Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apple, Esperion, MercadoLibre, Oracle, Pandora, and More

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
By Jon C. Ogg Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Stocks were down on Wednesday morning ahead of the FOMC’s decision on interest rate policy. As investors have bought stocks after every sell-off, 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning. The goal is to find new investment and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Market Perform with a $120 to $130 fair value at Wells Fargo, based on the first look at the Apple TV service initiative. Apple closed at $127.04 the prior day, and the consensus price target is almost $139.

Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: CLMT) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $35 price target (versus a $24.84 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Crown Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CCK) was started as Buy at Citigroup.

Esperion Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ESPR) was reiterated as Buy but the price objective was raised to $115 from $60 (versus a $99.60 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James.

MercadoLibre Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

ALSO READ: Are Exxon Shares Bottoming Out?

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

NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI) was started as Neutral at J.P. Morgan, while Credit Suisse started coverage as Outperform.

Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $50 from $47.50 (versus a $42.87 close) at Credit Suisse. Wells Fargo reiterated its Outperform rating with a fair value range of $49 to $51. Sterne Agee maintained a Neutral rating, but it raised the price target to $45 from $41.

Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) was raised to Buy from Fair Value with a $22 price target (versus a $15.73 close) at CRT Capital.

St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at RW Baird.

ALSO READ: 8 Analyst Stocks Under $10 With Massive Upside Calls

Virgin America Inc. (NASDAQ: VA) was started as Underperform with a $31 price target (versus a $34.42 close) at Credit Suisse.

In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Alibaba, Charles Schwab, ExOne, Facebook, Micron Technology, Twitter and Whiting Petroleum.

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618