Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: EMC, MetLife, Pandora, Whiting Petroleum, Yelp, Mosaic, Oasis Petroleum and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: July 13, 2016 9:05 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 5:47 am

It may seem amazing that the Dow and S&P 500 are at all-time highs, but the post-Brexit reaction was blown out of proportion and investors are treating this as a permanently low interest rate climate ahead. Even the slow economic growth and high equity market valuations are not deterring investors from buying their favorite stocks on pullbacks.

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 Wednesday morning:

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Macquarie, just a day after Mizuho Securities downgraded its rating to Neutral from Outperform as well. EMC has a consensus analyst price target of $28.96 and a 52-week trading range of $22.66 to $28.77.

MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $44 from $47 (versus a $40.76 prior close) at Deutsche Bank. It has a 52-week range of $35.00 to $58.13 and a consensus price target of $49.29.

Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $18 from $12 (versus a $13.07 close) at Piper Jaffray. The consensus price target is $14.41, and the 52-week range is $7.10 to $22.60.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $14 price target (versus an $8.80 close) at Credit Suisse. It has a consensus price target of $13.71 and a 52-week range of $3.35 to $30.68.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo. Shares closed at $30.38, and the consensus price target is $27.59. The 52-week range is $14.53 to $36.08.

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Other top analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen as follows:

Brown-Forman Corp. (NYSE: BF-B) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Chemical & Mining Co. of Chile Inc. (NYSE: SQM) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR) was maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $92 from $105 at Jefferies.

Heartware International Inc. (NASDAQ: HTWR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

KEYW Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: KEYW) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Maxim Group.

Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform with a $27 price target (versus a $26.48 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

NuVasive Inc. (NASDAQ: NUVA) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $74 (versus a $61.00 close) at JPMorgan.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: OAS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $12 price target (versus a $9.33 close) at Ladenburg Thalmann.

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (NYSE: PEG) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight and the price target was raised to $47 from $43 (versus a $45.44 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: RIGL) was started with a Buy rating and its price target was set at $6 (versus a $2.26 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE: RHI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was started with a Hold rating at Berenberg.

Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Accenture, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Fitbit, Oracle, Seagate Technology, Vodafone and over a dozen more stocks.