Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AbbVie, American Water, Carnival, Cisco, Darden, DexCom, Micron, Nike, Occidental Petroleum and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: March 23, 2018 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 2:08 am

Stocks were hammered hard on Thursday on trade war fears, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 724 points to 23,957 and the S&P 500 falling 68 points to 2,643.69. Stocks were indicated higher on Friday after overseas selling stabilized and after a strong durable goods report.

The bull market is now over nine years old, and the trend that has prevailed so far has been for investors to buy the pullbacks. That likely can’t last forever, but investors are still trying to decide how they want their allocations positioned for the rest of 2018 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week in an effort to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of the daily analyst and research reports cover stocks to buy. Others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional color and commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Friday, March 23, 2018.

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) was down 12.7% at $98.10 on Thursday after disappointing cancer drug news. Credit Suisse maintained AbbVie as Neutral, but the price target was cut to $109 from $135.

AC Immune S.A. (NASDAQ: ACIU) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $14 from $18 (versus a $12.50 prior close) at Credit Suisse. The downgrade is based on a limited number of catalysts seen in 2018.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $25 price target (versus a $19.57 close) at Loop Capital.

American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) was raised to Buy from Hold at HSBC. This water utility giant closed down 0.9% at $80.15 on Thursday and has a 52-week trading range of $74.63 to $92.37 and a consensus analyst target price of $90.95.

Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $79 price target (versus a $68.18 close) at Credit Suisse.

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. The American depositary shares were down 3.2% at $6.35 on Thursday but were indicated up 1.25% at $6.43 on Friday morning, in a 52-week trading range of $5.74 to $7.57.

Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $77 price target (versus a $66.20 close) at Barclays. Credit Suisse reiterated its Outperform rating on the stock, and is price target was raised to $84.50 from $79.50.

China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL) was raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.

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Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was already rated as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but the firm added it to the prized Conviction Buy list and raised its target price to $54 from $51 (versus a $43.07 close).

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) was down 7.9% at $85.94 on Thursday, but its shares were indicated up 1% at $86.84. The prior consensus target price was $101.23, and at least three targets were cut: Barclays to $105 from $116, Deutsche Bank to $96 from $99 and Morgan Stanley to $90 from $97.

DexCom Inc. (NASDAQ: DXCM) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $78 price target (versus a $66.74 close) at Robert W. Baird.

General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS) was raised to Positive from Neutral with a $53 price target (versus a $44.45 close) at Susquehanna. General Mills closed down 2.3% on Thursday after six analysts trimmed their price targets.

KB Home (NYSE: KBH) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $35 price target (versus a $28.84 close) at Wells Fargo.

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE: LH) was started as Buy with a $202 target price at Argus. Shares closed down 2.3% at $165.70, and the stock has a 52-week range of $134.19 to $181.72.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was down 3.5% at $58.92 ahead of earnings and its shares were indicated down 2.5% more at $57.64 on Friday morning as earnings were deemed good but not good enough after a huge rally. Citigroup downgraded it to Neutral from Buy. Cowen reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target price to $65 from $55.

Neogen Corp. (NASDAQ: NEOG) was maintained as Neutral but the fair value estimate was raised to $70 from $60 (versus a $62.53 close) at Janney.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was down 2.9% at $64.42 ahead of earnings and was last seen trading up 4.2% at $67.21 after earnings. Credit Suisse maintained its Outperform rating and $78 price target, but the firm trimmed earnings estimates for 2019 and 2020. Wedbush raised its price target to $75 from $74, and Raymond James raised its target to $75 from $67. Jefferies raised its Nike target to $68 from $59.

NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $25 price target (versus a $23.39 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) was raised to Buy from Hold with an $84 price target (versus a $65.18 close) at Deutsche Bank. The shares have a 52-week range of $57.20 to $78.09, and it has a consensus target price of $77.77.

Omeros Corp. (NASDAQ: OMER) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Wedbush Securities. The firm’s $19 price target is after a 35% gain to $15.75 on Thursday, but the prior target was all the way up at $47. The firm views Omidria sales as a nondilutive means to fund development of OMS721 and cover other operating expenses, but the loss of pass-through reimbursement at the end of 2017 resulted in Omidria sales no longer being able to fund the company.

Tandem Diabetes Care Inc. (NASDAQ: TNDM) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $7 price target (versus a $3.79 close) at Robert W. Baird. Tandem shares were up 2.4% on Thursday and the shares were indicated up 11% at $4.21 on Friday morning.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $29 price target (versus a $24.07 close) at Mizuho. The shares have a 52-week range of $12.25 to $25.24.

Unilever PLC (NYSE: UL) was raised to Buy from Hold with a target price of $60 (versus a $52.57 close) at Argus.

Thursday’s top analyst calls included Booking Holdings, Borg Warner, Delphi Technologies, Pandora Media, Ralph Lauren, Southwest Airlines and many more.