Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alcoa, AK Steel, CenturyLink, Coach, Hyatt, JetBlue, Southwest Air, Transocean, Verizon, Wal-Mart and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: January 25, 2017 8:55 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:33 pm

Stocks rallied on Tuesday and were indicated higher on Wednesday. In fact, the Boeing report may even help the Dow challenge the elusive 20,000 mark on Wednesday. Despite the bull market being almost eight years old, investors are still willing to buy the pullbacks, and they are still looking for new and overlooked opportunities. Regardless of the start of 2017, there is still a path to DJIA 21,422 in late 2017 or early 2018.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, while some others cover stocks to sell or to avoid. Most of the following analyst calls include some color, and Thomson Reuters was used for consensus analyst price target data.

Oddly enough, none of Tuesday’s Keystone pipeline winners were in the upgrades and downgrades. These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Wednesday, January 25, 2017:

Alcoa Corp. (NYSE: AA) was up 3.3% to $37.50 ahead of earnings and was indicated up another 2.6% at $38.48 on Wednesday morning. Alcoa was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $45 price target at Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank raised it to Hold from Sell with a $30 target.

AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan. Shares were down almost 6.6% at $8.68 on Tuesday and were down another 4% at $8.31 on Wednesday’s early indications. AK Steel has a 52-week trading range of $1.85 to $11.39, and it had a consensus analyst target price of $10.14.

CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) was raised to Hold at Jefferies, and the target price was raised to $26 from $20 (versus a $25.57 prior close). The Level 3 acquisition is said to make the dividend more secure in the near-term, and the combination was shown to be leading to meaningful financial benefits and earnings accretion. CenturyLink has a 52-week range of $22.86 to $33.45, and the consensus target price is $28.08.

Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Atlantic Equities. It also was downgraded to Outperform at CLSA. Coach closed up 3.7% at $36.75 on Tuesday and was indicated down 1.2% at $36.30 on Wednesday. The 52-week range is $32.95 to $43.71, and it has a consensus target price of $43.28.

Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $60 price target (versus a $54.50 close) at Berenberg. Hyatt has a 52-week range of $37.00 to $58.05 and a consensus target price of $55.44.

JettBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $27 price target (versus a $21.42 close) at JPMorgan. JetBlue has a 52-week range of $14.76 to $23.67 and a consensus price target of $26.17.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a $55 price target (versus a $49.65 close) at JPMorgan. Southwest Airlines has a consensus target price of $59.10 and a 52-week range of $33.96 to $52.20.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) was raised to Neutral from Underweight with a $13.70 price target (versus a $14.92 close) at Piper Jaffray. Shares closed up 1.1% on Tuesday and were indicated up another 0.8% at $15.04 on Wednesday. Transocean has a 52-week range of $7.67 to $16.66 and a consensus price target of $12.75.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) had a worse earnings reaction that we have seen in recent memory, falling 4.4% to $50.12, and shares were indicated down another 0.8% at $49.70 on Wednesday. Verizon was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $52 target price at FBR Capital Markets. Argus maintained its Buy rating and $60 target price on Verizon. The 52-week range is $46.01 to $56.95, and the consensus target price is $53.27.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was started with a Market Perform rating at Wells Fargo. Wal-Mart closed up 1.1% at $67.40 on Tuesday and was indicated up another 0.2% at $67.58 on Wednesday. Wal-Mart also has a 52-week range of $62.35 to $75.19 and a consensus analyst target of $74.05.

You can follow @Jonogg on Twitter if to get analyst calls and research summaries posted directly to your own feed.

Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Apple, Boeing, CSX, Deere, Humana, Potash Corp., Suncor Energy and many more.