Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Gilead, Teva, Textura, Twitter and More

Stocks have been hitting ever higher highs going into year-end. Now investors have to be wondering how to position their portfolios for 2014 and beyond. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many Wall Street analyst research reports each morning to find new investment ideas for our readers. Some analyst calls are of stocks to buy, and some analyst reports are about stocks to sell. These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

With most strategists bullish about 2014, we cannot help but wonder if much of the gains seen in November and December are eating into the implied gains for 2014.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was reiterated as Buy with a target price of $107 (versus a $74.45 closing price and a consensus target of about $88.50) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The call is based on strong hepatitis C drug sales of Sovaldi, and the firm is under the assumption that the drug could have sales of $4.3 billion in 2014.

Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) was downgraded to Market Underperform from Market Perform at JMP Securities. Keep in mind that shares are getting knocked down about 10% based on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services lowering its reimbursement rate by almost half for its breast cancer testing.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) was given a cautious outlook from the independent research firm Argus. The firm kept a Hold rating in place but went on to say that it may look for a lower share price, down to $34 or $35, before any potential upgrade trigger is seen. Argus is worried about stalled earnings growth, price pressure in the generics group and patent issues of branded products. The firm did signal that valuations are attractive, but the shares lack catalysts that would drive them to industry average multiples.

Textura Corp. (NYSE: TXTR) was reiterated as Outperform along with a $50 price target at Credit Suisse. The firm said that a negative report from Citron on the company last week that knocked about 20% of its value off has created as buying opportunity. Credit Suisse believes the report is untrue. It said the report was full of profanity and that it sees no merits to any of the work, with the report alluding to incorrect innuendos and false assumptions that suggested management misled investors. After shares saw a more than a 5% gain to $29.54 on Friday, the post-IPO range is $19.68 to $47.25.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) took it on the chin late last week after Macquarie downgraded the stock to Sell. Now the microblogging stock is getting clipped again after Barron’s highlighted over the weekend that Twitter’s valuation is simply too high. The publication pointed out that it is the only $45 billion market cap company that is losing money and that much of the rally that sent shares to the moon was ramped up due to a small float and rising short interest. Barron’s even pointed out that limitations could prevent Twitter from becoming a mass market player.

Other analyst calls worth noting on Monday are as follows:

Entergy Corp. (NYSE: ETR) was started as Neutral with a $62 price target at Goldman Sachs. Shares closed at $62.83 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $60.22 to $72.60.

Ocera Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OCRX) was started as Buy with a $19.00 price target at Stifel Nicolaus. This represents 62% upside to the $11.70 closing price. This positive call is based on a best-in-class mechanism action of its lead product candidate against hepatic encephalopathy in patients with acute and chronic liver disease.

Roundy’s Inc. (NYSE: RNDY) was reinstated as Neutral at Credit Suisse. The firm’s price target is $10, versus a previous target of $7 and a $9.93 closing price on Friday.

Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE: SE) was reiterated as Buy with a $38 price target (versus a $34.92 closing price) at Argus. The move follows the Spectra’s announcement that it will drop its storage and transmission assets down to its master limited partnership, Spectra Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: SEP). Argus now believes that Spectra will be able to grow its dividend faster than the firm had originally projected and will be rewarded with a higher valuation multiple.

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