Some daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy. Some discuss stocks to sell or to avoid. These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades.
Alkermes PLC (NASDAQ: ALKS) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $25 price target (versus a $20.83 close) at Evercore ISI.
Amarin Corp. PLC (NASDAQ: AMRN) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised all the way to $10 from $2.50 (versus a $1.94 close) at a firm called HC Wainwright. Keep in mind that Amarin raised almost $53 million in a restricted stock private placement just a week ago. Other firms have issued big upside targets as well, but this one takes the cake. Amarin shares were indicated up 20% at $2.30 or so after this call.
CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price objective was cut to $26 from $33 (versus a $28.70 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.
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GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the price target was cut to $35 from $42 (versus a $32.61 close) at Barclays.
Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.
Logitech International S.A. (NASDAQ: LOGI) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan. This was after shares fell over 4% on Wednesday after guidance.
Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. (NYSE: MHR) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $4 from $2 (versus a $2.37 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Netgear Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Raymond James. It was just on Monday that Goldman Sachs raised its rating, but up to Neutral.
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Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY) was started as Buy with a $2.50 price target (versus a $1.68 close) at Jefferies. This coverage is after a post-earnings move higher of 6% on Wednesday.
Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price objective was cut to $5 from $7 (versus a $6.12 close) at Merrill Lynch.
Plantronics Inc. (NYSE: PLT) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.
Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $81 from $77 (versus a $69.78 close) at Evercore ISI.
Windstream Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.
In case you missed Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in Chipotle Mexican Grill, Duke Energy, EMC, SanDisk, Starbucks, McDonald’s and a dozen more.
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