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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apple, AIG, Medivation, PayPal, Shake Shack, TerraForm Power and More

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Stocks were poised to open higher on a continued Yellen-induced rally from Tuesday’s dovish speech. With stocks fighting over being positive or negative for 2016 now, investors are again caught between the forces and trends of whether they should be buying the dips or selling into the rallies.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen this Wednesday morning:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $135 from $125 (versus a $107.68 prior close) at Cowen. Apple has a consensus analyst price target of $134.08 and a 52-week trading range of $92.00 to $134.54.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Janney Montgomery Scott. AIG closed at $53.39, and it has a consensus price target of $63.11 and a 52-week range of $50.20 to $64.93.


Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs, after closing down 6% at $38.75. The consensus price target is $47.82, and the 52-week range is $26.41 to $67.67.

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was started as Market Perform with a $43 price target (versus a $39.53 close) at Sanford Bernstein. Its consensus price target is $41.64, and it has a 52-week range of $30.00 to $42.55.

Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE: SHAK) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $46 price target (versus a $34.89 close) at Longbow Research. The consensus price target is $38.86. The 52-week range is $30.00 to $96.75.

TerraForm Power Inc. (NASDAQ: TERP) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a $13 price target (versus an $8.61 close) at JPMorgan. The consensus price target is $15.00, and shares have traded in a 52-week range of $6.73 to $42.66.

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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: MDRX) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $16 price target (versus a $12.81 close) at Morgan Stanley.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at B. Riley.

Atmos Energy Corp. (NYSE: ATO) was started as Buy with an $80 price target (versus a $74.33 close) at BB&T Markets.

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) was maintained as Hold but the price target was raised from $13.50 to $15.00 at Jefferies.

AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AVEO) was started as Outperform with a $3 price target (versus a $0.91 close) at FBR Capital Markets.

Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) was maintained as Hold but the price target was raised from $6.50 to $10.00 (versus a $10.14 close) at Jefferies.

Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) was maintained as Hold but the price target was raised from $13 to $17 (versus a $16.44 close) at Jefferies.


Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) was maintained as Buy and the price target was raised from $28 to $33 (versus a $26.95 close) at Jefferies.

Spark Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCE) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

TRI Pointe Group Inc. (NYSE: TPH) was started as Positive with a $15 price target (versus an $11.68 close) at Susquehanna.

Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNT) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $29 price target (versus a $35.19 close) at Credit Suisse.

In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Ambarella, Delta Air Lines, eBay, LinkedIn, Micron Technology, Relypsa and over a dozen more.

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