Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Chipotle, Duke, EMC, SanDisk, Starbucks, McDonald's and More

Investing

Published: March 11, 2015 8:45 am

Stocks were staging a small recovery early on Wednesday after a sharp sell-off on Tuesday, which effectively wiped out the total gains for 2015. If there is one theme that has remained static for well over two years now, it is that investors have been selective and opportunistic, and they have bought major equities after each and every 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 reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or to avoid. These are Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades.

Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) was started as Underperform with a $175 price target (versus a $186.03 close) at Credit Suisse.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was started as Outperform with a $785 price target (versus a $654.74 close) at Credit Suisse.

Corcept Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CORT) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was lifted to $9 from $2.50 (versus a $3.37 close) at Piper Jaffray.

ALSO READ: Warren Buffett’s 8 Best Dividend Stocks

Credit Suisse Group A.G. (NYSE: CS) was raised to Overweight from Underweight at J.P. Morgan.

Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) was maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $85 from $99 at Argus.

Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DNKN) was started as Outperform with a $56 price target (versus a $46.70 close) at Credit Suisse.

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and the price valuation range was cut to $26 to $28 from $31 to $34 (versus a $26.95 close) at Wells Fargo.

Inogen Inc. (NASDAQ: INGN) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) was started as Neutral with a $99 price target (versus a $96.29 close) at Credit Suisse.

ALSO READ: Merrill Lynch’s Top 10 Reasons to Stay Long Stocks

Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) was started as Outperform with a $190 price target at Credit Suisse.

Prosperity Bancshares Inc. (NYSE: PB) was downgraded to Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was added to the Conviction Buy List and the price target was raised to $106 from $100 (versus a $80.17 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) was started as Neutral with a $97 price target (versus a $92.18 close) at Credit Suisse. RBC Capital Markets reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $100 from $94.

Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) was started as Underperform with a $9 price target (versus a $10.75 close) at Credit Suisse.

Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) was started as Underperform with a $74 price target at Credit Suisse.

ALSO READ: 6 Oil Stocks Analysts Want You to Buy

In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, AECOM, Electronic Arts, Hewlett-Packard, Myriad Genetics, Urban Outfitters and a dozen or so more.

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