Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher on Tuesday, which would make a four-day Dow Jones industrials rally, if the gains hold. Earnings season is now about 90% of the way to its end, and more than 70% of the companies exceeded expectations. Still, investors have noted that the stock market volatility in 2018 has been less rewarding for those who have continued to buy on every dip than had been the case for several years. Many investors also are trying to decide how they want their investments positioned ahead of the midterm elections and given international trade concerns.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week in an effort to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and some reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
Additional commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports, along with trading history. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, August 21, 2018.
Addus Homecare Corp. (NASDAQ: ADUS) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $75 price target (versus a $59.85 prior close) at Jeffries.
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Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AJRD) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $41 from $36 (versus a $35.81 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Buy and the price objective was raised to $250 from $230 at Merrill Lynch. Apple was down almost 1% at $215.46 on Monday but was indicated up 0.4% at $216.40 on Tuesday.
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $175 price target (versus a $142.16 close) at Guggenheim.
Brixmore Property Group Inc. (NYSE: BRX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Mizuho.
Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned an $85 price target (versus a $75.54 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Endava PLC (NYSE: DAVA) was started as Outperform at William Blair and also as at Cowen. Credit Suisse started it with an Outperform rating too and assigned a $27 price target. The stock closed down 3.8% at $27.49 on Monday.
Fabrinet (NYSE: FN) was downgraded to Buy from Strong Buy with a $55 price target (versus a $44.00 close) at Needham. Shares were indicated up 7.5% at $47.28 after strong earnings.
FGL Holdings (NYSE: FG) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $175 price target (versus a $155.47 close) at Morgan Stanley.
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Illinois Tool Works (NYSE: ITW) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $146 price target (versus a $138.28 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Ingersol-Rand PLC (NYSE: IR) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $111 price target (versus a $99.83 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Lennox International Inc. (NYSE: LII) was started with an Underweight rating and assigned a $201 price target (versus a $225.32 close) at Morgan Stanley.
3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $212 price target (versus a $204.60 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Madison Square Garden Co. (NYSE: MSG) was started as Outperform with a $372 price target (versus a $297.23 close) at Imperial Capital.
NeoGenomics Inc. (NASDAQ: NEO) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned an $18 price target (versus a $12.84 close) at Leerink. Its 52-week trading range is $7.08 to $15.00, and the consensus target price was $16 ahead of this call.
Paychex Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $75 price target (versus a $72.34 close) at Guggenheim.
SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA) is being acquired by PepsiCo, and B. Riley downgraded it to Neutral from Buy based on the takeout.
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Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) was raised to Positive from Neutral and the price target was raised to $23 from $21 at Susquehanna. As a reminder, Symantec recently became a target of activist investors and they may actually be able to drive some change here.
Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was discontinued in coverage at Morgan Stanley, and Oppenheimer’s Colin Rusch said on CNBC that Tesla is now likely to be range-bound while the market digests all the “go-private” controversy and the numbers driving Tesla sales.
Vital Therapies Inc. (NASDAQ: VTL) was started as Overweight and assigned an $18 price target (versus a $9.00 close) at Cantor Fitzgerald. The stock was indicated up over 7% at $9.70 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $2.75 to $9.75.
Monday’s top analyst calls were in Applied Materials, Baker Hughes, Bloom Energy, Constellation Brands, Deere, J.C. Penney, Kroger, Nike, Tesla and many more.
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