Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Cisco, Enterprise Products, JC Penney, Kinder Morgan, NetApp, Priceline, Digital Ally and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: August 18, 2016 8:45 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:31 am

Stocks are still close to all-time highs, but the market was indicated to open lower on Thursday, August 18, 2016. Despite high valuations and despite this bull market lasting seven and a half years, investors keep proving that they will buy the market sell-offs. Those same investors are looking for new ideas on how to make income or gains from the market as well.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst upgrades and downgrades each day. Also in the mix are many new coverage initiations, as well as ratings being reiterated with price target changes. Some reports cover stocks to buy, and some cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are this Thursday’s top analyst calls from Wall Street.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was indicated down 1.4% at $30.30 after earnings, and the stock closed down 1.3% at $30.72 ahead of earnings. Cisco was reiterated as Buy with a $35 price target at Jefferies. More analyst notes on Cisco will follow shortly after its restructuring plans confirmed layoff rumors.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the price target was cut to $30 from $33 (versus a $27.56 prior close) at Morgan Stanley.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) was reiterated as Underweight but the price target was raised to $8.50 from $7.50 at Morgan Stanley.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $24 price target (versus a $21.75 close) at Morgan Stanley.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and the price target was launched higher, to $31 from $17 (versus a $28.85 close), at JPMorgan.

Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $1,650 from $1,360 (versus a $1,427 close) at Evercore ISI.

Digital Ally Inc. (NASDAQ: DGLY) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $15 price target (versus a $5.56 close) at Maxim Group.

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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations were seen in the following:
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) was reiterated as Buy with a fair value estimate of $55 (versus a $48.43 close) at Janney. The firm said to buy any weakness as the guidance was likely very conservative.

Arista Networks Inc. (NYSE: ANET) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a price target of $90 (versus a $77.34 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Cerulean Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: CERU) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at JMP Securities. The firm noted that the horrible data is an understatement and that there are now limited catalysts and cash issues.

HMS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: HMSY) was downgraded to Hold from Buy but the price target was raised to $23 from $19 (versus a $23.17 close) at Jefferies.

Icahn Enterprises L.P. (NASDAQ: IEP) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS.

Robert Half Inc. (NYSE: RHI) was started with a Buy rating and a $44 price target (versus a $37.62 close) at Deutsche Bank.

SunEdison Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEMI) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup.

Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. (NYSE: TOO) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with an $8 price target (versus a $5.24 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch.

In addition, there many key changes were made recently in the Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in Cisco Systems, Cree, Exxon Mobil, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Urban Outfitters, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Western Digital and more.