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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Dollar General, Monsanto, Palo Alto, TG Therapeutics, Ulta, Vivint Solar and More
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Stocks were looking for direction on Friday ahead of the three-day weekend. This week saw handy gains on Tuesday and Wednesday and oil briefly hit $50 again. Maybe “sell in May and go away” wasn’t right this year, and somehow rate hikes may now be a good thing.
Investors have proven over and over that they will buy the dips. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports feature stocks to sell or to avoid.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Friday morning.
Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was reiterated as Buy at Jefferies after earnings, and the firm raised its target price to $101 from $97 in the call. Shares closed up 4.6% at $88.01 on Thursday, in a 52-week trading range of $59.75 to $88.98 (that high was put in Thursday too).
Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a $105 price target (versus a $109.62 prior close) at Atlantic Equities. That doesn’t exactly sound like much hope for a super-premium merger going through. Monsanto’s 52-week range is $81.22 to $119.09.
Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) closed up 1.7% at $148.18 ahead of earnings, but shares were last seen down 9.6% at $133.90 afterward. The stock was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham. Oppenheimer reiterated its Outperform rating and maintained its $177 price target.
TG Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: TGTX) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned an $18 price target (versus a $7.22 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. The company announced that it has entered into a global collaboration to develop and commercialize novel BET inhibitors from Jubilant Biosys for the treatment of hematological malignancies, and its shares were up over 9% at $7.90.
Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) closed up 1% at $213.69 ahead of earnings and was last seen up 9% at $232.99 after the report. The stock was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $260 from $235 (versus a $211.48 close) at Oppenheimer. Its 52-week range was $120.38 to $214.44, with that high put in Thursday as well.
Vivint Solar Inc. (NYSE: VSLR) actually received an upgrade, to Buy from Hold, at Deutsche Bank, and the price target went to $7.50 from $3.50 (versus a $2.63 close). The shares were last seen up 6% at $2.80 on Friday.
You can follow @JonOgg if you wish to get analyst upgrades and downgrades directly on your Twitter feed.
Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:
American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $25 from $24 (versus a $15.36 close) at Jefferies.
Deckers Outdoor Corp. (NYSE: DECK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.
Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was reiterated as Hold at Jefferies, but the price target was raised to $80 from $75.
Duluth Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTH) was started with a Buy rating and $28 price target (versus a $24.88 close) at Stifel.
Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $21.00 from $19.50 (versus an $18.60 close) at Jefferies. The firm cited recent stability in earnings estimates and substantial unrealized value in its Vantiv, all adding up to heading in a better direction.
NICE Systems Ltd. (NICE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
Sanderson Farms Inc. (NASDAQ: SAFM) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target is $95 (versus a $92.55 close) at JPMorgan.
Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE: SIG) was downgraded to Neutral and removed from the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs, and the price target was cut to $119 from $192.
Teladoc Inc. (NYSE: TDOC) was reiterated as Outperform at Oppenheimer, and the price target is $25 (versus a $10.28 close).
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was reiterated as Buy at Jefferies, and the price target was raised to $54 from $50.
Workday Inc. (NYSE: WDAY) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $63 price target (versus a $78.00 close) at Wedbush Securities.
Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Alibaba, ADM, CSC, Infosys, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, WisdomTree and over a dozen more companies.
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