Stocks are at all-time highs and the valuation of 18.1 times forward earnings for the S&P 500 is not scaring investors away. Low interest rates and a lack of choices for income keep driving investors toward stocks. The reality is that investors have proven over and over that they will buy any market sell-off and that they are looking for new ideas to generate income or gains.
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. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy. Other reports feature stocks to sell or to avoid.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday morning:
Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) announced a delay in the release of fourth-quarter results due to the evaluation of revenue associated with concessions to certain distributors. The stock was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, and Wedbush Securities cut its rating to Neutral from Outperform. Oppenheimer lowered its target price to $45 from $52. Piper Jaffray lowered its rating to Underweight from Equal Weight. The shares were last indicated down 27% at $39.00, versus a 52-week trading range of $33.12 to $66.78.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was started with a Perform rating at Oppenheimer, and its rating comes with no formal price target. Oppenheimer has a positive bias on IBM’s turnaround but the firm sees it not being far along enough to deliver upside on a consistent basis in a manner that would bring valuation multiple expansion.
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $67 price target (versus a $65.72 prior close) at Bernstein. Jamie Dimon’s bank has a consensus analyst price target of $69.58 and a 52-week range of $50.07 to $69.03.
Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $21 price objective (versus a $14.90 close) at Merrill Lynch. The consensus price target is $18.00, and the 52-week range is $6.52 to $20.44.
Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $9.50 price target (versus a $9.56 close) at Bernstein. It has a consensus price target of $10.01 and a 52-week range of $7.00 to $10.60.
Tableau Software Inc. (NYSE: DATA) was started as Outperform with a $62 price target at Oppenheimer. Positives were in customer adds, growing client opportunities and benefits of its online business. The consensus price target is $63.74, and the 52-week range is $36.60 to $108.41.
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Other key analyst upgrades and downgraded were seen as follows:
Alarm.com Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ALRM) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James, but this was after close to a 7% gain to $32.93 the prior day.
Broadwind Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: BWEN) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $6 price target (versus a $4.59 close) at Cowen.
Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) was started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
GrubHub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) was started with a Hold rating and was assigned a $43 price target (versus a $38.10 close) at Jefferies.
Ocean Rig UDW LLC (NASDAQ: ORIG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was slashed to $1 from $4 (versus a $0.80 close) at Deutsche Bank.
Performance Sports Group Ltd. (NYSE: PSG) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $2.50 from $5.00 (versus a $1.85 close) at Wedbush Securities.
Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. (NASDAQ: SHEN) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $33 price target (versus a $27.32 close) at Raymond James.
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SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $43 price target (versus a $42.10 close) at Bernstein.
One interesting issue to consider now is that it would really only require the upside from seven of the 30 Dow stocks to get to DJIA 20,000 in 2017.
Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway just released their new stock holdings with big changes.
Credit Suisse issued huge bullish scenario upside targets in three top Big Pharma picks.
Monday’s top analyst calls included Best Buy, Dollar General, Intuit, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Symantec, China Telecom and a dozen or so more.
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