Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amazon, Gap, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, Time Warner and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: April 20, 2017 8:40 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 12:50 pm

Stocks were indicated to open higher on Thursday after being dragged down on Wednesday. With this bull market now more than eight years old, investors have shown for more than the past five years that they will buy all market pullbacks. Those same investors also still are looking for new trading and investing ideas.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week in an effort to find new ideas for our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

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, April 20, 2017:

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $1,000 from $940 (versus an $899.20 prior close) at Maxim Group. Amazon has a 52-week trading range of $599.20 to $923.72 and a consensus analyst target price of $975.69.

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was raised to Neutral from Underweight with a $24 price target at JPMorgan. The stock closed up 1.2% at $24.22 on Wednesday and was indicated up 1.6% at $24.60 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $17.00 to $30.74, and the consensus target price is $25.12.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $254 target price (versus a $214.09 close) at Atlantic Equities. It has a 52-week range of $138.20 to $255.15 and a consensus analyst price of $250.88.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $67 from $60 (versus a $59.04 close) at Stifel. Starbucks has a 52-week range of $50.84 to $61.10 and a consensus target price of $64.23.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $107 price target at Pivotal Research. Time Warner closed at $100.00 on Wednesday and has a 52-week range of $68.97 to $100.00.

Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

ADTRAN Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTN) was raised to Buy from Hold at Argus.

BJ’s Restaurants Inc. (NASDAQ: BJRI) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the price target was raised to $41 from $31.50 (versus a $41.25 close) at Wedbush.

Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA) was raised to Neutral from Sell with a $30 target price (versus a $28.92 close) at Citigroup.

Lear Corp. (NYSE: LEA) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target is $161 (versus a $136.58 close) at Robert W. Baird.

NanoString Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: NSTG) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $20 target (versus an $18.99 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Nxt-ID Inc. (NASDAQ: NXTD) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $4.25 price target (versus a $1.58 close) at Maxim Group.

Proofpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was lowered to $78 from $92 (versus a $77.62 close) at Robert W. Baird.

Tribune Media Co. (NYSE: TRCO) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) was reiterated as Buy with a $150 price target at Jefferies. The firm noted an EBITDA miss but sees an encouraging 2017 outlook.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included BP, BHP Billiton, Goldman Sachs, Halliburton, IBM, Qualcomm, Rockwell Collins, Sirius XM and many more.