Stocks were under additional selling pressure Friday morning after Thursday’s major market sell-off. So far, investors have proved that they will continue to buy oversold stocks or individual stock stories when they stabilize. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of brokerage firm analyst research reports each morning of the week for new investment and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, but some of them also cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades featured by 24/7 Wall St.
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) was started as Buy with a $37 price target (versus a $28.39 close) at Jefferies. As a reminder, EMC has started to come under activist pressure– and its most recent response was rather odd.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was started with an Underperform rating and a $163 price target (versus a $186.42 close) at Jefferies. We also showed how much this stock is underperforming under Ginny Rometty.
Procera Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PKT) lowered guidance and sees a 25% revenue decline now. Analysts have jumped all over it: Sterne Agee cut to Neutral, cut to Hold at Needham, cut to Market Perform at William Blair and cut to Hold at Stifel.
Wayfair LLC (NYSE: W) was started with a Buy with a $34 price target (versus a $26.71 close) at Janney Capital Markets. This appears to be the first analyst rating from a well-known firm after the Wayfair IPO.
Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) was started as Buy with an $85 price target (versus a $69.65 close) at Sterne Agee. The call acknowledges short-term volatility and risks but long term the firm sees it positioned better than peers with high growth.
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Other Key Analyst Calls
Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT) was started as Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was started as Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.
CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Macquarie.
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (NYSE: DD), aka DuPont, was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
Endo International Inc. (NASDAQ: ENDP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) was raised to Buy from Hold with a price target of $75 (versus a $57.28 close) at Soc-Gen.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) was started as Hold with a $38 price target (versus a $34.32 close) at Jefferies.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Nimble Storage Inc. (NYSE: NMBL) was started with a Buy rating and $33 price target at Jefferies.
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Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) was started as Buy and was given a $70 price target (versus a $56.23 close) by Jefferies.
T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
Weatherford International PLC (NYSE: WFT) was raised to Buy from Hold with a price target of $24 (versus a $18.03 close) at Soc-Gen.
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was started as Buy with $124 price target (versus a $93.39 close) at Jefferies.
In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were included Apple, Gap, Intel, J.C. Penney, Kinder Morgan and more than a dozen more.
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