Stocks were indicated to open slightly lower on Wednesday morning, but we now have seen two consecutive two weeks of a rally. Is it possible that the trend of selling into every rally is migrating back to the buy the dip trend of the prior four years?
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning 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 Wednesday, March 2, 2016.
American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) was last seen up on news it was joining the S&P 500 Index. Based on valuation, it was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $67.00 price target (versus a $65.30 prior close) at R.W. Baird. Shares were indicated up 4.7% at $68.35 on this news, and it has a consensus analyst target price of $64.82 and a 52-week trading range of $48.36 to $68.49.
Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: BCEI) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform with a $1.00 price target (versus a $1.05 close) Imperial Capital. Canaccord Genuity downgraded it to Hold from Buy and the price target was slashed to $2 from $12. Wunderlich cut its rating to Hold from Buy. This is after many post-loss downgrades on Tuesday that sent shares down 43.5% to $1.05, with a new 52-week range of $0.88 to $30.69.
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Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Strong Buy at Raymond James. Shares closed at $82.03, have a consensus analyst target of $86.39 and have a 52-week range of $60.31 to $84.22.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $78.50 price target (versus a $74.08 close) at Mizuho Securities. The consensus analyst price is $76.12 and the 52-week range is $44.28 to $87.43.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $75 from $125 (versus a $65.45 close) at Canaccord Genuity. The stock has a 52-week range of $59.87 to $263.81.
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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations were seen in the following on Wednesday:
- Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised from $53.00 to $57.00 at Jefferies.
- Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) was maintained as Underperform but the price target was raised from $30.00 to $32.00 at Jefferies.
- California Resources Corp. (NYSE: CRC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $1.00 price target (versus a $0.84 close) at Soc-Gen.
- Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) was reiterated as Buy but the price target was lowered from $32.00 to $29.00 at Jefferies.
- CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised from $11.00 to $12.00 at Jefferies.
- EQT Corp. (NYSE: EQT) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $65 price target (versus a $57.82 close) at Morgan Stanley.
- Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) was maintained as Market Perform and the price target was raised to $88 from $76 at Cowen.
- LKQ Corp. (NASDAQ: LKQ) was started as Buy with a $38 price target (versus a $28.54 close) at Sterne Agee.
- Suburban Propane Partners L.P. (NYSE: SPH) was started as Buy with a fair value estimate of $33.00 (versus a $27.67 close) at Janney Capital Markets.
If you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Freeport-McMoRan, PTC Therapeutics, SunEdison, Transocean, United Technologies, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Windstream and about a dozen more.
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