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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AGCO, American Water Works, Carbonite, Cheniere, Comcast, Northrup Grumman, Salesforce and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: May 8, 2018 8:50 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 11:56 pm

Stocks were up on Monday but in Tuesday’s premarket were soft and looking for direction ahead of the president’s decision on the Iran nuke deal. The trend of endless buying the dips has not worked well lately, and many investors are wondering whether the best has been seen for 2018. Now investors have to consider how they want their investments positioned for the longer term.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

Additional color and commentary have 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 Tuesday, May 8, 2018.

AGCO Corp. (NYSE: AGCO) was maintained as Buy but removed from the Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs.

American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) was reiterated as Buy and with a $105 price target (versus an $84.80 prior close) at Argus. The independent research firm sees strong upside for water utilities.

Carbonite Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $35 from $30 at Oppenheimer.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) was maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $44 from $45 at Stifel.

CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) was reiterated as Buy with a $79 price target (versus a $52.42 close) at Argus. The firm was very positive about its individual prospects but was still very concerned about a possible re-merger with Viacom.

Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEARCA: LNG) was reiterated as Buy and the price objective was raised to $69 from $63 (versus a $62.49 close) at Merrill Lynch. After a strong LNG marketing aspect, the firm ramped up expectations on excess volumes through 2020.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Atlantic Equities.

Extra Space Storage Inc. (NYSE: EXR) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) was reiterated as Buy with a $36 price target (versus a $25.16 close) at Argus. The firm noted that the recent sell-off offers an attractive entry point.

Harris Corp. (NYSE: HRS) already was rated as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but now the defense contractor has been added to the firm’s prized Conviction Buy List, with a $195 price target (versus a $149.88 close).

Leidos Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LDOS) was maintained as Buy but removed from the Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs.

Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) already was rated as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but now the defense contractor has been added to the prized Conviction Buy List, with a $410 price target (versus a $317.13 close).

Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (NYSE: PNW) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $87 from $85 at Credit Suisse.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $140 from $125 at JMP Securities.

Viavi Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAV) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $15 price target (versus a $9.92 close) at Argus. The firm sees accelerating growth prospects around the coming 5G expansion.

Monday’s top analyst calls included AutoZone, Basic Energy Services, Discover Financial, McDonald’s, Lending Tree, Shake Shack and many more.

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