Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: American Express, Amgen, Encana, Gilead, Tesla and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: March 9, 2017 8:45 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 2:08 pm

Stocks were indicated lower on Thursday ahead of Friday’s key payrolls and unemployment report. The European Central Bank maintained rates at 0.00%. Now that the bull market is officially eight years old, the trend that remains is that investors have an appetite for stocks and will buy any serious pullback. Those same investors are looking for new ideas and overlooked opportunities.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Some color has been added on many of the following calls, and the consensus analyst price targets referenced are from Thomson Reuters. These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Thursday, March 9, 2017:

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was maintained as Underperform at Credit Suisse after its investors day. Merrill Lynch maintained its Buy rating and $94 price objective. Jefferies maintained its Hold rating with a $75 price target. Shares closed down 0.7% at $79.04 the prior day, and they have a 52-week trading range of $57.15 to $82.00. The consensus analyst price target is $81.00.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) was started as Neutral with a $185 price target (versus a $177.78 prior close) at UBS. It has a 52-week range of $133.64 to $180.53 and consensus analyst target of $186.13.

Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $14 price target (versus a $10.52 close) at Canaccord Genuity. The 52-week range is $5.17 to $13.85, and the consensus price target is $14.95.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was started as Neutral and assigned a $72 price target (versus a $69.70 close) at UBS. Gilead has a 52-week range of $65.38 to $103.10 and a consensus price target of $81.10.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was started with a Market Perform rating and assigned a $250 price target (versus a $248.59 close) at Bernstein. It has a 52-week range of $178.19 to $287.39 and a consensus price target of $244.38.

Jefferies has identified the top Dividend Aristocrats growing revenues 10% per year.

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Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

AMEC Foster Wheeler PLC (NYSE: AMFW) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was started with a Sell rating and assigned a $260 price target (versus a $291.10 close) at UBS.

Callon Petroleum Co. (NYSE: CPE) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (NYSE: CNQ) was started as Buy with a $47 price target (versus a $29.22 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $140 price target (versus a $122.08 close) at UBS.

Embraer S.A. (NYSE: ERJ) was reiterated as Buy with a $27 target on its American depositary shares (versus a $23.76 close) at Merrill Lynch. The call was after the Brazilian plane-maker beat earnings and gave stronger than expected revenue guidance for 2017.

Guess Inc. (NYSE: GES) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Mizuho.

Mercury Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY) was started as Overweight and the price target was set at $48 (versus a $37.37 close) at JPMorgan.

Orbital ATK Inc. (NYSE: OA) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $108 price target (versus a $96.82 close) at Cowen.

Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $71 from $65 (versus a $59.99 close) at Jefferies.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) was started as Buy with a $435 price target (versus a $381.37 close) at UBS.

Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU) was started as Buy with a $52 price target (versus a $30.00 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

Tech Data Corp. (NASDAQ: TECD) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $107 price target (versus an $89.87 close) at Needham.

Telefonica S.A. (NYSE: TEF) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) was last seen trading higher after it reportedly has been raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs. Investors should use caution here on the reversal because Goldman Sachs had cut its rating to Sell from Neutral back on January 19.

Travelport Worldwide Ltd. (NYSE: TVPT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target price was cut to $13 from $18 (versus a $12.10 close) at UBS.

Jefferies has increased its expectations for inflation. The firm said that the U.S. inflation picture has escalated in relatively short period from dormant to a state of “semi-perkiness” and its is calling for the Consumer Price Index to peak at 3.2% in the third quarter and hover near 3% thereafter. The firm warned that higher inflation has not been a good thing in the past for equity markets, as performance generally weakens as inflation rises. A faster pace of rising inflation could bring about more rate hikes, which also weakens returns.