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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Adobe, AMD, Angie's List, Enbridge, Noble Energy and More
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Stocks were looking for direction on Tuesday after a mixed bag on Monday. The bull market is now more than eight years old and investors have bought every single market sell-off for more than five years. 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. Our goal is to find new investing ideas and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
Some color has been added on many of the following calls, and references to consensus analyst price targets are from Thomson Reuters. These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls on Tuesday, May 2, 2017.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) was up 2.4% at $13.61 ahead of earnings but was light on estimates with a slight loss for the quarter. AMD was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Macquarie. Jefferies maintained its Buy rating and $16 target, noting that the double-digit percentage drop looks like an overshoot for a robust product cycle and gross margin expansion cycle. Credit Suisse maintained its Neutral rating while raising estimates.
Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $155 price target (versus a $135.11 prior closing price) at Barclays.
Angie’s List Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI) was last seen trading up 57% at $9.25 on Tuesday on news that it is combining with IAC’s HomeAdvisor in a deal that valued Angie’s List at just over $500 million. Angie’s List was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Loop Capital after the announcement. Jefferies said it is positive on the deal as it positions IAC as the premier player in the home services marketplace.
Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) was started as Equal Weight with a $45 price target (versus a $41.09 close) at Morgan Stanley. Enbridge has a 52-week trading range of $38.40 to $45.77 and a consensus analyst price target of $46.38.
Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $40 price target (versus a $32.30 close) at Evercore ISI. The 52-week range is $31.87 to $42.03, and the consensus price target is $46.50.
24/7 Wall St. has featured eight defensive stocks ahead of the summer of 2017 that would be the go-to stocks to withstand a summer sell-off if some of the eight-year bullish bias starts to thin out.
Investors often find out the hard way that “value stocks” are really value traps. See our review of the 21 stocks of the S&P 500 Index valued at less than 10 times expected earnings (versus about 18 times for the S&P 500 itself).
Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:
C&J Energy Services Inc. (NYSE: CJ) was reinstated with an Outperform rating and assigned a target price of $37 (versus a $29.13 close) at Credit Suisse.
Cogent Communications Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CCOI) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $46 price target (versus a $44.95 close) at Cowen.
Credit Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ: CACC) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Janney. The firm noted that the company beat earnings expectations but said the fundamentals look mixed even if there is no smoking gun that would indicate an imminent fall in its near-term fundamentals.
Elevate Credit Inc. (NYSE: ELVT) was down 3% at $8.00 on Monday as the quiet period got off to a slow start, and more calls have now been seen on Tuesday. Credit Suisse started Elevate with an Outperform rating and $11 price target, seeing Elevate as being well positioned in small dollar lending. Jefferies started it with a Buy rating and gave it a $12 target.
Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: GBT) was started as Buy with a $37 price target (versus a $30.75 close) at Janney.
Madison Square Garden Co. (NYSE: MSG) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $243 price objective (versus a $202.33 close) at Merrill Lynch.
Meredith Corp. (NYSE: MDP) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.
Okta Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) has seen its quiet period come to an end, and shares closed down 2% at $25.52 ahead of the mixed analyst initiations. Okta was started as Hold with a $25 price target at Canaccord Genuity. Okta was started as Neutral with a $22 price target at Goldman Sachs. Okta was started as Overweight with a $32 target at Pacific Crest, and JPMorgan assigned Okta an Overweight rating and $33 target.
Radius Health Inc. (NASDAQ: RDUS) was downgraded to Market Perform from outperform at Cowen.
Rudolph Technologies Inc. (NYSE: RTEC) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse. The firm said that it actually likes the company, but not its current valuations.
Seaspan Corp. (NYSE: SSW) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup.
Other key analyst calls with reiterations or price target changes worth noting:
- Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: EEP) was reiterated as Underperform with an $18 price objective (versus a $19.35 close) at Merrill Lynch.
- Oppenheimer raised its targets on Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) to $78 from $77, and it raised the target price on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) to $268 from $262.
- Wedbush reiterated its Outperform and $30 target (versus a $24.02 close) on Wolverine World Wide Inc. (NYSE: WWW) as its operating model improves.
Monday’s top analyst calls included Energy Transfer Equity, First Solar, L3 Technologies, Regions Financial, Western Digital and over a dozen more.
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