[cnxvideo id=”506831″ placement=”ros”]Stocks were marginally higher on Wednesday morning, after Tuesday’s 75-point Dow and 13-point S&P 500 gains. Earnings season has begun and things are looking moderately higher. The trends of high valuations and a seven-and-a-half-year-old bull market are not keeping investors from buying every market dip. Those same investors are also looking for new ideas to generate gains or income ahead.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, and others feature stocks to sell or avoid.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Wednesday morning:
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (NYSE: DD) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $78 price target (versus a $69.50 prior close) at Nomura. DuPont has a 52-week trading range of $50.71 to $75.72, and it has a consensus analyst price target of $74.43.
GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY) was started as Buy with a $42 price target (versus a $35.51 close) at Cantor Fitzgerald. It has a 52-week range of $23.88 to $36.30 and a consensus target price of $37.38.
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Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) closed up 1.2% at $37.75 after solid earnings and a PC recovery, but its guidance had shares down 5% at $35.82 on Wednesday morning.
Intel’s stock rating was maintained as Buy at Jefferies, which lowered its target price to $46 from $49 after the outlook was called “disappointing but beatable.” Intel was maintained as Buy at UBS but the target was cut to $40 from $43. Citigroup maintained its Neutral rating and cut the target price to $36 from $38. Goldman Sachs maintained a Neutral rating and cut its target to $36 from $39.
Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. The 52-week range is $7.10 to $19.59, and the consensus price target is $15.16.
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at FBR Capital Markets. It has a 52-week range of $43.55 to $56.34. This banking giant has seen more downgrades than upgrades since its fake accounts scandal.
Western Refining Inc. (NYSE: WNR) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup. Shares closed at $28.07, in a 52-week range of $18.14 to $47.55. The consensus price target is $26.73.
Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen as follows:
Amarin Corp. PLC (NASDAQ: AMRN) was started as Buy with a $5 price target (versus a $3.00 close) at Citigroup.
Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CPS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
IAMGOLD Corp. (NYSE: IAG) was raised to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity.
iPass Inc. (NASDAQ: IPAS) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $3 price target (versus a $1.62 close) at Maxim Group.
Mentor Graphics Corp. (NASDAQ: MENT) was started as Outperform and assigned a $34 price target (versus a $28.81 close) at Credit Suisse.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: NCLH) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
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Quintiles IMS Holding Inc. (NYSE: Q) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
Roper Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ROP) was started with a Hold rating at Argus.
Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was started as Neutral with a $12 price target at Credit Suisse.
Five Dow stocks have grossly underperformed analyst estimates in 2016.
Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in Chipotle Mexican Grill, IBM, Level 3 Communications, Netflix, PayPal, Salesforce.com 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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