Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Broadcom, Dollar General, Goldman Sachs, Peabody Energy, Qualcomm, SunEdison and More

courtesy of Jon Ogg

Stocks were indicated higher after several OPEC nations reportedly have agreed to freeze their oil production (but not cut production). 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, February 16, 2016.

Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO), formerly Avago Technologies, was started as Outperform with a $160 price target (versus a $121.66 prior close) at Credit Suisse.

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $95 from $80 (versus a $70.46 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was raised to Overweight from Underweight and the price target was raised to $180 from $170 (versus a $146.13 close) at JPMorgan. The consensus price target is $195.38, and the 52-week range is $139.05 to $218.77.

Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) was downgraded to Underweight from Hold at BB&T Capital Markets, but shares closed at only $2.43 on Friday. It has a consensus target of about $6.24 and a split-adjusted 52-week range of $2.15 to $120.30.


Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Sanford Bernstein. Shares closed at $44.56, up 3.6% and they have a consensus analyst target of $57.46 and a 52-week range of $42.24 to $74.09.

SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $2.50 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The stock was down 30% at $1.41 on Friday, with a consensus price target of $12.00 and a 52-week range of $1.37 to $33.45.

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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday included the following:
AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $800 from $775 (versus a $729.62 close) at Wedbush Securities.

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE: AXTA) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $29 price target at Jefferies.

Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) was raised to Outperform from Underperform at CLSA.

Chemours Co. (NYSE: CC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $4.50 from $10.00 at Jefferies.

CommScope Holding Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: COMM) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $24 price target (versus a $20.54 close) at Raymond James.

Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight and the price target was raised to $90 from $65 (versus a $75.23 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Financial Engines Inc. (NASDAQ: FNGN) was maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $34.00 from $41.00 at Jefferies.


Insperity Inc. (NYSE: NSP) was raised to Overweight with a $58 price target (versus a $45.56 close) at First Analysis.

Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE: PHG) was downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $29 price target (versus a $23.09 close) at JPMorgan.

Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O) was downgraded to Sell from Hold with a $53 price target (versus a $60.48 close) at Wunderlich.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: HOT) was maintained as Hold but the price target was lowered from $73.00 to $60.00 at Jefferies.

VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

If you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Activision Blizzard, Boeing, FireEye, Gilead Sciences, Groupon, Netflix, Pandora Media and over a dozen more companies.

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