Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amazon, GM, SolarCity, Sunesis, United Continental, Disney, Valero and More

Stocks were looking for a small bounce on Friday. Again, the trend that keeps staying alive is that investors will buy every stock market sell-off when they think there are bargains. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning 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 this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays with a $700 price target. The firm B. Riley raised its rating to Buy and raised its target price to $646 from $428. Oppenheimer reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $640 from $525. Nomura reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $700 from $500. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $670 from $460.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) was raised to Neutral from Underperform with a $33 price target (versus a $31.50 close) at Credit Suisse. GM’s 52-week trading range is $28.82 to $38.99, and its consensus price target is $40.27.

SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $71 from $61 (versus a $53.67 close) at R.W. Baird. SolarCity has a consensus price target of $81.42 and a 52-week range of $45.91 to $79.40.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SNSS) was already speculative, but shares are getting lambasted after its cancer drug likely will not be approved by the FDA. Roth slashed its rating to Sell from Buy and slashed the price target down to $1.00 from $5.50. Sunesis closed at $3.47 and is indicated down around $1.30 or so.

United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $72 from $63 (versus a $56.67 close) at Deutsche Bank. Imperial Capital maintained its In-Line rating but lowered its price target to $65 from $75 in the call.

Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) was started as Outperform with an $82 price target (versus a $65.72 close) at Macquarie. It has a consensus price target of $74.85 and a 52-week range of $42.53 to $68.27.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $138 from $105 (versus a $118.80 close) at Topeka. Disney’s consensus price target is $121.33, its 52-week range is $78.54 to $119.90 and its absolute highest analyst price target is all the way up at $150.

ALSO READ: 5 Long-Term Opportunities Forming in MLPs

Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from this Friday were seen in shares of the following:

Abaxis Inc. (NASDAQ: ABAX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $52 from $62 (versus a $55.66 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs. It was also downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.

Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Evercore ISI.

Constant Contact Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer and was also downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at R.W. Baird.

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at R.W. Baird, although the $108 price target was maintained after Equifax closed at $100.13.

ALSO READ: Could Cliffs Really Be Worth Twice as Much Now?

GATX Corp. (NYSE: GMT) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel.

Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) was started as Buy with an $80.00 price target (versus a $68.11 close) at Maxim Group.

HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) was started as Outperform with a $52 price target (versus a $46.73 close) at Macquarie.

Hologic Inc. (NASDAQ: HOLX) was started as Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) was raised to Buy from Hold at Evercore ISI. Merrill Lynch raised its rating to Buy from Underperform with a $36 price objective. Shares are up 6% at $32.75 in the premarket after earnings.

Randgold Resources Corp. (NASDAQ: GOLD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) was started as Buy with an $11 price target (versus a $7.54 close) at Pivotal Research. The stock has a consensus price target of $10.67 and a 52-week range of $7.53 to $12.00.

Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO) was started as Outperform with a $119 price target (versus a $98.44 close) at Macquarie.

Under Armour (NYSE: UA) was raised to Sector Weight from Underweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

ALSO READ: How Analysts See Boeing After Earnings

United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo. KeyBanc Capital Markets went the other way, raising its rating to Sector Weight from Underweight, after being a long-time bear due to its high valuation.

In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Boeing, EMC, Hertz, Qualcomm, SanDisk, Twitter, XOMA and over a dozen more companies.

Get Ready To Retire (Sponsored)

Start by taking a quick retirement quiz from SmartAsset that will match you with up to 3 financial advisors that serve your area and beyond in 5 minutes, or less.

Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests.

Here’s how it works:
1. Answer SmartAsset advisor match quiz
2. Review your pre-screened matches at your leisure. Check out the advisors’ profiles.
3. Speak with advisors at no cost to you. Have an introductory call on the phone or introduction in person and choose whom to work with in the future

Get started right here.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.