Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Agilent, Apple, Citigroup, Exxon, M&T Bank, Snap, Toyota, Twitter and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: July 11, 2017 9:05 am

Last Updated: March 20, 2020 11:09 am

Stocks were marginally lower on Tuesday morning, but the major indexes all remain within striking distance of their all-time highs. Now that the bull market is over eight years old, equity investors keep demonstrating that they will buy stocks on any major pullback or sell-off. Those same investors continue to search for new investing and trading ideas.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

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

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Tuesday, July 11, 2017.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $75 from $70 (versus a $59.86 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. Agilent has a 52-week trading range of $42.92 to $61.15, and it had a consensus analyst price target of $64.11.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Hold with a $132 price target at Deutsche Bank. The firm has already been cautious on Apple ahead of Tuesday’s call, but the big difference is that Deutsche Bank called the upcoming iPhone 8 a regular upgrade cycle rather than a super-cycle that has been referred to at other firms. Deutsche Bank’s target includes the expectation of 230 million iPhone units shipped for fiscal 2018, versus the consensus estimate of around 244 million units.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was started with a Hold rating and assigned a $71 price target (versus a $67.65 close) at HSBC. It has a 52-week range of $42.50 to $68.91 and a consensus target price of $66.19.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and was given a $94 price target at Barclays. Exxon closed down six cents at $80.16 on Monday and was indicated up 30 cents at $80.46 on Tuesday morning. Its 52-week range is $79.26 to $95.55 and the consensus target price was last seen at $85.98.

M&T Bank Corp (NYSE: MTB) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies, and the price target was raised to $186 from $174 (versus a $164.36 close). The firm expects a beat-and-raise quarter for earnings and guidance and it expects positive earnings expectations ahead by analysts.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the price target was slashed to $16 from $28 at Morgan Stanley, with the firm citing underperforming advertising, competition and weak user data. It was just on Monday that Snap was maintained as Outperform at Credit Suisse, but the firm lowered its target price to $25 from $30 based on continued near-term monetization headwinds. Snap shares were indicated down 4% at $16.30 on Tuesday, after closing down 1.1% at $16.99 on Monday. Monday’s pre-move post-IPO range had been $17.00 to $29.44, but the stock hit a post-IPO low of $16.95 on Monday and was indicated far lower on Tuesday.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch. Toyota’s American depositary shares closed down 0.2% at $108.22 on Monday, and they were down just four cents more in Tuesday’s early trading indications.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was maintained as Hold but the price target was raised to $17 from $15 (versus an $18.08 close) at Pivotal Research. Twitter has a 52-week range of $14.12 to $25.25 and a consensus target price of $15.02.

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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:

Agco Corp. (NYSE: AGCO) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at William Blair.

Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) was reiterated as Buy with a $160 price target (versus a $132.56 close) at Jefferies, with the firm noting it is the best large-cap growth name to see money flow as biotech continues its repair.

Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Cheesecake Factory Inc. (NASDAQ: CAKE) was started as Outperform with a $57 price target (versus a $49.63 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm views the recent pullback as having created an attractive entry point. Wedbush also expects a resumption in fundamental outperformance relative to casual dining peers in the second half of 2017 to drive valuation expansion.

Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $59 price target (versus a $47.57 close) at MKM Partners. Coach has a 52-week range of $34.07 to $47.87.

Flexion Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: FLXN) was reiterated as Buy but the fair value estimate was raised to $35 from $30 (versus a $21.23 close) at Janney. This was after Flexion’s investor day focused on the launch preparation and early commercial expectations for Zilretta (a long-acting intra-articular steroid injection for the treatment of pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee) with an October 6 PDUFA date.

Graphic Packaging Holding Co. (NYSE: GPK) was started with a Buy rating and was given a $17.50 price target at D.A. Davidson.

Great Plains Energy Inc. (NYSE: GXP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Insmed Inc. (NASDAQ: INSM) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $23 price target (versus a $16.80 close) at Robert W. Baird.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) was started with a Sell rating and assigned a $26 price target (versus a $35.89 close) at MKM Partners. Shares were indicated down 1.5% at $35.35 on Tuesday.

Murphy Oil Corp. (NYSE: MUR) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

National Bank Holdings Corp. (NYSE: NBHC) was started with a Neutral rating and was given a $35 target price (versus a $33.78 close) at Piper Jaffray.

Patterson Companies Inc. (NASDAQ: PDCO) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS.

STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: TTPH) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $15 price target (versus a $6.88 close, after a 4.2% drop) at H.C. Wainwright.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) was reiterated as Buy with a $155 target price (versus a $130.35 close) at Jefferies.

Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in Boeing, Costco, Intel, KeyCorp, NVIDIA, PayPal, Snap and many more.