AvalonBay Raised by Merrill Lynch on Third-Quarter Profits

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- AvalonBay Communities Inc., the second largest U.S. real estate investment trust that owns apartments, was raised to `neutral' from `underperform' at Merrill Lynch & Co. Included are analysts' calls for Harris Corp., Delta Petroleum Corp., Acme Packet Inc., Pfizer Inc., Career Education Corp., Barrick Gold Corp., Hecla Mining Co., Brandywine Realty Trust, THQ Inc., Ternium SA and Zymogenetics Inc.