These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations.
Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer. Topeka Capital Markets maintained its Hold rating but cut the target to $55 in its call. Ladenburg downgraded it to Neutral from Buy with a $55 price target. This is after the IRS declined to assure Avago that this would be a tax-free acquisition.
CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) was raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies, but the firm cut the price target down to $26 from $30. At $28.16, CenturyLink has a $35.25 consensus analyst price target and a 52-week range of $27.50 to $41.99.
GoPro, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $90 price target (versus $61.69 close) at Citigroup. GoPro has a consensus analyst price target of $74.46 and a 52-week range of $37.13 to $98.47. The median is a tad lower than the mean at $72.00, and the highest analyst price target is $105 here.
Linn Energy LLC (NASDAQ: LINE) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse and was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. This was after a 26% drop to $4.76 after earnings and suspending the distribution.
Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) was slammed down by over 10% to $32.67 and shares hit a 52-week low of $30.25 after its warnings. Still Piper Jaffray decided that this was enough – it raised the rating to Overweight from Neutral with a $39 price target. UBS threw in the towel, downgrading Stratasys to Sell from Neutral.
Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) was started as Buy with a whopping $40 price target at Cantor Fitzgerald. Still, Guggenheim downgraded the rating to Neutral from Buy. Whiting fell 3.5% to $22.38 on Thursday and shares were indicated as $22.25 on Friday morning.
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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations from this Thursday were seen in shares of the following companies:
Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) was raised to Hold from Sell at Canaccord Genuity.
Calpine Corp. (NYSE: CPN) was raised to Buy from Hold at Evercore ISI.
Diebold, Inc. (NYSE: DBD) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Wedbush Securities.
LendingClub Corp. (NYSE: LC) was started as Buy and with a $24 price target (versus $14.53 close) at Canaccord Genuity.
LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at JPMorgan.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF) was started as Outperform at Macquarie.
Luxottica Group SpA (NYSE: LUX) was started as Underperform at Jefferies.
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Molina Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE: MOH) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Mondelez International (NASDAQ: MDLZ) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $46 target (versus $45.27 close) at Goldman Sachs.
Murphy Oil Corp. (NYSE: MUR) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) was reiterated as Buy with a $10.00 price target (versus $7.03 close, after a 6.7% post-earnings gain) at Canaccord Genuity.
Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus.
Ocwen Financial Corp. (NYSE: OCN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $12 price target (versus $11.76 close, but shares were indicated down 12% at $10.35) at Sterne Agee CRT.
On Deck Capital, Inc. (NYSE: ONDK) was started as Buy with a $22 price target (versus $12.67 close) at Canaccord Genuity.
QLogic Corp. (NASDAQ: QLGC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
Restoration Hardware Holdings (NYSE: RH) was started as Hold at Evercore ISI.
RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG) was raised from an already positive Outperform rating up to the prized “Strong Buy” rating with a $27 price target (versus $17.90 close) at Raymond James.
Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $30 price target (versus $33.00 close) at BMO Capital Markets.
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Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W) was started as Buy at Evercore ISI.
In case you missed Thursday’s top upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Barclays, BP, LifeLock, Mobileye, Oracle, Southwest Air, Whole Foods and over a dozen more.
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