Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Gold Fields, Humana, Intel, PayPal, Yelp and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: July 8, 2016 8:50 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 5:58 am

Stocks were looking for direction ahead of the payrolls report, and the numbers for June blew out expectations to the upside after a very negative report in May. Last week’s post-Brexit recovery may have become muted, but investors are still more than willing buy their favorite stocks after every major sell-off.

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

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Friday morning:

Gold Fields Ltd. (NYSE: GFI) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs. Shares closed down 2.5% at $5.34 on Thursday and were indicated up 2% at $5.45 on Friday. The gold miner has a consensus analyst target price of $4.51 and a 52-week trading range of $2.04 to $5.56.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a $150 price target (down from $196) at JPMorgan. The stock closed down 9.6% at $162.74 after news broke that its merger is likely to be challenged. The consensus price target was $208.77, and the 52-week range is $155.24 to $192.49.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform and the price target was raised to $30 from $26 (versus a $33.20 prior close) at Bernstein. It has a consensus price target of $35.20 and a 52-week range of $24.87 to $35.59.

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was started with an Overweight rating and was assigned a $45 price target (versus a $36.32 close) at Stephens. The consensus price target is $43.65. The 52-week range is $30.00 to $42.55.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $30 price target (versus a $30.04 close) at Wedbush Securities. Its consensus price target is down at $27.43, and it has a 52-week range of $14.53 to $36.08.

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

American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ: AGNC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $21 price target (versus a $19.49 close) at Nomura Securities.

Apollo Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: AINV) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Aviva PLC (NYSE: AV) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Bluebird Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE) was maintained as Buy at Janney and also at Jefferies after the disappointing news out of Juno.

Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Wells Fargo.

C.R. Bard Inc. (NYSE: BCR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

58.com Inc. (NYSE: WUBA) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $71 price target (versus a $45.34 close) at Macquarie.

Fresenius Medical Care A.G. (NYSE: FMS) was raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.

GrubHub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $40 price target (versus a $31.08 close) at Wedbush Securities.

HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP) was raised to Neutral from Sell and the price target was raised to $36 from $26 (versus a $34.88 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Landec Corp. (NASDAQ: LNDC) was started with a Neutral rating and was assigned a price target of $12 (versus a $10.67 close) at Wedbush Securities.

T2 Biosystems Inc. (NASDAQ: TTOO) was downgraded to Sell from Buy and the price target was cut to $4 from $12 (versus a $7.61 close) at BTIG.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Bank of America, First Solar, KKR, On Deck, Red Hat, Shake Shack and over a dozen more.