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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AMD, Apple, Dollar General, Noble Energy, Oracle and More
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Stocks were taking another breather with a slight selling bias on Tuesday morning. As has been observed for close to four years now, the one trend that has remained in place is that investors have lined up and bought 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 others cover stocks to sell or avoid.
These are Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) was started as Outperform at Northland Securities, but the $5.00 price target (versus a $2.31 close) had shares up over 2% in early trading. The consensus price target here is only $2.52, and the 52-week range is $2.14 to $4.80.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated Outperform with a $145 price target at Credit Suisse on heels of the WWDC and streaming music. Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and $155.00 price target. Bank of America Merrill Lynch reiterated it as Buy with a $145 price objective.
Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was raised to Strong Buy from Market Perform with a $90 price target (versus a $73.34 close) at Raymond James. This is $1 shy of the street’s highest target and compares to a consensus analyst target of $82.70. Dollar General was also relisted as one of our 10 stocks to own for the next decade.
Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) was raised to Neutral from Reduce with a $48 price target (versus a $44.69 close) at Nomura. Noble’s consensus analyst target is $53.89, and it has a 52-week trading range of $41.01 to $79.63.
Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) was started as Hold at Wunderlich. The firm started many software companies (see below), mostly tied to the hot data security market.
ALSO READ: 9 Analyst Stocks Under $10 With Massive Upside
These are the additional top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Tuesday:
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) was reiterated as Hold at Argus, noting that the retailer’s weak outlook warrants caution.
Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was raised to Buy from Hold at Societe Generale.
Checkpoint Software Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was started as Buy with a $105 price target at Wunderlich.
Diageo PLC (NYSE: DEO) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Eclipse Resources Corp. (NYSE: ECR) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $9 rice target (versus a $5.82 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The consensus price target is $8.47.
Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) was started as Buy at Wunderlich.
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Insulet Corp. (NASDAQ: PODD) was maintained as Overweight at Piper Jaffray, and the price target was raised to $36.00.
LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) was started as Buy at Wunderlich.
Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) was started as Hold with a $180 price target at Wunderlich.
Proofpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT) was started as Buy with a $75 price target at Wunderlich.
Regulus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLS) was started as Buy with a price target of $16 (versus a $10.53 close) at Guggenheim.
Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE: RIO) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Societe Generale.
Tableau Software Inc. (NYSE: DATA) was started as Buy rating with a $130 price target at Wunderlich.
Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. (NYSE: TKC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs after Turkey’s election results leave no majority party.
Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) was reiterated as Buy with a fair value estimate of $45.00 (versus a $36.12 target) at Janney Capital Markets.
ALSO READ: Are Airlines Stocks Oversold as Analysts Abandon Them?
In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Exxon Mobil, Home Depot, Lululemon Athletica, 3M, Vodafone, Mondelez, Chevron and over a dozen more.
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