner MLPs

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) gave a large overview of the general MLPs sector, including large and small caps, and others. They also looked at General Partner MLPs in general, and NuStar GP Holdings, LLC (NYSE:NSH) and Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (NYSE:ETE) in particular.

Wells said, "We are increasing valuation ranges across our general partner MLP coverage universe by an average of 2%. Our revised valuation ranges suggest median total return potential of 1% for the subsector. On average, we are lowering our 2011 DCF per unit estimates for GP MLPs by 4%. We are downgrading NuStar GP Holdings, LLC to Market Perform from Outperform based on valuation. Our top Outperform picks in this subsector is Energy Transfer Equity, L.P."

NuStar closed Thursday at $33.53, dropping $0.56, or 1.64 percent. Energy Transfer closed at $38.89, losing $0.13, or 0.33 percent. Trading volume for both companies was down from the daily 3-month average.

Holly Energy (NYSE:HEP), NuStar Energy (NYSE:NS) Downgraded by Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Energy companies have been receiving a lot of attention lately, and there have been a number of downgrades and upgrades. On the downgrade side, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) downgraded Holly Energy (NYSE:HEP) while Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) downgraded NuStar Energy (NYSE:NS).

Holly was downgraded from "Buy" to "Neutral," and NuStar from "Overweight" to "Equalweight."

NuStar fell to $57.65, dropping $1.46, or 2.47 percent, as of 3:20 PM EDT. Holly Energy was up slightly to $50.72, gaining $0.10, or 0.20 percent at 3:21 PM EDT.

Holly Energy Partners, L.P. runs a system of petroleum product and crude oil pipelines, storage tanks, distribution terminals, and loading rack facilities.

NuStar Energy L.P. operates in the terminalling, storage, and transportation of petroleum products in a number of countries and parts of the world.