Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Athenahealth, Baker Hughes, Cisco, LinkedIn, Orbital-ATK, Tableau and Many More

courtesy of Jon Ogg

Stocks were getting pounded on Monday after a rough Friday, on the continuation of oil and a weak Europe, even as China was closed for Chinese New Year. The stock market volatility continues, and investors still seem eager to sell into rallies rather than the trend of buying every dip, as seen in the prior four years.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst reports are on stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Monday, February 8, 2016.

Athenahealth Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $160 price target (versus a $124.00 prior close) at Topeka Capital Markets. Athenahealth has a consensus analyst price target of $159.11 and a 52-week trading range of $110.68 to $170.42.

Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the price target was cut to $47 from $59 (versus a $44.85 close) at Morgan Stanley. The consensus price target is $57.92, and the 52-week range is $37.58 to $70.45.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was maintained as Buy but was removed from the Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs, and the firm cut Cisco’s price target to $32 from $35. It was also maintained as Hold but the price target was cut to $26.00 from $29.50 at Jefferies, which sees Cisco’s risk/reward getting better after the recent drop in its share price, but the firm said it is cautious in a difficult environment and possibility of reduced April guidance.


LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) was maintained as Buy at Argus after last week’s major sell-off after earnings and guidance. Argus thinks the selling was very overdone, but it did lower earnings estimates and lowered its target to $190. The firm’s view is that LinkedIn’s guidance followed a decision to terminate an unpromising product in favor of more worthy projects.

Orbital-ATK Inc. (NYSE: OA) was raised to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $106 price target (versus an $85.16 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. It has a consensus target price of $100.71 and a 52-week range of $56.06 to $140.52.

Tableau Software Inc. (NYSE: DATA) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley, and the price target was slashed to $55 from $125 (after a 49% drop to $41.30). Tableau Software hit a new 52-week low of $40.04.

Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades seen on Monday include the following:
CBOE Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) was downgraded to Underperform from Outperform at CLSA.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) was maintained as Underperform but the price target was raised to $63 from $83 (versus an $88.55 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACAD) was started as Buy with a $40 price objective (versus a $19.36 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) was raised to Outperform with a $40 price target at Oppenheimer.

Antero Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: AM) was downgraded to Neutral From Outperform at R.W. Baird.

AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at HSBC.

Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp. (NASDAQ: BGFV) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel.

DexCom Inc. (NASDAQ: DXCM) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was cut to $47 from $100 (versus a $61.98 close, after a 12.2% drop) at R.W. Baird.


Energy Transfer Partners L.P. (NYSE: ETP) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform by R.W. Baird.

Energy Transfer Equity L.P. (NYSE: ETE) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at R.W. Baird.

Enlink Midstream LLC (NYSE: ENLC) was downgraded to Underperform at R.W. Baird.

EPAM Systems Inc. (NYSE: EPAM) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Monness Crespi Hardt.

HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HSBC) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) was reiterated as Buy with a fair value of $21 at Janney Capital Markets.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS.

ONEOK Inc. (NYSE: OKE) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at R.W. Baird.

ONEOK Partners L.P. (NYSE: OKS) was downgraded to Underperform at R.W. Baird.

Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE: SE) was started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SUPN) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $18 price target (versus a $12.13 close) at Jefferies.

Tallgrass Energy G.P. (NYSE: TEGP) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at R.W. Baird.

WisdomTree Investments Inc. (NASDAQ: WETF) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

If you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, LinkedIn, Linn Energy, Tableau Software, Weatherford International and over a dozen more companies.

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