Stocks were indicated lower on Wednesday morning. Even though the major market equity indexes may have recently hit all-time highs, investors have seen less upside when they have bought pullbacks. Investors also are trying to decide 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 analyst reports cover stocks to buy, but some of them 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 Wednesday, September 5, 2018.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $2,450 from $2,200 at D.A. Davidson. Amazon’s shares closed up 1.3% at $2039.51 on Tuesday, after it briefly hit a $1 trillion market cap on Tuesday.
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Anthem Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $368 from $273 (versus a $263.70 prior close) at Morgan Stanley.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $245 from $232 at Morgan Stanley. The call is ahead of an expected iPhone refresh and is similar to a Canaccord Genuity call the previous day. The consensus target price was $219.50, and the 52-week trading range is $149.16 to $228.87.
Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: BIO) was started as Equal Weight with a $345 target price (versus a $326.15 close) at Barclays.
BP PLC (NYSE: BP) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. Its American depositary shares closed down almost 0.4% at $42.72 on Tuesday, and they were indicated down 0.3% at $42.60 on Wednesday. BP’s 52-week trading range is $34.78 to $47.83 and its consensus target price was $49.08.
CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets. Shares were indicated down 1.5% at $73.75 Wednesday morning.
Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $125 from $115 (versus a $117.27 close) at Stifel.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was maintained as Neutral but the price target was lowered to $13 from $16 (versus a $12.67 close, after a 2.1% drop) at UBS. Shares were indicated down 1.5% at $12.50 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $11.94 to $25.21.
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HCA Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: HCA) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $155 from $145 at BMO Capital Markets. Morgan Stanley maintained it as Underweight but raised the price target to $124 from $115. HCA was down eight cents at $134.03 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $71.18 to $138.18.
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) was maintained as Overweight and the price target was raised to $400 from $365 (versus a $333.09 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $52 from $48 (versus a $42.62 close) at Wells Fargo.
Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight and the price target was cut to $30 from $38 (versus a $50.34 close) at Barclays.
Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) was reiterated as Outperform and the target price was raised to $254 from $240 (versus a $229.03 close) at Raymond James.
Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE: RHI) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $67 price target (versus a $78.78 close) at Goldman Sachs. The 52-week range is $44.38 to $79.91.
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UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $305 from $278 (versus a $268.51 close) at Morgan Stanley.
U.S. Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ: ECOL) was maintained as Sell but the price target was raised to $61 from $56 (versus a $72.60 close) at UBS. The consensus target price was $63.67.
Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $300 price target (versus a $301.42 close) at Macquarie.
Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein.
Xylem Inc. (NYSE: XYL) was started with an Outperform rating and the price target was set at $90 (versus a $75.66 close) at Raymond James.
Tuesday’s top analyst calls were in Apple, AT&T, BBVA, Cisco Systems, Dollar Tree, Facebook, Roku, Seagate Technology, Turkcell, Verizon and many more.
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