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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apple, Chipotle, eBay, JetBlue, Kraft Heinz, Twitter, Gap, NOV and More
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Stocks were indicated lower on Wednesday, partly dragged down by a disappointing Apple earnings report. It still seems that investors have returned to a mentality of buying the pullbacks rather than selling rallies. Keep in mind that the S&P 500 is now valued at about 17.8 times its forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio after peaking at 17.9 last week.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week to find new investing and trading ideas. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.
These are top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Wednesday morning:
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was last seen trading down after the first sales decline in a decade and as guidance was even worse than expected. Apple was maintained as Buy at Merrill Lynch, but the price objective was cut to $120 from $125. Barclays kept its Overweight rating, but cut the target to $121 from $131. Nomura maintained its Buy rating but cut its target to $120 from $135. Oppenheimer cut the rating to Perform from Outperform. Canaccord Genuity maintained its Buy rating but cut the target to $130 from $146, and RBC maintained its Outperform rating but cut the target to $120 from $130.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was last seen trading down 5% at $424.00 after sales tanked enough that it had its first loss. Most analysts kept their ratings but lowered their targets: Barclays to $430 from $450 (with Equal Weight rating), Cowen to $400 (with Market Perform), JPMorgan to $485 from $510 (with Overweight), UBS to $450 from $460 (with Neutral). Deutsche Bank has a Sell rating but cut its target to $360 from $400.
JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen. Credit Suisse maintained its Neutral rating and lowered its target to $19 from $21. Evercore ISI has a Buy rating and raised JetBlue’s target to $28 from $25. Shares closed at $20.33, have a consensus analyst target of $25.96 and have a 52-week trading range of $16.26 to $27.36.
Kraft Heinz Co. (NASDAQ: KHC) was started as Buy with a $91 price target (versus a $78.70 prior close) at Argus. The consensus analyst target is $90.29, and the 52-week range is $61.42 to $81.20.
Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was last seen trading down 15% at $15.10 after earnings missed the mark. It was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was cut to $18 from $26 (versus a $17.75 close) at JPMorgan. UBS kept its Buy rating but cut the target to $24 from $30. Jefferies maintained a Buy rating on Twitter but cut its target to $32 from $35. Nomura has a Neutral rating but cut the target to $16 from $19. Twitter has a 52-week range of $13.91 to $41.09.
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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:
American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and the price target was cut to $14 from $22 (versus a $15.22 close) at BMO Capital Markets. Deutsche Bank started it with a Hold rating and assigned a $17 price target.
Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) was maintained as Buy but was removed from the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs.
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.
El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LOCO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was started with a Sell rating and was assigned a $21 price target (versus a $23.87 close) at Deutsche Bank.
H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Interface Inc. (NASDAQ: TILE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.
L Brands Inc. (NYSE: LB) was started as Buy with a $94 price target (versus a $78.45 close) at Deutsche Bank.
National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $45 price target (versus a $29.37 close) at Morgan Stanley.
PACCAR Inc. (NASDAQ: PCAR) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at R.W. Baird.
Total System Services Inc. (NYSE: TSS) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) was started as Hold with a $33 price target (versus a $31.26 close) at Deutsche Bank.
Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Broadcom, Caterpillar, Sirius XM, Newmont Mining, Palo Alto Networks, Perrigo, Sarepta Therapeutics, Xerox and over a dozen more companies.
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