The market finished higher Friday, finally posting some gains after struggling most of the week with concerns over trade tariffs and the potential for a trade war. The futures are lower Monday morning as investors look for more direction on trade and also are listening closely for any commentary on interest rates, as the Federal Reserve is expected to lift rates later this week.
With the bull market now nine years old, the one trend that has prevailed for more than five years has been for investors to buy all the big pullbacks. Investors also still have to decide how they want to be positioned for the rest of 2018 and beyond.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.
Additional color and commentary has also been added on some of these daily analyst calls. The consensus analyst price target data are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.
These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.
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Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies. The 52-week trading range is $60.20 to $71.37. The Wall Street consensus price objective is $73.75. The shares closed trading last Friday at $68.25.
AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies. The 52-week trading range for the pharmaceutical giant is $28.43 to $36.70. The Wall Street consensus price target is set at $30.09. The stock closed trading on Friday at $34.59. There was some chatter recently the company could be a takeover target.
Camden Property Inc. (NYSE: CPT) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS. The 52-week trading range is $78.69 to $96.39. The Wall Street consensus price objective is $92.57. The stock ended the day last Friday at $84.76.
ConvergeOne Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CVON) was started with Buy rating at both William Blair and Needham. The 52-week trading range is $7.95 to $10.83. The consensus price target was not available. The stock closed Friday at $8.65 a share.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital markets. The 52-week trading range for the stock is $81.70 to $125.65. The Wall Street consensus price target is set at $124.57. The shares closed Friday at $117.60.
Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ: FAST) was started with a Sell rating at Goldman Sachs with a $49 price target. That compares with the Wall Street consensus target of $58.08. The 52-week trading range is $39.79 to $58.74. The shares closed trading last Friday at $58.36.
Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets. The 52-week trading range is $35.44 to $54.97. The consensus price objective is set at $50.96. The stock closed Friday at $54.
GrubHub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel The 52-week trading range for the stock is $32.43 to $112.41. The Wall Street consensus price objective is $96.09. With the shares closing Friday at $110.53, this may be a valuation call.
Jazz Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: JAZZ) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. The 52-week trading range is $128.58 to $163.75. The consensus price target for this volatile biotech company is $181.74. The shares closed Friday at $154.09.
Unilever N.V. (NYSE: UN) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs. The 52-week trading range for the shares is $49.27 to $61.62. The consensus price objective across Wall Street is $61. The shares ended trading last Friday at $53.03.
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Other key analysts upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:
Akcea Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: AKCA) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo. The 52-week trading range is a stunning $1.05 to $32.47. The consensus price target is $30.00. The shares closed up big on Friday at $31.21.
Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets. The 52-week trading range is $45.60 to $65.91. The consensus price target is $65.88. The stock closed trading last Friday at $65.88.
AmeriGas Partners L.P. (NYSE: APU) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. The 52-week trading range is $40.95 to $48.37. The consensus price target is posted at $46.29. The shares closed Friday at $42.08
Blackline Inc. (NASDAQ: BL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. The 52-week trading range is $28.21 to $45.19. The consensus price target is posted at $41.29. The shares closed Friday at $40.40.
Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) is raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS. The 52-week trading range for the shares is $54.97 to $70.46. The consensus target for the real estate giant is $65.88. The stock closed Friday at $60.23.
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W.W. Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW) was resumed with a Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs. The 52-week trading range for the stock is $155 to $298.15. The Wall Street consensus price target is set at $259.07 The stock closed Friday at $288.75
Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. The 52-week trading range is $0.73 to $2.75 and the consensus price target is $3.83. The stock closed Friday at $2.16 but was down in premarket trading on Monday.
Spirit Aerosystems Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPR) is raised to Buy from Hold at Vertical Research. The 52-week trading range is $51.85 to $105.20. The consensus price objective is $106.84. The stock closed Friday at $85.47.
Friday’s top analyst calls included Bank of America, Broadcom, Dominion Energy, Netflix, Pegasystems, 21st Century Fox, Thor Industries and Western Digital.
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