Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Blackstone, Chipotle, Constellation, KeyCorp, PepsiCo, Phillips 66, SunEdison and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: November 23, 2015 8:51 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:53 pm

Stocks were indicated lower on Monday, but that is after the best week for stocks in quite some time. This is a thinner week for liquidity and analyst calls are likely to dry up on Tuesday or Wednesday as the news flow slows ahead of Thanksgiving. So far, the trend that remains unbroken is that investors keep proving they want to buy stocks on weakness or on strength.

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 the analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other calls cover stocks to sell or stock to avoid. These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) was started as Neutral with a $40 price target (versus $31.18 close) at JPMorgan. Blackstone has a consensus price target of $42.15 and a 52-week range of $28.56 to $44.43.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) took a harsh downgrade from Merrill Lynch, to Underperform from Buy where the price target was cut to $470 from $750. Chipotle shares were indicated down 2% at $525.00.

Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $170 from $135 (versus $137.62 close) at Cowen & Co.

KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) was raised to Buy from neutral at Jefferies, and the price target was raised to $15.50 from $15.00 (versus $13.08 close). The firm noted that emotions are high, its fundamentals are fine, and its valuation is low.

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) was raised to Neutral from Reduce at Nomura, and the price target was raised to $100 from $83 (versus $100.10 close). Pepsico has a $104.70 close, and it has a 52-week range of $76.48 to $103.44.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and the price target was cut to $85 from $92 (versus $91.67 close) at Goldman Sachs. They must not care that Warren Buffett likes Phillips 66 so much.

SunEdison, Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) was maintained as Buy but the fair value estimates was cut to $17 from $20 (versus $2.82 close) at Janney Capital Markets. The firm acknowledges the higher level of risk due to future uses of cash, but they do not see a liquidity event coming in SunEdison at this time in the company’s future.

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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades from this Monday were seen in the following companies:

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP (NASDAQ: CLMT) was started as Neutral and with a $29 price target (versus $25.89 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT) was downgraded to Sell from Hold with a $20 price target (versus $31.60 close) at Stifel.

Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) was raised to Buy from Hold and was given a $48 price target (versus $46 prior target) at Canaccord Genuity.

Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. (NASDAQ: FCS) was downgraded to Neutral from Positive with a $20 price target (versus $19.65 close) at Susquehanna Financial.

Genomic Health Inc. (NASDAQ: GHDX) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

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Himax Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) was started with an Overweight rating and a price target of $8.50 (versus $7.34 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Horizon Pharma plc (NASDAQ: HZNP) was reinstated as Buy now that it is not trying to acquire DepoMed. They reinstated a $32 price target versus the old $37 target — still much higher than the $18.82 close. Jefferies says that Horizon’s standalone growth appears healthy and near-term M&A remains likely.

Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTA) was started as Equal Weight with a $22 price target (versus $17.70 close) at Barclays.

Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $210 price target (versus $172.68 close) at Maxim Group.

Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $38 price target (versus $31.35 close) at Sterne Agee CRT.

Universal Insurance Holdings (NYSE: UVE) was listed as one of eight companies that destroyed its shareholders last week, but now Keefe Bruyette & Woods raised its rating to Outperform from Market Perform (while cutting the price target to $28 from $35, versus $18.47 close).

Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

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In case you missed out on Friday’s key analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of DepoMed, Gap, Intel, IBM, Nimble Storage, Workday and over a dozen more companies.