Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: BP, Exxon, Exelon, Home Depot, Sirius XM, McDonald's, Disney and More

Investing

Published: March 5, 2015 9:00 am

Stocks were indicated higher after a couple days of selling. The one trend that remains in place is that investors buy stocks whenever there is a pullback. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning to find new investment and trading ideas for its readers.

Some of these analyst research reports cover stocks to buy. Others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Nomura.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was raised to Buy from Neutral at B. Riley.

BP PLC (NYSE: BP) was reiterated as Outperform at Oppenheimer, but the price target was raised to $50 from $45.

Century Aluminum Co. (NASDAQ: CENX) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Evercore ISI.

Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

Green Dot Corp. (NYSE: GDOT) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

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Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) was reiterated as Outperform at Oppenheimer, but the price target was raised to $133 from $115.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) was reiterated as Outperform at Oppenheimer, but the price target was raised to $85 from $77.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at HSBC.

Plantronics Inc. (NYSE: PLT) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at HSBC.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) was started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

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Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) was started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Alcoa, Apache, Bob Evans Farms, Dick’s Sporting Goods, F5 Networks, McDonald’s and more.

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