Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: American Eagle, Lam Research, Shake Shack, SunPower, Union Pacific and More

Investing

Published: August 11, 2016 8:45 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:42 am

Stocks on the major indexes keep challenging and hitting all-time highs, and the markets were indicated slightly higher yet again on Thursday. Despite high valuations for the stock market, investors keep hunting for new ideas to make money. This may come from dividends, or from overlooked opportunities, value stocks and more. The reality is that investors are more than willing to buy stocks on every pullback.

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 analyst reports cover stocks to buy. Other reports feature stocks to sell or avoid.

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

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $22 price target (versus a $17.98 prior close) at Wunderlich. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $18.27 and a 52-week trading range of $12.78 to $18.60.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $85 from $95 (versus an $89.11 close) at Nomura. It has a consensus price target of $101.72 and a 52-week range of $61.20 to $93.80.

Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE: SHAK) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $48 price target (versus a $40.87 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. The consensus target price is $39.70, and the 52-week range of $30.00 to $64.79.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the price target was cut to $12 from $23 after Wednesday’s disastrous drop of 30% to $10.31. Many more downgrades were seen on Wednesday. SunPower has a new 52-week range of $10.15 to $31.10.

Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $114 price target (versus a $92.44 close) at Atlantic Equities. It has a $95.00 consensus price target and a 52-week range of $67.06 to $98.28.

Other key analyst upgrades and downgraded were seen as follows:

Canadian Pacific Railway (NYSE: CP) was started with an Overweight rating at Atlantic Equities.

CBOE Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $65 price objective (versus a $68.29 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Logitech International S.A. (NASDAQ: LOGI) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Ocular Therapeutix Inc. (NASDAQ: OCUL) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $21 price target (versus a $5.84 close) at JMP Securities.

Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) was started with an Underperform rating and a $51 price target (versus a $54.23 close) at Credit Suisse.

PHH Corp. (NYSE: PHH) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $17 price target (versus a $14.92 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Quorum Health Corp. (NYSE: QHC) was downgraded to Sell from an already cautious Neutral rating with a big downside price target of $5.50 (versus a $10.02 close) at UBS. Shares were last seen trading down 39% at $6.12 after earnings.

Team Health Holdings Inc. (NYSE: TMH) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $47 price target, down from a $49 target, but versus a $36.04 prior close, at Jefferies.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ZBH) was started as Buy with a $155 price target (versus a $128.92 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Eldorado Gold, SLM, SunPower, Walt Disney, Yelp, Myriad Genetics and over a dozen more.

You can follow @Jonogg on Twitter if you want the daily analyst calls and research updates directly on your Twitter feed.

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