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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alibaba, Baker Hughes, GoPro, Merck, Microsoft, Yahoo and Many More
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Stocks bounced sharply off their lows on Wednesday, and Thursday has positive indications. The reason for this always seems to be different each time, but the trend that lives on is for investors to buy every stock market sell-off. That trend is almost four years old now. 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 other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) was maintained as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets, but the firm cut the price target to $91 from $105 in the call. A firm called Axiom Capital maintained its Buy rating but cut the target to $90 as well. Yesterday brought a downgrade from Wedbush to Neutral from Outperform. The moves are after a stock buyback.
Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) was reiterated as Buy with a $95.00 price target at Deutsche Bank, with similar calls seen in oil services sector here. This was the highest target price, versus a $58.60 close and against a $47.51 to $70.51 trading range in the past 52 weeks.
GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was started as Outperform and was assigned a $76.00 price target (versus a $56.91 close) at Cowen. GoPro’s consensus price target is $76.54 and its 52-week range is $37.13 to $98.47.
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) was started as Buy with a $23.00 price target (versus a $17.90 close) at Goldman Sachs. Hertz has a consensus target price of almost $25 now, and the 52-week range is $15.56 to $31.61.
Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $70 price target (versus a $58.26 close) at BMO Capital Markets. It has a consensus target of $65.35 and a 52-week range of $52.49 to $63.62.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $55 price target (versus a $46.74 close) at Stifel Nicolaus. Microsoft’s consensus price target is $50.00, and the 52-week range is $40.12 to $50.05.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $52.00 price target (versus a $34.49 close) at Bernstein. Yahoo’s consensus target is $51.59 and its 52-week range is $33.85 to $52.62.
ALSO READ: 5 Top BioPharma Stocks That Have Sold Off and Become Bargains
Other top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from this Thursday were seen as follows:
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) was reiterated as Buy with a $61 price target (versus a $46.89 close) at Argus.
BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BBEP) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was raised to Buy from Hold with $92 target (versus an $80.62 close) at Argus.
Copa Holdings S.A. (NYSE: CPA) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
EV Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: EVEP) was downgraded to Underperform from Outperform and the price target was slashed to $8 from $17 at Credit Suisse. The firm sees its current super-high distribution payouts at risk. It closed at $9.81 and it has a 52-week range of $67.59 to $41.97.
Freshpet Inc. (NASDAQ: FRPT) was started as Outperform at William Blair.
Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) was reiterated as Buy with a $68.00 price target at Deutsche Bank.
Memorial Production Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: MEMP) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at JPMorgan.
Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) was raised to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) was started as Outperform with a $23.50 price target (versus an $18.14 close) at BMO Capital Markets.
Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) was reiterated as Buy with an $112.00 price target at Deutsche Bank.
ALSO READ: 5 Defensive High-Yield Dividends Should Withstand the Next Stock Market Correction
Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Annaly Capital Management, Gap, Google, Johnson Controls, Symantec, Williams Companies and over a dozen more companies.
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