We have also featured the best performing S&P 500 stocks year to date, as well as the worst performing S&P 500 stocks. These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades.
Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. The cut comes after shares rocketed 28% higher late on Friday on word that Intel may acquire the company.
Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) was started as Buy with a $55 price target (versus a $44.88 close) at Argus. The call is based on lower fuel costs and strong fundamentals, and it is $9 under the consensus price target.
Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) was reiterated Outperform and the price target was raised to $80 from $75 (versus a $59.15 close) at Credit Suisse. The call took EnLink and its reserves as the driving force.
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) was reiterated Buy and with a $50 price target at Sterna Agee, with the call that its valuation multiple should increase. Also note that we recently have seen two key downgrades with “Sell” equivalent ratings.
LINN Energy LLC (NASDAQ: LINE) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $9 price target (versus a $11.57 close) at UBS. LinnCo, LLC (NASDAQ: LNCO) was also downgraded to Sell in the call.
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Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was maintained as Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but the price objective was cut to $40.5 from $45.00, based on weaker earnings expectations for two quarters. The firm is still very positive long term and sees very favorable valuations.
Ruckus Wireless Inc. (NYSE: RKUS) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $15 from $13 (versus a $12.17 close) by Oppenheimer. The firm expects in-line or better-than-expected earnings after channel checks.
SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) was added to the US 1 list at Merrill Lynch, with a $150 price objective (versus a $121.73 close). The firm expects that growth momentum is unlikely to slow.
These additional key analyst calls were seen on Monday:
Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ADI) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $70 from $55 (versus $58.84 close) at Barclays.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at CIBC.
Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $50 from $40 (versus a $42.91 close) at Nomura Securities.
Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) was started as Buy and was given a $60 price target (versus a $50.17 close) at Societe Generale.
FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $40 (versus a $34.64 close) at Barclays.
InfraREIT Inc. (NYSE: HIFR) was started as Buy with a $32 price target (versus a $27.75 close) at Evercore ISI.
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LendingClub Corp. (NYSE: LC) was started as Sector Perform at Pacific Crest.
Madison Square Garden Co. (NASDAQ: MSG) was raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at RW Baird.
On Deck Capital Inc. (NYSE: ONDK) was started as Outperform with a 28 price target (versus a $20.54 close) at Pacific Crest.
Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. (NYSE: RH) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Spark Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: SPKE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.
TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) was started as Outperform with a $15 price target, based on a sum of the parts analysis, at Macquarie.
Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $23 price target at Evercore ISI.
Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
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In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Cisco Systems, EMC, GameStop, Novavax, Tesla Motors, Yahoo and a dozen more.
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