Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Antero, Athenahealth, Capstone, Clovis, Genworth, Merck, Nuance, Salesforce and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: November 17, 2015 8:45 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 5:07 pm

Stocks were surprisingly higher on Monday after the weekend’s terror attacks in Paris, and in Tuesday’s session international markets and U.S. equity futures were also higher. Yet again, we have the investing community wanting to buy on pullbacks, and last week’s 665-point Dow pullback has brought in those buyers. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

AmerisourceBergen Corp. (NYSE: ABC) was started as Outperform with a $121 price target (versus a $97.30 close) at Credit Suisse.

Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A./N.V. (NYSE: BUD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Nomura.

Antero Resources Corp. (NYSE: AR) was started as Buy with a $28.00 price target (versus a $24.73 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Athenahealth Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Capstone Turbine Corp. (NASDAQ: CPST) was started with a Perform rating at Oppenheimer.

Chemical & Mining Co. of Chile Inc. (NYSE: SQM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at HSBC Securities.

Clovis Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: CLVS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs after Monday’s share price implosion on disappointing drug trial news.

Genworth Financial Corp. (NYSE: GNW) was started as Neutral with a $5 price target (versus a $4.84 close) at Goldman Sachs.

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Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) was maintained as Buy at Argus, but the firm lowered the price target to $65 from $70.

Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $22 from $20 at Canaccord Genuity, saying that the company is on the right track. Oppenheimer raised its price target to $26 from $22.

Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (NYSE: RGA) was started as Sell with an $88.00 price target (versus an $88.74 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Buy and the price objective was raised to $90 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The call is ahead of this week’s earnings report, and the firm is reiterating it as the top large cap tech idea for secular growth.

Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) closed down 7.4% at $22.67, after buying a pizza chain ahead of earnings, and shares were indicated down about 13% at $19.65 (versus Monday’s 52-week low of $22.04) on weak sales figures. We have seen price target action cuts by Stifel, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, RBC, Mizuho and others.

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If you missed Monday’s top analyst calls, they included Best Buy, CA, Deere, Eli Lilly, Ferrari, Netflix, Oracle, Salesforce.com and about a dozen more.