Investing
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: CyberArk, Goldman Sachs, Lululemon, Micron, Nike, Nokia, SanDisk and Many More
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Stocks bounced handily on Monday after tanking on Friday. There is still a serious ongoing debate as to why Janet Yellen and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to keep zero interest rates going, and Fed President Lacker justified his reason to hike rates over the weekend. The one trend that just lives on after about four years now is that investors routinely buy the pullbacks and dips. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst calls are on stocks to buy, but others cover stocks to sell or to avoid. These are Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.
CyberArk Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYBR) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $65 price target (versus a $47.65 close) at Deutsche Bank, noting that the sell-off in the shares has been overdone. CyberArk has a post-IPO trading range of $22.12 to $76.35 and a consensus analyst price target of $64.64.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a $236 price target (versus a $180.94 close) at Oppenheimer. Goldman Sachs has a consensus price target of $216.78 and a 52-week range of $171.26 to $218.77.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $68 price target (versus a $52.91 close) at Morgan Stanley. Lululemon has a consensus price target of $64.27 and a 52-week range of $37.86 to $70.00.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was started as Overweight with a $20 price target (versus a $15.50 close) at Barclays. Micron has a consensus price target of $26.52 and a 52-week range of $13.50 to $36.59.
Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $130 from $125 (versus a $115.05 close) at Cowen. This call is ahead of Nike’s Investor Day. The consensus price target is $121.40 and the 52-week range is $79.27 to $117.72.
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank. Nokia closed at $6.60 and has a consensus analyst target price of $8.94 and a 52-week range of $5.71 to $8.68.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was started as Equal Weight with a $60 price target (versus a $52.69 close) at Barclays. SanDisk has a consensus price target of $65.32 and a 52-week range of $44.28 to $106.64.
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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations on Monday were seen in the following:
AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $55 price objective (versus a $42.41 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A. (NYSE: BUD) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.
D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Integra LifeSciences Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: IART) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $79 price objective (versus a $64.23 close) at Merrill Lynch.
Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) was maintained as Buy, but the price target was cut to $15 from $20 (versus a $9.82 close) at Argus. The lower target is based on persistently low commodity prices negatively affecting customer activity levels and rig pricing.
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NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) was maintained as Outperform with a $30 price target (versus a $17.98 close) at Credit Suisse. The firm was surprised by the recent sell-off and noted that NRG will spend 17% of its market cap to shareholders in the next 15 months.
PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $40 price target (versus a $32.92 close) at Stifel.
Rice Energy Inc. (NYSE: RICE) was started as Buy with a price target of $25 (versus a $19.24 close) at Jefferies.
Shire PLC (NASDAQ: SHPG) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.
Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX) was reiterated as Buy with a $55 fair value estimate (versus a $45.46 close) at Janney Capital Markets.
SLM Corp. (NYSE: SLM) was maintained as Buy with an $11 price target at Janney Capital Markets, but the firm did slightly lower 2015 and 2016 earnings per share estimates to reflect more margin pressure than the firm had previously estimated.
Yamana Gold Inc. (NYSE: AUY) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse, based on valuation and gold leverage allowing for slightly raised estimates. Still, the target price was cut to $2.25 from $3.75 in the call.
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In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Aetna, Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, Royal Gold, Sirius XM and over a dozen more.
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