Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Best Buy, Caterpillar, Nokia, UnitedHealth, Wal-Mart and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: February 7, 2017 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:06 pm

Stocks were indicated higher on Tuesday, and the Dow is now up over 20,000 again. Even though the bull market is nearing eight years old, investors keep finding new reasons to buy each and every sell-off. Investors also are looking for new and overlooked opportunities. The Dow has hit 20,000, and there is a path for DJIA 21,422 later in 2017 or in 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 analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid.

Most of the following featured 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, February 7, 2017:

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) was started as Underperform and assigned a $34 price target (versus a $43.96 prior closing price) at Bernstein. Best Buy has a 52-week trading range of $26.10 to $49.40 and a consensus analyst price target of $45.45.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $110 price target (versus a $92.87 close) at Barclays. Caterpillar has a 52-week range of $60.51 to $99.46, with a consensus price target of $92.91.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. The target was in euros but indicated 25% upside when converting to dollars for the American depositary shares. Nokia closed down 1.7% at $4.75 on Monday and was indicated up almost 3% at $4.87 on Tuesday. Nokia has a 52-week range of $4.04 to $6.31 and a $5.58 consensus price target.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was started as Overweight and assigned a $200 price target (versus a $160.51 prior close) at Cantor Fitzgerald. UnitedHealth has a 52-week range of $109.14 to $164.00 and a consensus price target of $184.14.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was started as Market Perform and assigned a $75 price target (versus a $66.40 prior close) at Bernstein. Wal-Mart Stores has a 52-week range of $62.35 to $75.19, and it has a $74.04 consensus analyst target.

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Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

Athersys Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHX) was started with a Buy rating and with a $7 price target at Needham.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) was started as Overweight with a $110 price target (versus an $88.74 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Capstead Mortgage Corp. (NYSE: CMO) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $91 price target (versus a $72.26 closing price) at Bernstein.

Newell Brands Inc. (NYSE: NWL) was reiterated as Buy but the price target was cut to $61 from $63 (versus a $44.23 close) at Jefferies.

Parker-Hannifin Corp. (NYSE: PH) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $176 price target at Argus.

PetroChina Co. Ltd. (NYSE: PTR) was reinstated with a Buy rating at Merrill Lynch.

Sysco Corp. (NYSE: SYY) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. Credit Suisse also raised Sysco to Outperform from Neutral and noted that the sell-off is an opportunity to own a blue-chip company in an attractive industry.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $77 price target (versus a $63.42 close) at Bernstein.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: NYSE: TIF) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at HSBC.

ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch.

W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE: GRA) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $85 from $76 (versus a $71.00 prior close) at Robert W. Baird.

Credit Suisse is sticking with its Overweight rating for the financial sector. It feels that banks, diversified financials, and insurance will win from higher rates and that valuations that still look reasonable or attractive with strong earnings momentum and favorable trends in funds flows. The sector is said to remain under-invested as well.

Monday’s top analyst calls included Barracuda Networks, Cabot Oil & Gas, Calpine, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, NVIDIA, U.S. Steel and over a dozen more.