Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alcoa, Altria, Ford, GoPro, NVIDIA, International Paper, Transocean and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: February 3, 2017 9:15 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:11 pm

Stocks have seen big swings in a mixed week. There was a dovish Fed meeting that gave no directional bias on rates, and now we have a much stronger than expected payrolls report. Stocks were indicated higher on Friday by 100 DJIA points and higher by 10 S&P 500 points. Despite this bull market being eight years old, investors keep finding new reasons to buy every sell-off. Those same investors are also looking for new and overlooked opportunities.

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 analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid. Most of these featured 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 DJIA 21,422 later in 2017 or in early 2018. These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Friday, February 3, 2017:

Alcoa Corp. (NYSE: AA) was raised to Buy from Underperform and the price objective was raised to $45 from $35 at Merrill Lynch. Alcoa’s consensus price target is $35.06 and the 52-week trading range is $20.00 to $38.94.

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $79 from $73 at Argus. On the other side of the coin, Altria was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Berenberg. Altria’s last closing price was $71.45 and the consensus price target was at $71.55.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $15 from $13 at Barclays. Ford closed down 0.3% at $12.28 and was indicated up 0.9% at $12.39 on Friday. Ford’s consensus analyst target price is $13.09 and it has a 52-week range of $11.07 to $14.22.

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform and the price target was cut to $6 from $10 at Raymond James. GoPro closed up almost 4% at $10.97 on Thursday and was indicated down 13% at $9.53 on Friday after its earnings report was a dud. GoPro has a 52-week range of $8.54 to $17.68.

International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $59 price target (versus a $53.35 prior closing price after a 5.6% drop) by D.A. Davidson. International Paper has a consensus target price of $56.20, and it has a 52-week range of $32.86 to $58.86.

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was started with an Underperform rating and the graphics-chip maker was assigned a price target of $115 (versus a $115.39 close) at CLSA. While this rating sounds ugly, keep in mind that NVIDIA has more than tripled from last year’s lows. NVIDIA has a 52-week range of $24.75 to $119.93, and it has a consensus analyst target price of $100.00.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse. It was just yesterday that Transocean was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. Transocean closed down 1.8% at $13.74 on Thursday but was indicated up 1.5% at $13.95 on Friday. The consensus analyst target price is $12.85, and the 52-week trading range is $7.67 to $16.66.

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Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

AmeriGas Partners L.P. (NYSE: APU) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch, but the cut was largely on valuation.

Array BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: ARRY) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a $10 price target (versus a $10.87 close) at JPMorgan.

Celanese Corp. (NYSE: CE) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) was down 5.2% at $39.17 on Thursday after cutting its trading prices. Schwab was reiterated as Outperform at Credit Suisse but they did trim the price target to $44 from $45. Merrill Lynch reiterated its Buy rating as well with a $47 price objective, based on an outlook of healthy growth and upside from higher interest rates and higher margins.

Clovis Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: CLVS) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Chardan Capital.

Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was cut to $70 from $75 at JPMorgan. Credit Suisse maintained its Outperform rating and raised its target price to $77 from $75.

Ensco PLC (NYSE: ESV) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight and the price target was raised to $10 from $5.50 at Barclays. Fiat Chrysler was indicated up 0.9% at $11.00 on Friday.

Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and the price objective was raised to $36 from $27 at JPMorgan. Credit Suisse maintained its Neutral rating but raised its target price to $36 from $30.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Magellan Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: MMP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) was reiterated as Outperform with a $59 price target (versus a $41.81 close) at Credit Suisse. The firm sees more conviction that Monster’s sales have geared up for reacceleration in 2017 after a year in transition to the Coke system.

NuSTAR Energy L.P. (NYSE: NS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Paylocity Corp. (NASDAQ: PCTY) was raised to Buy from Underperform and the price objective was raised to $40 from $37 at Merrill Lynch. The firm noted that the ACA headwind risk has faded and it will improve profit and with a discounted valuation. Paylocity shares were indicated up 10.7% at $33.12 after its earnings reaction.

Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray, a day after Ralph Lauren shares fell 12.3% to $76.61 and after hitting a 52-week low of $76.18.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $48 price target at Credit Suisse. Merrill Lynch reiterated its Buy rating and said that the move lower on Thursday was an overreaction and that this creates an attractive entry point. Thursday’s drop was 9.5% to $41.70, but shares were indicated up 2.2% at $42.64 on Friday.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Acacia, Facebook, Lululemon, Shutterfly, Transocean, United Rentals, Urban Outfitters and over a dozen more.