Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amex, Barclays, DuPont, NetApp, Plains All American, Viacom, Disney and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: January 30, 2017 9:15 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:22 pm

Stocks broke through the DJIA 20,000 and S&P 2,300 barriers last week, but stocks were indicated lower on Monday. Even with this bull market almost eight years old, investors still want to buy every sell-off and they are still looking for new and overlooked opportunities.

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

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Monday, January 30, 2017:

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $91 from $81 at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Shares closed at $76.85 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $50.27 to $78.02 and with a consensus analyst target price of $80.16.

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Berenberg. It was down 1.45% at $11.52 on Friday and was indicated down 2.6% at $11.22 on Monday morning. Barclays has a 52-week range of $6.76 to $12.05 and a consensus analyst target of $9.66.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (NYSE: DD) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus. DuPont closed down about 0.4% at $77.70 and was indicated down another 0.6% at $77.20. It has a 52-week range of $51.64 to $78.36 and a consensus target price of $80.94.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $43 price target at Goldman Sachs. The stock closed up 0.4% at $37.76 on Friday and was indicated up 3% at $38.90 on Monday. NetApp has a 52-week range of $30.36 to $39.00 and a consensus target price of $36.77.

Plains All American Pipeline L.P. (NYSE: PAA) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $34 price target (versus a $31.62 prior close) at Mizuho. Shares were indicated up 1.2% at $31.99, and the stock has a 52-week range of $14.82 to $33.95 and a $33.45 consensus analyst target.

Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $50 price target (versus a $41.97 close) at Morgan Stanley. Viacom has a 52-week range of $30.11 to $47.47, and it has a consensus price target of $41.83.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was raised to Overweight From Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley. Disney closed up 1.1% at $109.30 on Friday, and it was indicated up 0.4% at $109.74 on Monday. Disney has a 52-week range of $86.25 to $109.49 and a consensus target price of $112.85.

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

Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $140 price target (versus a $142.01 close) at Robert W. Baird.

Array BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: ARRY) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Leerink.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $82 from $74 (versus a $75.95 prior close) at Oppenheimer.

CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $62 target price (versus a $51.31 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Hibbett Sports Inc. (NASDAQ: HIBB) was raised to Neutral from Sell with a $34 price target (versus a $32.70 close) at Goldman Sachs.

NextEra Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: NEP) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Regulus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLS) was last seen trading down 29% or so at $1.60 after announcing the continuation of its RG-101 clinical hold. Regulus was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham. Wells Fargo also lowered it to Market Perform from Outperform.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) was raised to Buy from Hold at Argus with a $116 price target (versus a $94.56 closing price).

Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (NYSE: SWK) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $140 price target (versus a $125.03 close) at Barclays.

Tempur Sealy International Inc. (NYSE: TPX) was downgraded to Underperform from Outperform at Raymond James.

If you thought DJIA 20,000 was something, Barron’s now writes that history would suggest this bull market can live on and that the DJIA could hit 30,000. 24/7 Wall St. is more rational with more near-term targets, and here’s why our target is DJIA 21,422 for 2017.