Investing
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Aduro Bio, Facebook, Lululemon, MGIC, Nokia, Schlumberger, Yum and More
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Stocks were indicated up on Monday morning after Friday’s sell-off. One trend that has been in place for over three years now is that investors have lined up and bought stocks on weakness. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day to find new trading and investment ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.
These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations. There are over two dozen calls in all.
Aduro BioTech Inc. (NASDAQ: ADRO) was started as Buy with a $74 price target (versus a $40.00 close) at Roth Capital.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was reiterated as Outperform with a $100 price target (versus a $80.78 close) at Oppenheimer. The firm expects Facebook to beat earnings expectations this week.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was downgraded to Underperform from Outperform with a $68 price target (versus a $66.70 close) at CLSA.
MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the price target was raised to $10 from $8.50 (versus a $9.91 close) at Credit Suisse.
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) was raised Hold from Underperform at Jefferies, and the price target was raised to $21 from $20 in the call.
Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $36 (versus $30.52 close) at BTIG.
Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) was reiterated Outperform and the price target was raised to $90 from $80 at Oppenheimer, with a note that the rewards are still outweighing the risks.
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These are the other important analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen in Wall Street analyst research reports this Monday:
Cerner Corp. (NASDAQ: CERN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $78 (versus a $71.81 close) at SunTrust.
Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (NYSE: CHD) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $88 price target (versus a $85.06 close) at Goldman Sachs.
Costamare Inc. (NYSE: CMRE) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price objective was cut to $19 from $23 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) was reiterated as Buy and the price objective was raised to $28 from $25 at Merrill Lynch.
Franklin Financial Network Inc. (NYSE: FSB) was started as Buy with a $27 price objective at Merrill Lynch.
Granite Construction Inc. (NYSE: GVA) was started as Outperform with a price target of $41 (versus a $35.04 close) at Cowen.
Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) was started as Reduce with a price target of $88 (versus a $100.27 close) at Nomura.
Intersil Corp. (NASDAQ: ISIL) was raised to Positive from Neutral and its price target was raised to $18 from $14 (versus a $14.41 close) at Susquehanna.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price objective was raised to $101 from $79 at Merrill Lynch.
Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was set at $37 (versus a $30.52 close) at Morgan Stanley.
ALSO READ: 8 Analyst Stocks Under $10 With Massive Upside
Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform, but the price target was raised to $115 from $98 (versus a $127.68 close) at Credit Suisse.
New Residential Investment Corp. (NYSE: NRZ) was started as Buy with a $18.50 price objective at Merrill Lynch. This implies a 20% total return, as it will capitalize on the transfer of mortgage servicing to non-banks.
Platform Specialty Products Corp. (NYSE: PAH) was started as Outperform with a $31 price target (versus a $26.71 close) at Credit Suisse.
Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (NYSE: BIN) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform and the price target was cut to $31 from $34 (versus a $29.70 close) at RBC Capital Markets.
Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) was downgraded to Underperform from Buy with a price target of $94 (versus a $92.86 close) at CLSA. Argus maintained its Buy rating, but lowered the price target to $112 from $121.
Smith & Wesson Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) was started as Sector Perform and with a $16 price target (versus a $15.21 close) at RBC Capital Markets.
Tableau Software Inc. (NYSE: DATA) was started as Neutral with a $104 price target (versus a $95.07 close) at Citigroup.
ALSO READ: Analysts Start to Fear the Worst for AMD
In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Apple, CyberArk Software, EMC, Goldman Sachs, SanDisk, ULTA Salon, Wayfair and over a dozen more companies.
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