Stocks were indicated marginally higher on Friday, and October has turned out to be a stellar month and the best October since 2011. The Dow is up a whopping 1,700 points from the lows on October 2. Investors just keep proving that they want to buy value and buy on any pullbacks. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NASDAQ: DWA) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $16.00 price objective (versus a $21.94 prior close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) shares were indicated up over 12% at $57.50 (versus a $50.99 close) after strong earnings. First Solar was reiterated as Buy at Janney Capital Markets and the firm has a fair value estimate of $79.00.
NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight and the price target was raised to $28.00 from $21.00 (versus a $27.68 close) at Morgan Stanley.
SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) was downgraded to Neutral from being on the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs, and the firm cut its price target to $41 from $79 (versus a $38.07 close and $31.50 early on Friday).
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BTIG. Valeant has had its share of controversy of late, and shares were indicated down 9% at $101.00, versus a 52-week trading range of $88.50 to $263.81.
YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $20 price target at Stifel. Shares rose 3% to $13.85 on Thursday and were indicated up 15% at $16.00 after Thursday’s earnings report beat expectations. YRC Worldwide’s 52-week range is $11.90 to $25.40.
ALSO READ: 10 Brands That Will Disappear in 2016
Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations were seen in the following Friday morning:
AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACRX) was started as Buy at Jefferies, and the firm assigned a $7.00 price target (versus a $3.35 close). Shares were up almost 12% at $3.75 after Thursday’s business update.
Aon PLC (NYSE: AON) was reiterated as Buy at Janney Capital Markets.
B/E Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAV) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $60 price target (versus a $47.56 close) at Canaccord Genuity.
CONE Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: CNNX) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at R.W. Baird.
Control4 Corp. (NASDAQ: CTRL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham.
Energen Corp. (NYSE: EGN) was started as Sector Perform and was assigned a $63 price target at RBC Capital Markets.
New Gold Inc. (NYSEMKT: NGD) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at National Bank.
ALSO READ: 3 Stocks to Buy That Were Crushed After Earnings
Papa John’s Pizza (NASDAQ: PZZA) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
PPL Corp. (NYSE: PPL) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $36.00 price target (versus a $33.79 close) at Deutsche Bank.
Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE: RIO) was raised to Buy from Hold at Investec.
Sabre Corp. (NASDAQ: SABR) was reiterated as Buy at Mizuho Securities, and the price target was raised to $35.00 (versus a $29.50 close).
Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at National Bank.
Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: XENE) was started as Buy with a $13 price target (versus a $8.08 close) at Jefferies.
In case you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Anadarko Petroleum, Buffalo Wild Wings, GoPro, LifeLock, Rite Aid, SunPower and over a dozen more companies.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks