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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Cisco, EMC, GameStop, Novavax, Tesla, Yahoo and More

Stocks were looking for direction on Friday morning after a choppy week. The one thing we have seen for about three years now is that investors have lined up in droves and bought their favorite stocks on each and every dip. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day to find new trading or investment ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades.

Alkermes PLC (NASDAQ: ALKS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $12 downside price target (versus a $16.92 close) at Goldman Sachs.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at FBR Capital Markets.

Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) was started as Outperform with a $38 price target (versus a $29.78 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was started as Neutral at Guggenheim.

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EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform with a $30 price target (versus a $25.81 close) at Pacific Crest.

E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) was started as Outperform with a $35 price target (versus a $27.45 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was started as Market Perform at Raymond James.

GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at B. Riley. Sterne Agee maintained its Buy rating but lowered its price target to $45 from $48.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: JAZZ) was started as Buy at Citigroup.

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE: LH) was started as Outperform with a $165 price target (versus a $125.80 close) at JMP Securities.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was reiterated as Hold with a $55 price target at Canaccord Genuity. The firms says that it is stable but not yet accelerating on comparable sales.

Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) was started as Buy at Citigroup. Guess who was one of the two book-runners for its $175 million stock sale just this week? Novavax was down 5% on Thursday to close at $7.58, but it was a $9.50 stock just on Wednesday.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $68 from $90 (versus a $66.20 close) at Evercore ISI. SanDisk was slaughtered on Thursday after yet another warning.

SunCoke Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: SXCP) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NYSE: AMTD) was started as Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was started with a Hold rating at Argus. The firm said that Tesla has strong prospects, but its high valuation warrants caution.

World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ: WRLD) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Macquarie.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is set to spend another 2 billion for stock buybacks, and one firm said it was a cheap way to buy Alibaba. It was started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

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In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in Apple, ASML, Charles Schwab, GPro, Kraft Foods, Netflix, Red Hat and about a dozen more companies.

 

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