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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: ADP, Cigna, First Solar, Garmin, LINN, Synchrony and More
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Stocks were staging a major bounce on Wednesday morning, despite a deadly overseas terrorist attack in Paris. After another year of gains, the bull market is nearing six years old. Investors have proven over and over that they would buy stocks on weakness or that offer value and are overlooked by the market. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week to find new investment and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid.
These are this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls.
American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Cowen.
American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $102 price target (versus a $88.37 close) at Goldman Sachs.
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with an $82 price target (versus a $82.53 close) at Credit Suisse.
Baltic Trading Ltd. (NYSE: BALT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord Genuity.
Cheesecake Factory Inc. (NASDAQ: CAKE) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
ALSO READ: 5 Massive Upside Analyst Stock Picks for 2015
Cigna Inc. (NYSE: CI) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPH) was started as Sell with an $11 price target (versus a $12.94 close) at Goldman Sachs.
First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was raised to Neutral from Sell with a $44 price target (versus a $40.86 close) at Goldman Sachs.
Fossil Group Inc. (NASDAQ: FOSL) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight and the price target was raised to $47 from $45 (versus a $50.51 close) at Morgan Stanley.
General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform, while the price target was raised to $150 from $141, at RBC Capital Markets.
Immunomedics Inc. (NASDAQ: IMMU) was started as Outperform with a fair value range of $7.00 to $7.50 (versus a $4.71 close) at Wells Fargo.
Janus Capital Group Inc. (NYSE: JNS) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $20 price target (versus a $15.56 close) at J.P. Morgan.
Joy Global Inc. (NYSE: JOY) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
LINN Energy LLC (NASDAQ: LINE) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the price target was slashed to $12 from $29 (versus a $11.22 close) at Barclays.
Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) was started as Outperform at Cowen.
ALSO READ: Bill Gross Gets Very Cautious for 2015
Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) was started as Buy with a $35 price target (versus a $28.85 close) at Evercore.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.
In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations, they included CSX, FedEx, General Electric, Gilead Sciences, Oracle, Under Armour and a dozen or so other companies.
Here were the S&P 500 targets for 2015 from the major brokerage firms:
ALSO READ: What Oil in the $40s Means
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