Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amgen, Apple, Corning, Mobileye, Under Armour, Electronic Arts and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: February 1, 2017 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:17 pm

Stocks started the week off on a weak note with a handy drop, but a much stronger than expected ADP payrolls report is driving stocks higher on Wednesday. Despite this bull market being almost eight years old, investors still find reasons 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.

The Dow has hit 20,000 and there is a path for Dow 21,422 later in 2017 or in early 2018.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Wednesday, February 1, 2017:

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $192 price objective (versus a $156.68 prior close) at Merrill Lynch. It closed up 1.5% on Tuesday and was up another 0.9% at $158.05 on Wednesday, in a 52-week trading range of $133.64 to $176.85. The consensus analyst price target is $181.78.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was down 0.2% at $121.35 ahead of earnings and was indicated up over 4.5% at $127.00 on Wednesday morning after beating earnings. Apple’s target was raised to $142 from $135 at BMO and was raised to $140 from $125 at RBC. Its 52-week range is $89.47 to $122.44 and its consensus price target was $133.54 ahead of the hikes.

Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $26 price target (versus a $26.49 prior close) at Bernstein. Corning has a 52-week range of $17.61 to $26.99 and a consensus price target of $26.38.

Mobileye N.V. (NYSE: MBLY) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $44 price target (versus a prior closing price of $42.96) at Morgan Stanley. Mobileye was indicated down another 3.6% at $41.40 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $23.57 to $51.15 and with a consensus target price of $55.70.

Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA) closed down 25.7% at $21.49 on Tuesday, and the new multiyear low is now $20.80. Buckingham Research downgraded Under Armour to Underperform from Buy, and FBR Capital Markets downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform. B. Riley also downgraded it to Neutral from Buy.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $110 from $105 (versus an $83.43 prior close) at Jefferies. The call is after a solid earnings beat and raised guidance, as Battlefield 1 is driving record quarterly revenues and earnings. Wedbush Securities reiterated its Outperform rating and $95 price target.

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Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

CDW Corp. (NASDAQ: CDW) was rated as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but it was added to the prized Conviction Buy list with a target price of $61 (versus a $51.51 close) at Goldman Sachs. CDW has a $51.44 consensus target price and a 52-week range of $30.40 to $55.47.
Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) was raised to Buy from Hold at Evercore ISI. Wedbush maintained its Neutral rating and raised its price target to $38 from $36 (versus a $37.35 close).

Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) was raised to Hold from Reduce with a $153 price target (versus a $149.76 close) at HSBC.

Crane Co. (NYSE: CR) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a price target of $82 (versus a $72.04 close) at Oppenheimer.

Deckers Outdoor Corp. (NYSE: DECK) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Evercore ISI.

IMAX Corp. (NYSE: IMAX) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) was raised to Buy from Sell with a $20 price target (versus a $14.87 close) at UBS.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Evercore ISI.

Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Evercore ISI.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was maintained as Buy but removed from the Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs. The target price is $96, versus a $79.10 closing price.

United Parcel Services Inc. (NYSE: UPS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $115 price target (versus a $109.13 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included BP, Fitbit, Randgold Resources, SLM, Teva Pharmaceutical, T-Mobile, GoPro and over a dozen more.

Credit Suisse’s Global Strategy team has opined about the markets so far, noting that there has been too much optimism too soon. The team expects solid global industrial production growth overall in 2017, but they warned that the near-term outlook is somewhat troubled and that investor expectations on short-term growth and prospects for U.S. stimulus appear to be overly optimistic. Credit Suisse sees the current strength in global growth as mostly attributable to an ongoing rebound from the commodity-centric slump of 2015. Already high PMIs also appear to have received a boost from new policy expectations for the United States.

The analysts warned about surveys overreacting to political developments, that U.S. tax reform is unlikely to pass soon, and that new uncertainties could create turbulence. Other warnings and risks to growth expectations were cited as border adjustments, a potential disappointment on stimulus, and growth might disrupt the current strong risk appetite in financial markets. Credit Suisse’s base-case forecast does not assume a border adjustment, and it calls for a modest wobble lower in global growth and PMIs in the months ahead, and ultimately for that to be followed by a rebound in the second half of the year.