Top Analyst Upgrades and Stocks to Buy: Aflac, Cisco, Cree, Nike and More

Investing

Published: October 1, 2013 8:25 am

Last Updated: March 19, 2020 10:24 am

Now that volatility is back in stocks and now that a government shutdown is taking hold, investors and traders alike have to be wondering whether they should be buying stocks. It turns out that many companies will be nearly immune to Washington, D.C., and there are many stocks to buy. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many fresh research calls each morning to find great ideas from value stocks to growth stocks to dividend stocks. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, initiations and positive analyst research calls seen from Wall Street.

Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a new $71 price target (versus $61.99 close) at FBR Capital Markets.

BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) was raised to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was reiterated as Buy with a $29 price target (versus a $23.43 close) at Argus.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was reiterated as Outperform but the price target was raised to $65 from $60 (versus a $48.51 close) at Credit Suisse, and the call was based on what it called a conservative sum-of-the-parts valuation.

Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) was raised to Buy from Hold with an $80 price target at Canaccord Genuity.

Deckers Outdoor Corp. (NASDAQ: DECK) was raised to Buy from Hold with an $80 price target at Canaccord Genuity.

Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

J.B. Hunt Transportation Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) was started as Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was raised to Buy from Hold with an $84 price target (versus $72.64 close) at Argus.

Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI) was started as Buy at Goldman Sachs, just a day after J.P. Morgan raised it to Neutral from Underperform.

Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at J.P. Morgan.

Here are the iPhone 5 suppliers getting a solid boost in demand.

Also, here are this Tuesday’s top analyst downgrades and cautious research calls.

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