Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Altice USA, CVS Health, Exxon, Lowe's, T-Mobile, Sprint, Under Armour and More

Investing

Published: November 7, 2017 9:05 am

Last Updated: March 20, 2020 11:25 am

Stocks closed marginally higher on Monday and were looking for direction on Tuesday. The bull market may be nine years old and stocks may be right at all-time highs, but the one trend that keeps winning is that investors find new reasons to buy stocks after every sell-off. Those same investors are also looking for new investing and trading ideas to generate gains and income ahead.

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 and research notes cover stocks to buy. Others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

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

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Tuesday, November 7, 2017.

Altice USA Inc. (NYSE: ATUS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $31 price target (versus a $23.91 prior close) at Goldman Sachs. The stock was up almost 6% on Monday, and its shares were up 2.2% at $24.40 on Tuesday morning. Its post-IPO trading range is $20.66 to $35.29, and the consensus analyst target price was last seen at $35.08.

CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) was maintained as Outperform and the price target was cut to $85 from $90 (versus a $66.80 close, after a 3.5% drop) at Leerink Swann. Jefferies maintained its Hold rating and trimmed its target down to $76 from $86. CVS was indicated up 0.3% at $66.96 on Tuesday, in a 52-week trading range of $66.45 to $84.72.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was downgraded to Reduce from Hold at HSBC. It was up 0.7% at $83.75 on Monday and was indicated down 0.2% at $83.60 on Tuesday. The oil giant has a consensus target price of $83.93 and a 52-week range of $76.05 to $93.22.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) was started as Overweight with a $98 price target (versus a $77.41 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Lowe’s shares were indicated up 1.1% at $78.25 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $64.87 to $86.25 and with a consensus target price of $84.73.

T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) were both down big on Monday after the merger talks have been formally called off. Jefferies maintained its Buy rating on T-Mobile, and while it maintained an Underperform rating on Sprint, it cut the price target to $4.50 from $5.50.

Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UAA) was raised to Neutral from Negative at Susquehanna, noting that the negativity may have peaked. Shares closed up 3.5% at $12.02 on Monday and were indicated up almost 2% more at $12.25 on Tuesday. Under Armour has a 52-week range of $11.40 to $33.45, and the consensus price target is $18.07.

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Other key analyst calls were seen as follows:

Altaba Inc. (NASDAQ: AABA) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $99 from $75 at Oppenheimer. Altaba closed up 2.1% at $71.71 on Monday, and the stock was indicated up 0.3% at $71.95 on Tuesday.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (NYSE: BAH) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $44 from $36 (versus a $36.60 close) at Jefferies.

Consol Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) was reiterated as Buy with a $20 target price (versus $16.27 close) at Jefferies. The firm called Consol a cheap gas exposure with coal upside, and the firm said that it remains the top pick for gas leverage within its E&P coverage universe.

Endocyte Inc. (NASDAQ: ECYT) was reiterated as Outperform with a $7 price target (versus a $4.84 close) at Wedbush Securities.

Finisar Inc. (NASDAQ: FNSR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $53 from $50 at Oppenheimer. Jefferies reiterated its Buy rating and the price target was raised to $58 from $55.

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) was started as Sector Weight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

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Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) was started as Neutral with a $58 price target (versus a $54.90 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Nektar Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: NKTR) was started as Outperform at Cowen.

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPR) was started as Buy and given a $100 price target (versus an $83.22 close) at Berenberg.

Teligent Inc. (NASDAQ: TLGT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord Genuity. The stock was down 36% at $3.35 a share after a profit miss was met with lower earnings guidance.

Veracyte Inc. (NASDAQ: VCYT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $9 fair value estimate (versus an $8.26 close) at Janney.

Jefferies has identified five beneficiaries of the Trump tax plan.

Monday’s top analyst calls were in Apple, Broadcom, CarGurus, Cree, Rigel, T-Mobile, Sprint, Twitter, Weatherford and more.

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