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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Exxon, Home Depot, Lululemon, 3M, Vodafone, Mondelez, Chevron and More
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Stocks were marginally lower on Monday to kick off the week, after the prior week was in the red. The one trend that is nearly four years old is that investors have found a very broad group of reasons to buy stocks literally on every single pullback. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of research reports each morning of the week to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while other calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
These are Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was maintained as Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the firm nudged its price objective to $106 from $103. The firm believes Exxon is better off than Chevron because its bulk of capital spending needs has already peaked. Exxon was also recently included as one of our 10 stocks to own for the next decade.
Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) was started as Overweight at Atlantic Equities, with a $128 price target (versus a $110.37 close and a consensus target price of $123.26).
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was maintained as Neutral with a fair value estimate of $68.00 (versus a $63.80 close) at Janney Capital Markets ahead of this week’s earnings report. Oppenheimer kept Lululemon as a top pick ahead of earnings.
3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was reinstated as Neutral with a target price of $169 (versus its prior $178 target and a $157.08 close) at Credit Suisse.
Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch. The call was in London, so the overseas translated price objective is $38.41, versus a $37.05 close.
Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $48 from $42 (versus a $40.02 close) at Credit Suisse. Despite us saying that Warren Buffett needs to unload this stake, Credit Suisse said that all is on track and the best is still yet to come.
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These are the additional top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Monday:
American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Ladenburg Thalmann.
Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (NYSE: APAM) was started as Buy and was put on the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs.
BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) was started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) was maintained as Underperform with a slightly lower price objective of $104 from $106 at Merrill Lynch.
Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch.
Fenix Parts Inc. (NASDAQ: FENX) was started as Buy with a $13.50 price target at Stifel. BMO Capital Markets also started it as Outperform with a $13.50 price target. The car parts company’s analyst quiet period after its IPO has ended.
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Incyte Corp. (NASDAQ: INCY) was reiterated as Buy at Merrill Lynch after positive drug news. The price objective was $126 (versus a $108.94 close).
Lake Shore Gold Corp. (NYSE: LSG) was raised to Outperform from Underperform at RBC Capital Markets.
Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) was started as Neutral at Atlantic Equities.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) was reiterated as Buy with a fair value target estimate of $561.00 (versus a $539.40 close) at Janney Capital Markets ahead of this week’s FDA panel.
Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE: RIO) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at BNP Paribas.
ServiceMaster Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SERV) was reinstated as Outperform with a target price of $40 (versus a $33.75 close) at Credit Suisse.
Texas Capital Bancshares (NASDAQ: TCBI) was reiterated as Buy, earnings estimates were raised and the price objective was raised to $66 (versus a $57.12 close) at Merrill Lynch.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.
In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Charles Schwab, 3D Systems, Stratasys, Groupon, Lifepoint Health, Bazaarvoice and over a dozen more companies.
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