Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Barrick Gold, Coeur Mining, Procter & Gamble, Southern Company, Wynn Resorts, SLM and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: July 14, 2016 8:55 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 5:44 am

It has to seem like an amazing feat that the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 are at all-time highs. Wasn’t the Brexit news shock supposed to bring major turmoil? And what about slow economic growth and high equity market valuations? On top of increased buybacks from major companies of late, investors just keep proving that they are willing and able to buy their favorite stocks on pullbacks.

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 its readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports feature stocks to sell or avoid.

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

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $26 price target (versus a $21.08 prior close) at Jefferies. It has a consensus analyst price target of $20.46 and a 52-week trading range of $5.91 to $23.47. Barrick is one of the top miners in the world for gold, with a market cap of $24.5 billion.

Coeur Mining Inc. (NYSE: CDE) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $18 price target (versus a $13.01 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The consensus price target is $12.38, and the 52-week range is $1.62 to $13.08.

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $96 from $85 (versus a $85.89 close) at UBS. It has a consensus analyst target of $85.16 and a 52-week range of $65.02 to $86.15.

Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) saw two analyst calls on Thursday. The electric power generation and distribution giant was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $62 price target at Barclays. Goldman Sachs started coverage with a Neutral, giving it a $54 price target. Shares closed up over 0.5% at $53.13 on Wednesday and were indicated up 0.3% at $53.30 on Thursday. Its consensus price target is $50.88, and it has a 52-week range of $41.81 to $54.49.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was cut to $94 from $101 (versus a $94.88 close) at JPMorgan. The consensus price target is $100.31, and the 52-week range is $49.95 to $105.69.

SLM Corp. (NYSE: SLM) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a price target of $8.50 (versus a $6.96 close) at Citigroup. It has a $9.38 consensus target price, and its 52-week range is $5.09 to $10.04.

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Other top analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen as follows:

Advanced Energy Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: AEIS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price target was cut to $8 from $10 (versus a $9.79 close) at Robert W. Baird.

CA Inc. (NASDAQ: CA) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Mizuho Securities.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform and the price target was raised to $56 from $41 (versus a $48.68 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

El Paso Electric Co. (NYSE: EE) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies, and the price target was raised to $52.50 from $47.

Interval Leisure Group Inc. (NASDAQ: IILG) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $25 from $16.50 (versus a $17.12 close) at MKM Partners.

Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) was raised to Hold from Underperform with a $6 price target (versus a $5.40 close) at Jefferies.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included EMC, MetLife, Pandora Media, Whiting Petroleum, Yelp, Mosaic, Oasis Petroleum and a dozen more. Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in Accenture, Cognizant Technology, Fitbit, Oracle, Seagate Technology, Vodafone and over a dozen others.