Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AES, Citigroup, Gap, Occidental, Qualcomm, Transocean and More

Investing

Published: February 10, 2015 8:45 am

Stocks were looking to bounce on Tuesday after a small sell-off from Monday. Investors keep proving that they will buy solid value and overlooked stocks on every pullback. That has been the case for more than two years now. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning to find new investment and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

AES Corp. (NYSE: AES) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price objective was lowered to $12 from $15 (versus a $11.85 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ: FSC) was almost 15% lower on Monday after earnings and a dividend cut. Now we have seen downgrades: to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays, to Hold from Buy at Wunderlich and to Market Perform at Raymond James.

ALSO READ: Analyst Now Bullish on 5 Oil and Gas Stocks

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank, and the price target was cut to $20 from $23 (versus a $18.79 close).

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Mizuho.

Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.

Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) was started as Outperform at Bernstein.

Insmed Inc. (NASDAQ: INSM) was started as Buy at Janney Capital Markets.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was up over 2.5% at $68.90 after an anti-trust settlement in China. Stern Agee maintained its Buy rating and $75 target price. Canaccord Genuity maintained its Buy rating as well, and Cowen maintained its Outperform rating and $75 price target.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse, and the price target was set at $12 (versus a $20.44 closing price).

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included AbbVie, Alcoa, Apple, Deckers Outdoor, Dish Network, Pfizer, Petrobras and many more.

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