Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Cisco, Kinder Morgan, Rackspace, Twitter and More

Investing

Published: May 15, 2014 8:40 am

Last Updated: May 15, 2014 8:44 am

Stocks pulled back off their all-time highs, and now investors have to be nimble to find gains while not catching the top of a market. These same investors are getting conditioned to hearing “It’s a stock picker’s market” now. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of research reports from analysts and independent firms for new ideas each and every and morning. Some of the calls are on stocks to buy, while others are stocks to sell or to avoid. These are this Thursday’s top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Abengoa S.A. (NASDAQ: ABGB) was maintained as a Buy with a $28 price target and listed as a Best Idea, based on strong bookings, at Canaccord Genuity.

B/E Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAV) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and the price target was cut to $55 from $60 at BMO Capital Markets.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) beat earnings and gave revenue guidance that was less contraction than expected. Sterne Agee raised its estimates and raised its Buy rating price target to $26 from $25. Oppenheimer reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $27. Credit Suisse maintained its Underperform rating.

EnLink Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: ENLK) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a $37 price target at Oppenheimer.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) was started as Neutral with an $86 price target at Credit Suisse.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) was maintained as Buy but was added to the prized Conviction Buy List with a $44 price target at Goldman Sachs.

L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) was raised to Buy from Underperform and the price target was raised to $146 from $117 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Nimble Storage Inc. (NYSE: NMBL) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs, but the price target appears to have been cut to $34 from $46 (versus a $22.82 close).

Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX) was started with an Overweight rating and $35 price target by J.P. Morgan.

Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC) was raised from Neutral all the way on to the prized Conviction Buy List with a $110 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Southwestern Energy Co. (NYSE: SWN) was downgraded all the way to Neutral and was removed from the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs, with its price target cut to $51 from $58.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was raised to Neutral from Underweight with a $35 price target at Atlantic Equities.

Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and the price target was cut to $37 from $44 at FBR Capital Markets.

Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut by 10% (240p from 270p in London) by Goldman Sachs ahead of next week’s earnings release.

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