AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a $38 price target (versus a $34.74 closing price) at J.P. Morgan. AT&T has been lackluster, yet it still dominates the DJIA dividends with a 5.1% dividend yield. Note that even with the downgrade the $38 price target here is above the $37.08 consensus price target from Thomson Reuters.
3D Systems Inc. (NYSE: DDD) was reiterated as Buy, but its price target was raised to $85 from $65 at Canaccord Genuity. This is on the heels of another positive analyst call with roughly the same outlook on Tuesday, buy it is also after Whitney Tilson of T2 Partners called it one of the biggest short sales in a market of stupidity. Shares closed at $78.02 on Tuesday, and the 52-week range is $27.88 to $84.85. Note that the consensus price target has moved above $70 now.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was reiterated as Buy with a $74 price target (versus a $67.90 close) at Sterne Agee. The firm likes its retail business and the SSD opportunity. Another benefit was the belief that SanDisk could repurchase up to 10% of its shares in the next year or two. This price target is in-line with the consensus price target of $74.40, and the 52-week high is $70.93.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) is replacing Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) on the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs. Citigroup was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and U.S. Bancorp was raised from Neutral. The firm also raised the price target to $44 from $40 in the call, after a $38.52 closing price, and versus a $39.61 52-week high and a $40.03 consensus analyst price target. This is a match to the street high price target as well. As a reminder, Warren Buffett keeps adding U.S. Bancorp as a position to the portfolio and his stake is now worth $3 billion.
Other key analyst calls worth noting are as follows:
BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley.
Deckers Outdoor Corp. (NASDAQ: DECK) was reiterated as Buy, but the price target was raised to $110 from $88 (versus a $86.09 close), at Sterne Agee.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Evercore Partners.
Flextronics Inc. (NASDAQ: FLEX) was downgraded to a Sell rating from an already cautious Neutral rating, and the price target was cut to $7 from $8, at Goldman Sachs.
The Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) was started as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) was started as Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.
Premiere Global Services Inc. (NYSE: PGI) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform, and the price target was raised to $13 from $12, at Raymond James.
Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) was started as Outperform by Oppenheimer.
United Technologies Corp (NYSE: UTX) was reiterated as Buy with a $128 price target (versus a $109.69 close) at Sterne Agee ahead of the company’s annual analyst meeting.
Credit Suisse added new names to its Top Picks list for 2014, and we have also identified several UBS picks based on advertisers focusing on e-commerce opportunities in 2014.
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