[cnxvideo id=”655354″ placement=”ros”]Stocks were mixed on Friday despite a stronger than expected payrolls report. There are also six different Fed presidents or governors speaking on Friday, including Janet Yellen and Stanley Fischer. Now that the bull market is now more than eight years old and investors have bought every single pullback, investors are 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 ideas 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 Friday, May 5, 2017.
Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus. It was up 0.8% at $124.46 on Thursday, versus a 0.4% drop to $123.91 in Friday’s early indications. Celgene has a 52-week trading range of $94.42 to $127.64.
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Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $57 price target (versus a $40.00 prior close, after a 5% drop) at Credit Suisse. Continental Resources has a 52-week range of $37.98 to $60.30.
Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo. It closed down 2.2% at $45.84 on Thursday but was indicated up 0.6% at $46.13 on Friday morning.
Renewable Energy Group Inc. (NASDAQ: REGI) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $16 price target (versus a $10.15 close) at Canaccord Genuity. The 52-week range is $7.90 to $10.65, and the consensus analyst price target was $12.33.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo. Shares closed up 0.2% at $52.31 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $38.48 to $56.61. The consensus price target is $54.46.
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) was last seen up almost 10% at $3.12 after post-earnings indications. Merrill Lynch raised its rating to Neutral from Underperform. It was reiterated as Outperform with a $4.25 price target at Wedbush Securities.
Other key analyst calls from this Friday were seen in shares of the following companies:
Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird.
Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A./N.V. (NYSE: BUD) was reiterated as Buy and the American depositary share price target was raised to $132 from $120 at Jefferies.
Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Soc-Gen.
IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim.
Maximus Inc. (NYSE: MMS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $63 from $64 (versus a $61.39 close) at Jefferies.
Mindbody Inc. (NASDAQ: MB) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at Pacific Crest.
National CineMedia Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform by FBR Capital Markets, and JPMorgan lowered its rating to Neutral from Overweight.
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: NBIX) was started as Buy and assigned a price target of $70 (versus a $53.63 close) at Merrill Lynch.
Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Regal-Beloit Corp. (NYSE: RBC) was raised to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) was raised to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity, and Oppenheimer maintained a Perform rating but talked up the company. Shares were up 6.7% at $434.31 on Thursday and were indicated up almost 1% more on Friday morning.
Speedway Motorsports Inc. (NYSE: TRK) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Macquarie.
Stericycle Inc. (NASDAQ: SRCL) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $73 price target at Robert W. Baird.
Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE: TRGP) was down 11% at $48.91 on Thursday but was indicated up 0.5% at $49.14 on Friday. Targa was raised to Strong Buy from an already positive Outperform at Raymond James, and the price target is $55.
Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie.
Viavi Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAV) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $14 from $9.50 (versus a $10.86 close) at Jefferies.
Yum China Holdings Inc. (NYSE: YUMC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs. The stock was down 1.6% at $34.50 on Thursday’s close, in a 52-week range of $23.79 to $35.57.
Thursday’s top analyst calls included Facebook, First Solar, Garmin, HollyFrontier, Regions Financial, Square and over a dozen more companies.
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