Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Affimed, Coty, Cree, Lululemon, Myriad Genetics, Tesla, Xilinx and More

Investing

Published: August 28, 2018 9:00 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 6:43 pm

Stocks were indicated to open higher on Tuesday, a day after the markets surged on a tentative trade agreement with Mexico. It has been more than just a strong earnings season, but most investors have received less reward for buying the dips in 2018 than in prior years. Those same investors are now deciding how they want their investments positioned for the rest of 2018.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. The goal is 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 28, 2018.

Affimed N.V. (NASDAQ: AFMD) shares closed at $1.60 on Monday but they were indicated up over 150% at $4.25 on Tuesday morning after signing a major license deal with Roche’s Genentech unit. BMO Capital markets reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target price to $5 from $4. The stock had a 52-week trading range of $1.15 to $2.85, but its market cap was just about $99 million before this major surge.

Brooks Automation Inc. (NASDAQ: BRKS) was reiterated as Buy at Janney, but the firm raised its fair value estimate (price target) to $56 from $40 (versus a $30.25 prior close). This is on the heels of the company announcing the sale of its Cryo Vacuum semiconductor business for $675 million.

Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight but the target price was lowered to $14.50 from $17.00 (versus a $12.14 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) was started as Hold and the target price was set at $47 at Deutsche Bank.

DDR Corp. (NYSE: DDR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the target price was cut to $14 from $15 (versus a $14.26 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) was raised to Overweight and the price target was raised to $160 from $159 (versus a $138.25 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT) was maintained as Hold and the price target was raised to $135 from $133 (versus a $129.38 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Fresenius Medical Care A.G. (NYSE: FMS) was raised to Buy from Hold at HSBC.

Harmony Gold Mining Co. (NYSE: HMY) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Macquarie.

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Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $154 from $125 at Credit Suisse.

Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) was maintained as Market Perform but the price target was raised to $49 from $35 at Leerink.

New York Community Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: NYCB) was reinstated as Neutral with a $12 price target at Credit Suisse.

nLIGHT Inc. (NASDAQ: LASR) was started with a Sell rating and assigned a $17 price target (versus a $31.19 close) at Benchmark. The stock was up 4% at $31.19 on Monday but was down 8.5% at $28.55 on Tuesday morning, in a 52-week range of $22.24 to $43.63.

Retail Properties of America Inc. (NYSE: RPAI) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $15 price target (versus a $12.43 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Sibanye Gold Ltd. (NYSE: SBGL) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Macquarie.

Spirit Airlines Inc. (NYSE: SAVE) was maintained as Outperform but the price target was raised to $60 from $58 (versus a $46.08 close) at Macquarie. The 52-week range is $30.32 to $48.81 and the consensus target price is $52.50.

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Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was maintained as Hold but the price target was cut to $316 from $336 at Canaccord Genuity. Tesla closed down 1.15 at $319.27 on Monday and was indicated down another 0.4% or so on Tuesday. Its 52-week range is $244.59 to $389.61.

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SLCA) was maintained as Outperform but the price target was cut to $29 from $38 (versus a $22.45 close) at Credit Suisse.

Wright Medical Group N.V. (NASDAQ: WMGI) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $30 price target at Needham. These shares were down 4.2% at $26.79 on Monday and down another 2.8% at $26.05 on Tuesday after pricing a secondary offering that will be used to fund the acquisition of Cartiva.

Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the target price was raised to $90 from $71 at Robert W. Baird. It closed up almost 2% at $75.24 a share on Monday and was indicated up another 2% on Tuesday.

Monday’s top analyst calls included AK Steel, Bloom Energy, Chipotle Mexican Grill, CIT, Cushman & Wakefield, Foot Locker, Sonos, U.S. Steel and many more.

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