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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Facebook, First Solar, Garmin, HollyFrontier, Regions Financial, Square and More
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Stocks were indicated higher ahead of an expected health care vote on Thursday. The bull market is now more than eight years old, and the one trend that has held up is that investors have managed to find reasons to buy every single market sell-off for more than five years now. Those same investors are also still looking for new trading and investing ideas.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls on Thursday, May 4, 2017.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was down 0.6% at $151.80 ahead of earnings and shares were down 0.7% at $150.65 on Thursday morning afterward. Oppenheimer reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $170. Jefferies reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $192 from $175. Wedbush Securities reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $185 from $175.
First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch. First Solar closed up almost 12% at $33.91 after earnings and was indicated up another 2.5%. On Wednesday we questioned whether analysts were becoming too optimistic based on close to a 40% and nose-bleed valuations. First Solar has a 52-week trading range of $25.56 to $52.60.
Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. Shares closed down 1.1% at $50.68 on Wednesday, but no volume had traded early in Thursday’s premarket session. Garmin has a 52-week range of $39.24 to $56.19.
HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse, a day after it fell 4.1% to $27.18. HollyFrontier has a 52-week range of $22.07 to $34.78 and a consensus analyst price target of $32.17.
Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $17 price objective (versus a $14.12 prior close, and Regions was indicated up another 1.5% at $14.34) at Merrill Lynch. The 52-week range is $7.80 to $16.03 and the consensus price target was $14.93.
Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was down 2.8% at $18.28 ahead of earnings but was indicated up 4.3% at $19.07 on Thursday morning. Square was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim. The 52-week range is $8.42 to $19.03, and the consensus price target is $18.00.
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Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:
Aerohive Networks Inc. (NYSE: HIVE) was raised to Buy from Hold at Wunderlich.
Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.
Carlyle Group L.P. (NASDAQ: CG) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
Delphi Automotive PLC (NYSE: DLPH) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch, and Jefferies reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $106 from $100.
Fogo de Chao Inc. (NASDAQ: FOGO) was raised to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity.
Holly Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: HEP) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $36 price objective (versus a $36.12 prior close) at Merrill Lynch.
Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at Atlantic Equities.
Magellan Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: MMP) was raised to Neutral from Underperform with an $84 price target (versus a $73.51 close) at Credit Suisse.
Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Soc-Gen.
24/7 Wall St.National Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: FIZZ) was started with a Sell rating and assigned a $33 price target (versus a $91.00 close) at Maxim Group.
Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Atlantic Equities.
Olympic Steel Inc. (NASDAQ: ZEUS) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets, a day after Olympic Steel fell almost 6% to $20.31.
Spirit Realty Capital Inc. (NYSE: SRC) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Mizuho, and Janney cut its rating down to Neutral from Buy. This REIT was down 3.6% at $8.92 ahead of earnings and was indicated down over 14% at $7.65 afterward.
24/7 Wall St.Sysco Corp. (NYSE: SYY) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.
Tractor Supply Co. (NASDAQ: TSCO) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Anadarko, Apple, Charter Communications, FireEye, First Solar, Frontier Communications and over a dozen more.
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