Economy

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: American Water, CenturyLink, Chesapeake, Tesla, Macy's, Chimera and More

Stocks were indicated much lower on the Grexit risks becoming almost a certainty. The one trend that has to be considered is that for almost four years, investors have literally bought every single pullback. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst and brokerage research reports each morning to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while others are about stocks to sell or to avoid.

These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) was started as Neutral and was assigned a $54 price target (versus a $49.70 close) at Goldman Sachs. American Water Works has a 52-week trading range of $45.98 to $57.48 and a consensus price target of $57.04. On top of a 2.7% yield, American Water Works was recently renamed to our own 10 stocks to own for the next decade.

CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $34 price target (versus a $29.92 close) Raymond James. CenturyLink has a consensus price target of $35.39 and a 52-week range of $29.28 to $45.67.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) was raised to Buy from Underperform and was given a $13 price target (versus a $11.16 close) at Sterne Agee CRT. Chesapeake has a consensus price target of $15.23 and a 52-week range of $11.00 to $29.92.

Chimera Investment Corp. (NYSE: CIM) was started as Buy with a price target of $16 (versus a $13.84 close) at Nomura. As a reminder, Chimera is a high-yield mortgage-backed securities (MBS) real estate investment trust (REIT). It has a 52-week range of $13.75 to $17.05 and a consensus price target of $15.06.

Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) was downgraded to Sell from Buy with a $63 price target (versus a $69.85 close) at Deutsche Bank. Macy’s has a 52-week range of $54.84 to $71.10 and a consensus price target of $68.53.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $325 from $290 at Credit Suisse. The firm said that it expects 11,000 to 11,500 deliveries in the second quarter, versus other estimates of 10,000 to 11,000 expected.

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Additional top analyst upgrades and downgrades on Monday included the following:

Arc Logistics Partners L.P. (NYSE: ARCX) was started as Buy with a price target of $26.00 (versus a $17.74 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Becton, Dickinson and Co. (NYSE: BDX) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $167 price (versus a $142.04 close) at UBS.

Entegris Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTG) was started as Sector Weight at Pacific Crest.

Organovo Holdings Inc. (NYSEMKT: ONVO) was started as Buy with a $5 price target (versus a $3.93 close) at Jefferies. Piper Jaffray also started coverage as Overweight with a $5 price target as well.

OvaScience Inc. (NASDAQ: OVAS) was started as Neutral with a $40 price target (versus a $29.86 close) at JPMorgan.

8point3 Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: CAFD) was started as Neutral with a $21 price target (versus a $19.69 close) at UBS.

Rouse Properties Inc. (NYSE: RSE) was started as Overweight with a $21 price target (versus a $16.35 close) at Barclays.

Ryder System Inc. (NYSE: R) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $104 price target (versus a $89.08 close) at Stifel.

Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNA) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a $105 price target (versus a $86.32 close) at Oppenheimer. This upgrade is on the heels of last week’s drop from almost $94 to almost $86 on fears of not supplying iPhone chips.

Ternium S.A. (NYSE: TX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

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The Dow fell 0.4% last week and was up 0.7% in 2015, while the S&P 500 also fell 0.4% last week and was up 2.1% for the year. Credit Suisse’s strategy team said on Monday:

Global growth is improving after a slow start to the year. We expect broad-based strength in the second half driven by a rebounding US, policy stimulus across Asia, and an ongoing European upswing, assuming no shock from Greece. … We expect the Fed to start tightening in September. Solid growth and tightening labor markets should prevent further loosening this year from the ECB and BoJ.

Imagine a day when Greece and Puerto Rico both are effectively resounding the default risks, and the S&P 500 is down 21 points and the Dow is indicated down 180 points. That was the way things were on Monday.

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