Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Agilent, Carvana, Cloudera, NCS Multistage, Noble Energy, Shopify, Xilinx and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: May 23, 2017 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 11:45 am

Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher on Tuesday despite a deadly terror attack in England. Even with the bull market over eight years old, the reality is that investors have continued to find one reason or another to buy every single major sell-off for more than five years. Those same investors are also 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.

Some additional color and commentary has been added on most of the following daily analyst calls. These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Tuesday, May 23, 2017.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) was last seen up 4% at $58.35 on Tuesday after beating earnings. Janney Capital Markets reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $65 from $60, after noting that this was eight straight earnings beats with better guidance. Jefferies reiterated its Buy rating and raised its Agilent target price to $66 from $59.

Carvana Co. (NYSE: CVNA) was down 2.8% at $11.08 on Monday and was indicated up 2% at $11.21 on Tuesday. Carvana was started as Outperform with a $15 target at Baird, and William Blair started it as Outperform. It was started as Outperform with a $17 target at JMP Securities. Merrill Lynch started it with a Buy rating and $25 price objective, and Citigroup started Carvana with a Buy rating and $17 target. It was started as Outperform with a $19 target at Wells Fargo.

Cloudera Inc. (NYSE: CLDR) was up 4.5% at $20.91 on Monday and was indicated up 2.4% at $21.42 on Tuesday ahead of its quiet period expiration. Cloudera was started as Overweight with a $24 target at JPMorgan, and it was started as Buy with a $25 target at Deutsche Bank.

NCS Multistage Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: NCSM) has seen its quiet period come to an end and shares were down almost 0.4% at $24.00 on Monday, versus a $17 IPO price in late April. The stock was started as Neutral with a $24 target at JPMorgan and as Outperform with a $29 target at RBC. It was started as Overweight with a $28 target at Piper Jaffray. Wells Fargo started NCS Multistage as Outperform and gave a $35 target, and Credit Suisse started it as Outperform with a $27 target.

Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) was assumed with a Buy rating and assigned a $49 price objective (versus a $31.09 prior closing price) at Merrill Lynch. The firm noted its sale of Marcellus midstream assets last week looking fair and that the total asset sales in 2017 are now almost $2 billion and running twice what management targeted.

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) was reinstated as Outperform and assigned a $95 price target (versus an $89.60 close) at Credit Suisse after modeling in a follow-on offering. Shopify was indicated up 1% at $90.50 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $26.35 to $95.88 and with a consensus analyst target price of $90.59.

Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo. Xilinx was up 1.27% at $67.52 on Monday but was indicated down 3.7% at $65.00 early Tuesday. Credit Suisse maintained its Outperform rating but noted that the analyst day presentation was moderately disappointing.

You can follow @JonOgg on Twitter if you want the daily analyst calls and research put directly on your feed.

Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

Atwood Oceanics Inc. (NYSE: ATW) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Aegion Corp. (NASDAQ: AEGN) was raised to Buy from Hold at Craig-Hallum.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ: XRAY) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: DRNA) was started as Buy with a $5 price target (versus a $3.28 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) was started as Market Perform with a $210 price target (versus a $198.82 close) at Wells Fargo.

Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE: EVR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

FNB Corp. (NYSE: FNB) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Helmerich & Payne Inc. (NYSE: HP) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Hub Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HUBG) was started as Neutral with a $37 price target (versus a $34.45 close) at JPMorgan.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT) was started as Overweight with a $107 target price (versus an $84.25 close) at JPMorgan.

On Deck Capital Inc. (NYSE: ONDK) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at FBR Capital Markets.

Orthofix International N.V. (NASDAQ: OFIX) was started as Buy and assigned a $49 price target (versus a $41.73 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Parexel International Corp. (NASDAQ: PRXL) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE: RS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC) was started with a Market Perform rating and assigned a $30 price target (versus a $28.01 close) at Wells Fargo.

Spark Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: SPKE) was reiterated as Buy with a $44 price target (versus a $41.00 close, after a 7.2% gain) at Janney Capital Markets.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) was reiterated as Buy with a $110 price target (versus a $92.92 close) at Jefferies, with the firm noting that the key tenets of its upside thesis are starting to play out, with fashion jewelry inflecting positively and tourism headwinds abating.

Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.

Union Bankshares Corp. (NASDAQ: UBSH) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Merrill Lynch’s strategy team has noted this week that a continued drop in the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield, as well as developing head-and-shoulders top across financial stocks, and higher percentage of S&P 500 stocks hitting new 52-week lows, are all posing risks to the U.S. equity market.

Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Blackstone, Ciena, Cree, Finish Line, Motorola Solutions, Qualcomm and over a dozen more.