Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Chevron, First Data, JD.com, MongoDB, PG&E, Rite Aid, Tilray, Vodafone and More

Investing

Published: September 6, 2018 9:00 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 6:20 pm

Stocks were indicated marginally higher on Thursday, but not so much that the direction of the trading day looked set in stone. The major market equity indexes recently hit all-time highs, but investors have seen less upside when they have bought pullbacks. This is also a time when investors need to be considering 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 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 Thursday, September 6, 2018.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price objective was lowered to $135 from $150 at Merrill Lynch.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

DocuSign Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) was reiterated Equal Weight but the price target was raised to $50 from $46 at Morgan Stanley. JMP Securities also reiterated it, as Market Outperform, with the target raised to $68 from $63.

Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO) was downgraded to Reduce from Hold with a $0.80 price target (versus a $0.92 prior close) at TD Securities.

First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $30 from $25 at Wedbush Securities.

Franklin Resources Inc. (NYSE: BEN) was downgraded to Underweight and the target was cut to $29 from $32 (versus a $31.42 close) at JPMorgan.

Inseego Corp. (NASDAQ: INSG) was raised to Buy from Hold and with a $4.50 price target (versus a $3.50 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

JD.com Inc. (NASDAQ: JD) has had a rough week after its CEO was arrested in Minnesota, and with the shares down an additional 10.6% at $26.30 on Wednesday. Stifel lowered its price target to $39 from $48, citing “key person risk” as the negativity could be an overhang on the stock.

MongoDB Inc. (NASDAQ: MDB) was down 2.2% at $72.04 on Wednesday ahead of earnings, and the post-earnings reaction was down another 2.75% at $70.10 on Thursday. KeyBanc Capital Markets reiterated its Overweight rating and raised the price target to $88 from $62. Stifel reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $80 from $53.

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Parker-Hannifin Corp. (NYSE: PH) was started as Overweight and assigned a $200 price target (versus a $176.56 close) at Barclays.

PG&E Corp. (NYSE: PCG) was raised to Buy from Hold at Argus, in the wake of a key Merrill Lynch upgrade earlier this week.

Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) was started with a Sell rating and assigned a $1 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $178 price target at Credit Suisse. Its shares closed down almost 2% at $140.76 on Wednesday and were indicated up 0.6% at $141.60 on Thursday. Its consensus target price was $189.17.

Southwestern Energy Co. (NYSE: SWN) was maintained as Neutral but the price target was raised to $5.75 from $5.00 at Macquarie. Morgan Stanley maintained its Underweight rating but raised its target to $6 from $5. BMO Capital Markets downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform with a $7 target price. The stock closed down 1.1% at $5.28 on Wednesday and was indicated down about 0.25% on Thursday. The consensus target price was $6.25.

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Synlogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SYBX) was reiterated as Outperform with a $20 price target (versus a $10.58 close) at Wedbush. The firm noted that the initial results in healthy volunteers provided a proof-of-mechanism for SYNB1618 and is predicting disease control in PKU patients.

TCF Financial Corp. (NYSE: TCF) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $30 price objective (versus a $25.75 close) at Merrill Lynch. The consensus target price is $26.83.

Tilray Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY) has seen its shares surge higher, and the gain of over 16% on Wednesday took its shares to $89.86. Northland Securities decided to downgrade it to Market Perform from Outperform, now that its price has risen so much since its IPO.

Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup. While problems persist in several markets, German and U.K. growth are on top of stronger opportunity in smaller markets.

24/7 Wall St. has just featured a look at eight nations drowning under sky-high interest rates and inflation.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Apple, BP, CSX, General Electric, Humana, Myriad Genetics, Mondelez, UnitedHealth, Vodafone and many more.

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