Investing

7 Stocks Scoring Multiple Analyst Upgrades and Target Price Hikes

Jon C. Ogg

Published: January 3, 2018 3:20 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:53 am

24/7 Wall St. covers dozens of analyst reports on most trading days. The reality is that many calls are maintenance calls or tweaking of expectations, but there are some instances when either large impact calls are made or where multiple analysts are raising target prices on key stocks all within a very short time.

With the market strength of 2017 continuing at least so far in 2018, on the heels of tax reform and acceleration in gross domestic product and in earnings, there were numerous companies seeing analyst upgrades or price target hikes. Not all the stocks have responded with big gains, but some have.

Here are seven stocks that have seen multiple positive analyst calls in a very short period.

Alliance Data Systems Corp. (NYSE: ADS) saw its shares rise almost 2% to $260.25 on Wednesday to within about 2% to 3% of a new high. Barclays raised its rating to Overweight from Equal Weight, and the firm raised its price target to $310 from $265. ADS also saw Deutsche Bank reiterate its Buy rating and boost its own price target to $298 from $278.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) managed to have a solid 2017, and analysts continue to shed their negative views. Deutsche Bank started Amex with a Buy rating on Wednesday. Also jumping in the price hike game were Instinet (to $110 from $95) and Oppenheimer (to $117 from $99). Shares of American Express were last seen up 0.6% at $99.55 late on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $74.82 to $100.53.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is a tax reform winner and is expected to do better with higher interest rates and lower regulation ahead. 24/7 Wall St. tracked four different target hikes since the start of 2017: Barclays to $35 from $28, Bernstein to $34 from $32, Instinet to $37 from $30 and Oppenheimer to $34 from $31. Unfortunately for shareholders, the stock was down 0.5% at $29.76 late on Wednesday.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) saw three price targets get hiked on Wednesday: Barclays (to $93 from $76‍), Instinet (to $86 from $84) and Oppenheimer (to $89 from $83). Citigroup shares were last seen trading up 0.35% at $74.62 late on Wednesday. Its 52-week trading range is $55.23 to $77.92, and the shares hit a high of just $74.36 earlier on Wednesday.

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E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) has risen after expanding bitcoin futures trading, and Morgan Stanley raised its rating to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised its target price to $63 from $44. Instinet also raised its target to $60 from $51, while JMP Securities raised its price objective to $58 from $47. Shares of E*Trade were last seen trading up 2.1% at $50.90 on Wednesday afternoon. Its stock also hit a 52-week high of $51.20, also a new post-recession high.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was given a favorable internal view on its own 2018 bull/bear outlook and two target hikes were impressive considering a late-2017 bullish call from Merrill Lynch. Instinet maintained a sub-current target, but that was raised to $238 from $225 in its call. The more impressive call came from Oppenheimer, when the firm reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $301 from $279. Goldman Sachs shares were last seen down 0.7% at $253.80 late on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $209.62 to $262.14.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was down 1.25% at $78.70 late on Wednesday, despite Deutsche Bank maintaining a Buy rating and raising its price target to $95 from $89. Telsey Advisory raised its target on the stock on Tuesday to $92 from $84, but that was on the same day that Citigroup downgraded the yoga and athletic apparel retailer to Neutral from Buy. Lululemon shares still managed to have an intraday high of $80.24 on Wednesday, which was a mere three cents short of a 52-week high.