These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) was started as Outperform with a $120 price target (versus a $90.70 close) at Bernstein. This stock is now up about $13 from the pre-earnings lows when investors were nervous, and the consensus price target is closer to $108, versus a 52-week range of $77.77 to $120.00.
Mobileye N.V. (NYSE: MBLY) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $70 from $62 (versus a $46.10 close) at Citigroup. This is against a consensus price target of $58.00, and the firm sees an arms race taking place for advanced safety systems in cars, with Mobileye’s competitive advantage seeming to grow over competition.
NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) shares were indicated down over 10% after missing earnings due to weaker OEM sales. It was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald, and it was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. Maxim kept its Buy rating but cut its target to $44 from $48.
Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was started as Buy and was given a $120 price target (versus a $104.61 close) at Jefferies.
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Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was raised to Buy from Hold and was given a $90 price target (versus a $70.16 close and $74.00 in early Thursday trading) at Argus. Credit Suisse reiterated its Outperform rating and went with a $90 price target. The shares were indicated up 4% at $72.95 after earnings.
Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a $50 price target (versus a $34.97 close) at Oppenheimer.
More than a dozen additional analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations were seen this Thursday, as follows:
Alkermes PLC (NASDAQ: ALKS) was started as Overweight and with a $74 price target at Barclays.
Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) was raised to Buy from Hold with a price target
of $221 (versus a $176.95 close) at Wunderlich.
Dynegy Inc. (NYSE: DYN) was started as Outperform with a price target of $42.00 (versus a $32.59 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The consensus price target is $39.72.
Equinix Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel. The move is after a favorable IRS ruling to convert its corporate structure from a corporation to a real estate investment trust.
Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was reiterated as Neutral with a fair value estimate of $92.00 (versus a $105.50 close) at Janney Capital markets.
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Esperion Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ESPR) was started as Overweight with a $150 price target (versus a $155.11 close) at Barclays.
Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ICPT) was started as Overweight with a $425 price target (versus a $269.74 close) at Barclays. Keep in mind that this one just fell from above $310 to $270 in the past two trading days.
JA Solar Holdings Co. (NASDAQ: JASO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Roth Capital.
3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Telenav Inc. (NASDAQ: TNAV) was started as Outperform with a $15 price target (versus a $8.86 close) at Northland Securities. This is a huge upside, but Thomson Reuters only lists two analysts following it, and that would make this the highest target price.
Trevena Inc. (NASDAQ: TRVN) was started at an Equal Weight rating with a price target of $11 (after closing at $6.80) at Barclays. Boy, with a price target well over 50% higher than the current price, you might wonder how high the target has to be for an Overweight rating.
Vodafone Group PLC (NYSE: VOD) was downgraded to Neutral from Reduce at Nomura.
Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM) was maintained Neutral with a $56 fair value target (versus a $77.89 close) at Janney Capital markets.
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In case you missed Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, CSC, Keurig Green Mountain, Sarepta Therapeutics, Splunk and 20 more companies.
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