Wall Street analysts upgrade and downgrade stocks all the time. You don't need to do anything at all with your portfolio just because one of them adjusts their view about a stock you own or have on your watch list. However, it can make a great deal of sense to find out why they made those changes and factor those points into your investment thesis. Wedbush's recent upgrade of healthcare real estate investment trust (REIT) (NYSE: VTR) is a case in point.

As it turns out, the big upgrade for Ventas was couched against a review of healthcare REIT peer Welltower (NYSE: WELL). While Wedbush didn't change its rating on Welltower, a neutral rating on Wall Street is anything but a ringing endorsement. So, basically, Wedbush decided to push Ventas with an upgrade to outperform Welltower.

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Source Fool.com