Stocks were indicated lower on Friday morning. It seems that the three-day rally that ended on Thursday was met by valuation sellers again. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Friday, February 19, 2016.
Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $22 price target (versus a $17.17 prior close) at Needham. Shares were last seen up 9% at $18.80 on Friday after earnings. The consensus analyst target price was $21.60, and the 52-week range is $14.25 to $25.64.
Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan. The stock closed at $76.21, has a consensus analyst target of $76.63 and has a 52-week range of $65.50 to $80.18.
Entergy Corp. (NYSE: ETR) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $76 price target (versus a $73.44 close) at Barclays. The consensus price target is $72.76, and the 52-week range is $61.27 to $81.07.
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Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Buy with an $88 price target (versus a $63.49 close) at Oppenheimer. The firm said that it expects solid earnings but also a negative bias to its margin trends.
SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was slashed to $3 from $19 (versus a $1.51 close) at Credit Suisse. Talk about an embarrassment. SunEdison has a 52-week range of $1.37 to $33.45.
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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in shares of the following:
Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANTH) was maintained as Buy but the old $12 price target was cut to $9 at Jefferies.
Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP) was started as Market Perform with a $1.50 price target (versus a $1.34 close) at FBR Capital Markets.
Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: CLMT) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $18.00 (versus a $10.82 close) at Credit Suisse.
Choice Hotels International Inc. (NYSE: CHH) was raised to Neutral from Underweight with a $46.00 price target (versus a $49.59 close) at JPMorgan.
Mercury General Corp. (NYSE: MCY) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Raymond James.
Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) was started as Buy with a $45.00 price objective (versus a $31.92 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
MPLX L.P. (NYSE: MPLX) was started as Buy with a $30 price target (versus a $22.94 close) at Goldman Sachs.
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OneMain Holdings Inc. (NYSE: OMF) was maintained as Buy at Jefferies, but the price target was cut to $50 from $66.
Sealed Air Corp. (NYSE: SEE) was started as Outperform with a $53 price target (versus a $43.13 close) at RBC Capital Markets.
Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $48 from $65 (versus a $46.05 close) at UBS.
Syntel Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNT) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Trinity Industries Inc. (NYSE: TRN) was downgraded to Underweight from Buy at BB&T Capital Markets.
Xylem Inc. (NYSE: XYL) was started as Neutral and the fair value estimate was put at $38.00 (versus a $37.66 close) at Janney Capital Markets.
If you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Amazon.com, Brocade Communications Systems, Garmin, IBM, Nabors Industries, Peabody Energy, Shopify, Urban Outfitters and over a dozen more companies.
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