Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Cnova, Gulfport, Manitowoc, Osiris, QLogic and More

Investing

Published: December 30, 2014 8:45 am

Stocks were indicated lower on Tuesday on the next to last trading session of 2014, partly because oil is at multiyear lows again. Still, investors have lined up over and over and bought stocks that offer value or that have been overlooked by the market. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new investment and new trading ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and some cover stocks sell or to avoid.

This is a light week for research due to low market participation at firms. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls.

BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Rafferty Capital with a $41 price target (versus a $39.37 close).

Cnova N.V. (NYSE: CNV) was started as Overweight with an $11 price target (versus a $7.28 close) at J.P. Morgan.

Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE: EXP) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $110 from $98 (versus $77.93 close) at Stifel Nicolaus.

Gulfport Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: GPOR) was started as Buy with a $58 price target (versus $41.98 close) at Topeka Capital Markets.

ALSO READ: The 5 Cheapest Dow Stocks for 2015

Hyperion Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: HPTX) was started as Buy at Brean Capital.

Manitowoc Co. Inc. (NYSE: MTW) was reiterated as Outperform and with a $27 price target (versus a $22.79 close) at Credit Suisse.

Osiris Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIR) was started as Buy at Brean Capital.

Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PTX) was started as Market Outperform with a $13 price target (versus a $9.39 close) at JMP Securities.

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BTIG.

QLogic Corp. (NASDAQ: QLGC) was started as Buy with a $17 price target (versus a $12.77 close) at D.A. Davidson.

Virgin America Inc. (NASDAQ: VA) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $53 from $42 (versus a $42.53 close) at Cowen.

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst calls, they included Ambarella, Gilead Sciences, MarkWest Energy Partners, PNC Financial Services, Skyworks Solutions, RigNet, Sonus Networks and a half dozen or so more.

ALSO READ: The Best Performing Biotech Stocks of 2014: 300% Gains!

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