Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Chevron, Exxon, Merck, Tesla, Disney, Yelp and More

Investing

Published: May 8, 2014 8:30 am

Stocks are mixed on Thursday after a Yellen-inspired low interest rate environment promise, but investors remain wary. They want gains from the stock market, but they want to avoid the losers. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning for new ideas. The media keeps saying it is a stock picker’s market. These are this Thursday’s top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A. (NYSE: BUD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and shares are up about 3% after earnings.

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) was started as Buy at Nomura.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus, but this is a valuation call after a strong run higher.

Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight by Barclays.

ALSO READ: Why 3D Systems Could Keep Falling

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised by $10 to $114 by Argus, based on lower capex and higher free cash flow expectations.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight by Barclays.

Fossil Group Inc. (NASDAQ: FOSL) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

ALSO READ: Stifel Sees Big Trouble Ahead for Enterprise Storage Stocks

GW Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: GWPH) was maintained as Buy but the price target was raised to $102 from $65 by Canaccord Genuity, based on Dravet’s IND open.

J.M. Smucker Co. (NYSE: SJM) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital.

Millennial Media Inc. (NYSE: MM) was crushed after poor earnings and on news that its CFO was leaving the company, sending shares down 35% to $3.45, an all-time low. The company was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer and was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley.

ALSO READ: Why Whole Foods Could Finally Be a Great Long-Term Buy, at Least Soon

ONEOK Inc. (NYSE: OKE) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.

SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was maintained as Neutral with a $200 price target by Goldman Sachs.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

ALSO READ: Twitter Could Bust Its IPO Price

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was reiterated as Buy with a target price of $96 at Argus, and this is only $1 shy of the highest analyst price target.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

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