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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Coach, DuPont, GoPro, Match, Puma Bio, Square, Tesla and Many More

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Stocks were indicated for a lower open on Monday, following oil south. While last week was painful, and while the six-year bull market has stalled at the end of 2015, one trend that has lasted for over four years is that investors have found myriad reasons to buy each and every one of the pullbacks.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $37 from $33 (versus a $30.38 prior close) at Piper Jaffray. Coach has a consensus analyst price target of $37.25 and a 52-week trading range of $27.22 to $43.87.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (NYSE: DD), better known as DuPont, was downgraded to Hold with a $75 price target (versus a $70.44 close) at Jefferies, based on the values after and into the Dow Chemical merger. The firm said that much of the potential value now appears discounted, with end-market risk and integration risk likely capping DuPont’s shares through late 2016. Wells Fargo raised DuPont to Outperform from Market Perform.

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) took yet another downgrade, with Morgan Stanley lowering its rating to Underweight from Equal Weight. GoPro closed at $19.15, still supposedly has a consensus analyst price target north of $37, and has a 52-week range of $16.77 to $69.75. Is this call just late, or are GoPro’s future markets (particularly drones) just at much more realistic growth metrics?


Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH) was started with an Outperform rating and $18 price target (versus $13.84 close) at BMO Capital Markets. Goldman Sachs went the opposite direction, starting Match with a Sell rating and giving a mere $12 price target. JPMorgan started Match as Neutral with a $16 price target. Merrill Lynch started Match as Buy with a $18 price objective. Deutsche Bank started Match as Buy with an $18 price target, and Barclays started it as Overweight with a $17 price target.

Puma Biotechnology Inc. (NASDAQ: PBYI) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $107 price target (versus a $67.94 close) at Citigroup. It has a consensus price target closer to $190 and a 52-week range of $56.11 to $252.92, but that 52-week low was on Friday, on almost 10 times volume.

Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was started as Buy and was assigned a $15 price target (versus an $11.95 close) at Jefferies. JPMorgan started Square as Overweight with a $14 price target. Deutsche Bank started it as Hold with a $13 price target. Stifel also started Square with a Hold rating.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was started with a Market Perform rating at JMP Securities. Shares closed at $217.02, and they have a consensus price target of $286.47 and a 52-week range of $181.40 to $286.65.

Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations on Tuesday were in the following:

Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $110 from $95 at Argus. The firm sees a building sales and profitability ramp up in 2016 as Adobe rebounds from its business model transition.

Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: CLMT) was reiterated as Buy and the fair value estimate was kept at $30 (versus a $22.35 close) at Janney Capital Markets.

Computer Programs and Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CPSI) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $68 from $45 (versus a $45.48 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) was started as Market Perform and was assigned a $35 price target (versus a $30.54 close) at Cowen.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $21 from $19 (versus a $14.18 close) at Credit Suisse.

Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $45 from $43 (versus a $41.08 close) at Argus. The firm talked up same-store sales of more than 5% and noted that Kroger posted growth in every department and geographic region.

Mimecast Ltd. (NASDAQ: MIME) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $15 price target (versus a $10.42 close) at Goldman Sachs. Barclays started it as Overweight but with a $13 price target, and Jefferies assigned a Buy rating and gave an $18 price target. RBC Capital Markets started Mimecast as Outperform with a $15 price target. Oppenheimer started it as Outperform with a $15 price target.


Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $47 price target (versus a $39.99 close) at Nomure Securities.

Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) was reiterated as Buy with a $50 price target (versus a $37.21 close) at Jefferies.

ProLogis Inc. (NYSE: PLD) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and the price target was cut to $36 from $40 (versus a $41.41 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE: TWO) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $9.25 price target (versus an $8.04 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Wisconsin Energy Group Inc. (NYSE: WEC) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

If you missed on Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Cablevision, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Flextronics, GoPro, Nabors, Ocwen Financial, Pier 1 Imports, Staples and over a dozen more companies.

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