Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Baidu, BlackBerry, GM, PayPal, Teva, Yelp and Many More

Investing

Published: July 28, 2015 8:26 am

Stocks were indicated higher on Tuesday morning after 5 days in a row of selling. Yet again we see the trend of investors finding a reason to buy every stock market sell-off for bargain hunting. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst calls cover stocks to buy, and other analyst calls cover stocks to sell or stocks to avoid.

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

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was down around 12% at $173.00 after missing earnings estimates. Deutsche Bank and Brean Capital both downgraded it to Hold from Buy. Baidu is at 52-week lows now as the prior 52-week range was $178.81 to $251.99.

BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight with a $7 price target (versus $7.28 close) at Morgan Stanley. BlackBerry has a consensus price target of $8.81 and a 52-week range of $7.15 to $12.63.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) was reiterated as Buy and with a target price of $45 at Argus, up handily from the $31.05 close. The firm sees GM winning from recent efforts to rationalize manufacturing capacity and consolidate vehicle platforms and from strong U.S. demand for new cars.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was started as Buy with a $44 price target (versus $36.39 close) at Jefferies. PayPal’s consensus price target is $43.11 and it has a post-split range of $33.98 to $42.55.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) was reiterated as Buy at Argus on the heels of the Allergan generics acquisition, and the firm raised its target price to $82 from $75 (versus $72.00 close after a 16% gain) in the call. Teva is one of our own 10 Stocks to Own for the Next Decade, it has a consensus target closer to $73 and a 52-week range of $47.36 to $72.15.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with $33 price target (versus $33.73 close) at Deutsche Bank. Yelp has a consensus target price of $51.69 and a 52-week range of $33.35 to $86.88.

Also Read: 7 Big Banks Valued Under Book Value

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

Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the price objective was raised to $18 from $12.50 at BofA Merrill Lynch.

Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) was reiterated as Outperform with a Fair Value range of $65 to $70 (versus $53.14 close, after a 5.5% drop) at Wells Fargo. The firm sees its GeneXpert Omni new product potentially leapfrogging competitors as dominant molecular player in the very large point-of-care market.

Colfax Corp. (NYSE: CFX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus, with the call being on a weak near-term outlook.

Kaiser Aluminum Corp. (NASDAQ: KALU) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

LifeLock, Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) was maintained as Buy at Canaccord Genuity, but the price target was cut to $14 from $23 (versus $7.74 close) as the firm has more questions than answers at this point.

ALSO READ: Why GE Outshines 3M and United Tech After Earnings

News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie.

Nimble Storage, Inc. (NYSE: NMBL) was downgraded to Buy from Strong-Buy and the price target was cut to $32 from $35 (versus $27.42 close) at Needham.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) was reiterated as Buy with a Fair Value estimate of $649 (versus $540.03 close) at Janney Capital Markets. This is after Regeneron and Sanofi expanded their partnership to develop immuno-oncology antibodies.

Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG) was shown to have had its public market valuation disconnected after repurchases according to Wells Fargo. The firm has an Outperform rating but lowered its valuation range down to $198.00 to $211.00 from $212.00 to $225.00.

Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA Merrill Lynch due to a peak valuation and earnings growth pressure.

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WSM) was raised to Buy from Hold with a price target of $57 at Argus.

ALSO READ: 6 Oil Stocks Analysts Want You to Buy Now

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of AT&T, Chesapeake, Facebook, Qualcomm, Weatherford and over a dozen more.

Travel Cards Are Getting Too Good To Ignore

Credit card companies are pulling out all the stops, with the issuers are offering insane travel rewards and perks.

We’re talking huge sign-up bonuses, points on every purchase, and benefits like lounge access, travel credits, and free hotel nights. For travelers, these rewards can add up to thousands of dollars in flights, upgrades, and luxury experiences every year.

It’s like getting paid to travel — and it’s available to qualified borrowers who know where to look.

We’ve rounded up some of the best travel credit cards on the market. Click here to see the list. Don’t miss these offers — they won’t be this good forever.