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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apollo, Petrobras, Shopify, Fitbit, Sarepta, Lowe's and More

Stocks were indicated with a bounce on Tuesday after Greece and Puerto Rico acted as sell-off catalysts on Monday. The trend that keeps proving itself for almost four years now is that investors buy every single pullback. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst 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 are about stocks to sell or to avoid.

These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Apollo Education Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) was indicated down 11% at $13.75 after earnings failed to enthuse for-profit education buyers. Bank of America Merrill Lynch lowered its rating from an already cautious Neutral ratings to Underperform and with a $6.00 price objective. Apollo Education closed at $15.54, and the 52-week trading range prior to Tuesday was $15.51 to $34.55.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, was raised to Hold from Reduce at HSBC Securities. Petrobras was indicated up 1.3% at $9.15, but its 52-week trading range is $4.90 to $20.94.

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) was started as Sector Weight at Pacific Crest and was started as Hold at Canaccord Genuity. RBC Capital Markets started Shopify as Sector Perform. Morgan Stanley assigned an Equal Weight rating, and Pacific Crest assigned a Sector Weight rating. Credit Suisse was more positive, assigning an Outperform rating and $40 price target. After it closed at $31.32, Shopify’s post-IPO range is $17.00 to $42.13.

Fitbit Inc. (NYSE: FIT) was started as Outperform with a $45 price target (versus a $33.28 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The other two existing price targets seen ahead of the quiet period expiration were $28 and $44. Fitbit has a post-IPO range of $29.50 to $40.45.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT) was reiterated as Outperform with a $45 price target (versus a $28.18 close) at Oppenheimer. Sarepta has a consensus price target of $30.36 and a 52-week range of $11.33 to $33.16.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) was started as Outperform with a $81 price target (versus a $67.53 close) at BMO Capital Markets. Lowe’s has a consensus price target of $78.17, and its 52-week range is $46.48 to $76.25.

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Additional analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen this Tuesday in the following:

Black Knight Financial Services Inc. (NYSE: BKFS) was started as Neutral at Mizuho.

Boot Barn Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BOOT) was started as Buy at B. Riley.

CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) was started as Neutral with a price target of $72.00 (versus a $66.35 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

DAVIDsTEA Inc. (NASDAQ: DTEA) was started as Neutral with a $24 price target (versus a $22.48 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Goldman Sachs also assigned a new Neutral rating, and BMO started it as Market Perform.

Edison International (NYSE: EIX) was started as Neutral at Mizuho.

Evolent Health Inc. (NYSE: EVH) was started as Buy with a $23 price target (versus a $18.85 close) at Goldman Sachs. JPMorgan assigned an Overweight rating and the same $23 price target. Evolent was also started as Outperform at Leerink Swann.

EndoChoice Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GI) was started as Outperform at William Blair. Stifel started it as Buy with a $20.00 price target (versus a $16.09 close) and JPMorgan started it as Overweight with a $26 price target.

HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HSBC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

L Brands Inc. (NYSE: LB) was reiterated as Perform and the price target was raised to $82 from $70 (versus a $85.08 close) at Oppenheimer.

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MarkWest Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: MWE) was started as Hold with a price target of $60 (versus a $57.56 close) at Evercore ISI.

Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $58 (versus a $48.61 close) at Raymond James.

Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) was started as Neutral at Guggenheim.

In case you missed out on Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included American Water Works, CenturyLink, Chesapeake Energy, Tesla Motors, Macy’s, Chimera Investment and a dozen or so more.

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