Stocks were indicated to open higher, with the Dow up almost 100 points on strong earnings. Indexes remain very close to all-time highs, and this bull market in now more than eight years old. The one constant, despite the logic or reason differing each time, is that investors are buying the major indexes and their favorite stocks after every single market sell-off. Those same investors are also searching 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 analyst reports cover stocks to buy and some cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
Additional color and commentary also has been added on most of the daily analyst calls. Consensus analyst price target data are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.
These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Tuesday, July 25, 2017.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained with an Outperform rating and its $170 price target also was maintained at Credit Suisse. The firm does note that Apple’s supply chain is tight and the firm did formally lower some of its near-term iPhone sales expectations. Still, it also sees pent-up demand and many iPhone buyers going up to the higher priced models. Apple has a 52-week trading range of $96.42 to $156.65 and a consensus analyst price target of $160.18.
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Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $66 target price (versus a $62.02 prior close) at Stifel. It has a 52-week range of $47.26 to $81.81 and a consensus price target of $61.20. Lululemon shares were indicated down almost 1% after the call on Tuesday morning.
Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $49 price target (versus a $43.75 close) at Piper Jaffray. The 52-week range is $40.50 to $47.23 and the consensus price target is $50.08. Its shares were indicated up 0.7% at $44.05 after this call.
Tintri Inc. (NASDAQ: TNTR) has seen its quiet period come to an end and shares were indicated up 7% at $7.45 on Tuesday morning, versus a post-IPO range of $6.53 to $12.15. It was started as Buy at Merrill Lynch with a $16 price objective. Morgan Stanley gave it an Overweight rating and $10 target. Tintri was started as Overweight with a $9 price target at KeyBanc Capital Markets. It was started as Outperform with a $9 price target at Raymond James. Tintri was started as Neutral with an $8.50 target price at Piper Jaffray.
Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UAA) was downgraded to Sell from Hold with a $17 target price (versus a $20.27 close) at Deutsche Bank. The shares were last seen down 2.6% at $19.75 after Deutsche Bank cut its rating. Under Armour’s 52-week range is $18.35 to $44.68 and the consensus analyst target was down to $21.57.
Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ: YNDX) was reiterated as Outperform and the American depositary share price target was raised to $37 from $32 (versus a $31.84 prior close) at Credit Suisse. The call is after a deep dive review into taxi valuations after its Uber-Russia deal. Yandex was indicated up 0.5% at $31.99, in a 52-week trading range of $17.28 to $32.44 and with a prior consensus analyst target price of $30.40.
Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations were seen as follows:
Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $56 price target (versus a $47.56 close) at Deutsche Bank.
Byline Bancorp Inc. (NYSE: BY) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $25 price objective at Merrill Lynch. The firm sees Byline as transitioning to a growth story with a high-quality deposit base and an improving return profile.
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $124 from $115 at Argus, and this is on the firm’s Focus List.
DSW Inc. (NYSE: DSW) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $21 price target (versus a $16.48 close) at Deutsche Bank.
e.l.f. Beauty Inc. (NYSE: ELF) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $30 target price (versus a $25.40 close) at Citigroup.
Gladstone Commercial Corp. (NASDAQ: GOOD) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $24 price target (versus a $20.27 close) at D.A. Davidson. Gladstone Commercial is one of the real estate investment trusts with a 7% yield as well, and its 52-week range is $16.02 to $23.35.
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $170 from $155 at Jefferies.
Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $60 from $57 at Argus, noting that the boost is on Lennar’s higher earnings.
Power Integrations Inc. (NASDAQ: POWI) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: RYAAY) was raised to Buy from Hold at HSBC and the price target (in euros) was raised to €19.50 from €10.00, noting an established track record of underpromising on guidance and overdelivering on results. At $111.50 for its American depositary shares, Ryainair’s 52-week range is $67.56 to $115.97.
Werner Enterprises Inc. (NASDAQ: WERN) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch, and the price objective was raised to $32 from $30 based on its truckload utilization and rates scaling positive.
Wedbush Securities has raised its price targets on the three major cruise lines due to strong industry pricing: price target for Royal Caribbean is up from $117 to $125, and it remains on the Wedbush Best Ideas List; price target for Norwegian is up from $61 to $65; and its price target for Carnival is up from $66 to $67.
Despite the market getting expensive at all-time highs, there are five multiple analyst picks for safety among blue chips.
Oppenheimer has dropped coverage on shares of Office Depot, Pier 1, Staples and JC Penney.
Monday’s top analyst calls included Blue Apron, Boston Beer, Caterpillar, Goldman Sachs, Honeywell, Xerox and many more.
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