Stocks were looking for direction again on Thursday, very similar to Wednesday despite a slightly higher gain. The markets are awaiting the Comey testimony, although the prepared remarks released on Wednesday helped bolster the markets. The bull market may now be over eight years old, but one trend that has thrived for more than five years, without fail and for different reasons at each turn, is that investors will buy every serious stock market sell-off. Investors also are looking for new investing and trading ideas.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning 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. Other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid.

The consensus analyst price target data are the mean of the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service. Additional color and commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst calls.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Thursday, June 8, 2017.

Albany Molecular Research Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRI) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies, which noted that the risks and reward dynamics have shifted. UBS took the other side of the call, raising its rating to Buy from Neutral.

Carlyle Group L.P. (NASDAQ: CG) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Commercial Metals Co. (NYSE: CMC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) was maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $14.50 from $16.00 (versus an $11.72 prior close) at Jefferies.

Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) was started as Neutral with a $35 price target at Mizuho.

Juno Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at BTIG Research. Juno shares closed down almost 2% at $23.73 on Wednesday and were indicated down 4.7% at $22.60 on Thursday.

Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE) was raised to Buy from Neutral at BTIG Research. Jefferies reiterated its Buy rating. The stock closed up 7% at $82.10 on Wednesday and was indicated up almost 3% more at $84.50 on Thursday.

Lear Corp. (NYSE: LEA) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

MuleSoft Inc. (NYSE: MULE) was started as Perform at Oppenheimer.

Oasis Petroleum (NYSE: OAS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $13 price target (versus a $9.06 close) at UBS.

Patheon N.V. (NYSE: PTHN) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan. It also was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Sherwin-Williams Co. (NYSE: SHW) was started with a Buy rating and a $403 price target (versus a $340 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (SIX) was reiterated as Outperform with a $70 price target (versus a $59.65 close) at Wedbush. The call highlighted a larger addressable market here and abroad that could generate accelerated growth in the years ahead.

T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) was started with a Buy rating and given an $80 target price (versus a $65.92 close) at Drexel Hamilton.

Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) was started as Buy and given a $71 price target (versus a $60.47 close) at Mizuho.

W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE: GRA) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Check Point Software, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo, UnitedHealth and many more.

You can follow @Jonogg on Twitter if you want analyst calls and research notes directly on your own feed.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.