Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Avago, Facebook, Twitter, Herbalife, HP and More

Investing

Published: December 17, 2013 9:00 am

Last Updated: December 17, 2013 9:03 am

Stocks are wanting to challenge their all-time highs again going into year-end, and investors have to figure out how to position their portfolios for 2014. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports from Wall Street each morning. The goal is to find new investment ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst calls are about stocks to buy and some are about stocks to sell. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) was raised to Buy from Hold with a target price of $71 at Argus, based on its transition to a SaaS business model bringing higher customer values and likely good revenue and margin.

Avago Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $64 from $53 at RBC Capital Markets on the heels of its big LSI acquisition. Canaccord Genuity was positive on its new growth prospects as well.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was raised to Positive from Neutral with a $68 price target at Susquehanna.

Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) saw its shares rise almost 10% after filing its audited financial result as promised. Now D.A. Davidson has raised its price target up to $115 from $92, based on multiple expansion and trends signaling a strong fourth quarter. Canaccord Genuity reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $87 from $77.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $35 from $30 at J.P. Morgan. This is after a $26.90 close and compares to a $26.94 consensus analyst price target.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $26 from $23 (versus a $22.77 close) at Sterne Agee.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) was called “overheating” at Bernstein, despite the firm maintaining a Market Perform rating. It does not believe investors should short it, but the firm thinks it should be avoided.

Plains All American Pipeline L.P. (NYSE: PAA) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche bank.

Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan on Tuesday.

SunCoke Energy Inc. (NYSE: SXC) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with lower earnings estimates at Credit Suisse.

SunCoke Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: SXCP) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse as well, but the firm raised its price target to $27 from $24 in the call.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) took two key downgrades on Monday and is seeing another one on Tuesday. Atlantic Equities downgraded the official rating to Neutral from Overweight, but where the call gets interesting is that the price target was raised up to $50 from a prior $34 target.

Merrill Lynch has named its top industrial stocks to buy for 2014.

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