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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Freeport-McMoRan, PTC, SunEdison, Transocean, UTC, Valeant, Windstream and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: March 1, 2016 8:55 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 12:32 pm

Stocks were indicated to open handily higher on Tuesday after Monday’s drop. Still, this is after two consecutive weeks of gains in the U.S. stock market. Could the trend be changing back to investors buying the dips rather than selling into every rally?

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports every day of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) was resumed with a Neutral rating and $9.00 price objective at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The firm sees limited near-term upside catalysts for Freeport-McMoRan, with breakeven 2016 cash flows and uncertainty in Indonesia. Shares closed at $7.63. The consensus analyst target price is $6.21 and the 52-week trading range is $3.52 to $23.97.

PTC Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: PTCT) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was slashed to $11 from $27 (versus a $7.98 prior close) at Wedbush Securities. It was also downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen. The stock now has a 52-week range of $7.79 to $78.72, and this was a $28.00 stock just about 10 days earlier. Jefferies has a Hold rating but cut its target to $8 from $12.

SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer. The stock closed down 12% at $1.98 on Monday and was indicated down 20% at $1.56 after the company delayed its annual report due to an internal probe.

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United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $109 price target (versus a $96.62 close) at RBC Capital Markets. UTC has a consensus price target of $104.67 and a 52-week range of $83.39 to $122.89.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) was down 18% after an SEC probe and after J. Michael Pearson returned to run the company. RBC Capital Markets decided to downgrade Valeant to Sector Perform from Outperform and cut the target price by more than half to $85 from $194.

Windstream Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN) rose 3.7% to $7.52 after beating earnings on Monday. Raymond James downgraded the stock to Market Perform from Outperform. Windstream has a 52-week range of $4.42 to $13.27.

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

• Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: BCEI) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch, and the price objective was slashed to $1 from $6 (versus a $1.86 close) in the call.
• DSW Inc. (NYSE: DSW) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $20 price target (versus a $26.20 close) at Goldman Sachs.
• Linear Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: LLTC) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $44 price objective at Merrill Lynch.
• Ryerson Holding Corp. (NYSE: RYI) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price objective was slashed to $3.00 from $7.50 at Merrill Lynch.
• Steven Madden Ltd. (NASDAQ: SHOO) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $27 price target (versus a $35.20 close) at Goldman Sachs.
• Team Health Holdings Inc. (NYSE: TMH) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
• U.S. Physical Therapy Inc. (NASDAQ: USPH) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

If you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Huntington Bancshares, Nucor, Orexigen, SanDisk, Square, VIVUS and over a dozen more companies.