Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: ADT, Alcoa, Chesapeake, Google, Kraft, On Deck, Windstream and More

Investing

Published: January 12, 2015 8:35 am

Stocks were strong Monday morning despite weak oil trends starting the week all over again. The one theme that keeps working in this market is that investors will buy stocks on weakness or when stocks 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 others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls.

ADT Corp. (NYSE: ADT) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Nomura, and the price target was raised to $23 from $15 (versus a $16.11 close), which is interesting considering that it is immediately before earnings.

Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) was started as Outperform with a valuation range of $195 to $200 (versus $161.98 close) at Wells Fargo.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $23 price target at Goldman Sachs. This was just after Friday’s downgrade from Citigroup to Neutral from Buy.

ALSO READ: Analyst Has Top Biotech Stock Picks for 2015

DCP Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: DPM) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Dean Foods Co. (NYSE: DF) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight by Atlantic Equities.

Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE: GOV) was downgraded to UNderperform from Hold at Jefferies.

Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Kraft Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ: KRFT) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

ALSO READ: Insider Buying Starts Off Strong in 2015

Markwest Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: MWE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

On Deck Capital Inc. (NYSE: ONDK) was started as Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Stifel, and Needham. Raymond James started the lender with a Market Perform rating and J.P. Morgan started it as Neutral.

Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Teradyne Inc. (NYSE: TER) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Western Refining Inc. (NYSE: WNR) was cut to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Windstream Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $10 price target at Merrill Lynch.

ALSO READ: The Puzzling Yelp Analyst Upgrade

In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations, they were in Baker Hughes, Crocs, Keurig Green Mountain, Halliburton, Nuance Communications, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Schlumberger, Staples, Yelp and a dozen or so more.

These are the most recent S&P 500 targets for 2015 from the major brokerage firms:

Barclays, 2,100
BMO Capital Markets, 2,250
Citigroup, 2,200
Credit Suisse, 2,200
Deutsche Bank, 2,150
Goldman Sachs, 2,100
J.P. Morgan, 2,250
Merrill Lynch, 2,200
Morgan Stanley, 2,275
Oppenheimer, 2,311
RBC, 2,325
UBS, 2,225
Wells Fargo, 2,222

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