These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street firms. As a reminder, Friday marks the calm before the storm as next week will mark the ramp up of a crucial earnings season.
Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) was started with an Outperform rating and a $47 price target (versus a $42.95 closing price) at Cowen and Co.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated Buy and the price target was raised to a much higher $112 (from $102, and versus a $95.04 close) at Canaccord Genuity. The call is based on monthly surveys indicating that Apple is poised for accelerating replacement sales to drive a record iPhone 6 upgrade cycle. Keep in mind that this is the same morning that reports are out in major media that Apple’s iPhone has been dubbed a threat to China’s national security by the Chinese state-run media due to tracking and timestamp features.
CGI Group Inc. (NYSE: GIB) was started as Outperform at Credit Suisse, and the projected upside was 27% or so if you compare the Canadian dollar price target of $48 from the C$37.72 close in Toronto
ChannelAdvisor Corp. (NYSE: ECOM) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ: FINL) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee.
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was maintained as Buy but the estimates were trimmed and the price target was cut $1 to $46 by Sterne Agee. Canaccord Genuity said that its long-term thesis remains intact despite soft June same-store sales.
HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup.
Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.
Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) was started with a Market Perform rating at Cowen and Co.
Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo. The short interest gain here was massive in the fresh short interest report.
Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was maintained as Buy and with the same $95 price target (versus an $80.43 close) at Goldman Sachs, but the firm removed Qualcomm from its prized Conviction Buy List now that the expected catalysts previously laid out by the firm have played themselves out.
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Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.
Sterling Bancorp (NYSE: STL) was started with a Buy rating and $14 price target (versus a $12.11 close) at Jefferies.
Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Alcoa, American Express, Boulder Brands, CIT, FedEx, UnitedHealth and a dozen more.
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