Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: BP, Fitbit, Randgold, SLM, Teva, T-Mobile, GoPro and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: January 31, 2017 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:20 pm

Stocks had their worst day of the year, a 0.8% drop, on Monday, and shares were indicated slightly lower on Tuesday. The market enthusiasm remains in place after the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke above 20,000 and after the S&P hit 2,300 last week. 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 Tuesday, January 31, 2017:

BP PLC (NYSE: BP) was raised to Buy from Hold at Societe Generale. Shares closed down 1.7% on Monday and were indicated down 0.2% at $35.89 in the New York on Tuesday. BP has a 52-week trading range of $27.01 to $38.68 and a consensus analyst price target of $39.07.

Fitbit Inc. (NYSE: FIT) was down almost 16% to $6.06 on Monday, and it hit a new post-IPO low of $5.90 after poor sales and layoffs. It was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup. Fitbit’s 52-week range is $5.90 to $18.85.

Randgold Resources Ltd. (NASDAQ: GOLD) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse. American depositary shares were actually up 2.2% at $84.00 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $67.54 to $126.55. The consensus price target is $101.84.

SLM Corp. (NASDAQ: SLM) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a price target of $13 (versus an $11.73 prior close) at Wedbush Securities. The 52-week range is $5.34 to $11.87, and the consensus price target is $12.95.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) was last seen down 7.6% at $31.90 on Tuesday after a court has invalidated four of its Copaxone patents. Merrill Lynch decided to upgrade the stock after the bad news, saying that this Copaxone patent loss creates opportunity and that it removes an old overhang. The price objective is $42 and while they talk about a favorable risk versus reward, they do acknowledge that patience will be required by investors.

T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $72 price target (versus a $61.13 close) at Evercore ISI Group. This was the only positive rating in a new telecom call at Evercore. T-Mobile has a 52-week range of $33.23 to $63.68 and a consensus analyst target of $61.46.

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was up 7% to $10.80 on Monday and indicated down about 1.1% at $10.68 on Tuesday. GoPro was maintained as Neutral at Wedbush Securities, along with a $9 price target. The firm said that it is unwilling to recommend GoPro shares due to uncertainty over Karma, HERO5 demand in 2017, and the long-term pipeline.

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 see in the following:

Ashford Hospitality Prime Inc. (NYSE: AHP) was raised to Buy with a $17 fair value estimate (versus a $13.26 close) at Janney. The firm’s note said that Ashford is too cheap to ignore given recent changes and its outlook.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was started as Hold with a $44 price target (versus a $41.82 close) at Evercore ISI Group.

CBOE Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) was raised to Buy from Underperform with an $85 price objective (versus a $77.87 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Clean Harbors Inc. (NYSE: CLH) was raised to Overweight from Sector Weight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSH) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTX) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Macquarie.

MSG Networks Inc. (NYSE: MSGN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $27 price objective (versus a $22.70 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Navient Corp. (NASDAQ: NAVI) was started as Neutral and assigned a $16.50 price target (versus a $15.11 close) at Wedbush Securities.

National Retail Properties Inc. (NYSE: NNN) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price objective was raised to $48 from $44 (versus a $42.59 close) at Merrill Lynch. The upgrade noted that its balance sheet is well positioned for rising rates.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) was started with a Hold rating at Societe Generale.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) was started as Hold with an $8 price target (versus a $9.11 close) at Evercore ISI Group.

Steven Madden Ltd. (NASDAQ: SHOO) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Tempur Sealy International Inc. (NYSE: TPX) was reiterated as Neutral but the target price was cut to $45 from $55 (versus a $45.49 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm sees a body blow from Mattress Firm stinging at least for the near term.

Tupperware Brands Corp. (NYSE: TUP) was raised to Neutral from Sell at B. Riley.

United Natural Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: UNFI) was started as Neutral and assigned a $49 price target (versus a $45.99 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) was started as Hold at Evercore ISI.

Virtus Investment Partners Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTS) was started with an Underperform rating and assigned a $110 price target (versus a $110.00 closing price) at Merrill Lynch.

Wyndham Worldwide Corp. (NYSE: WYN) was started as Neutral with an $87 fair value estimate (versus a $79.72 close) at Janney. They noted that there may be limited growth from here after the stocks run higher.

Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included American Express, Barclays, DuPont, NetApp, Plains All American, Viacom, Walt Disney and many more.