Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Ally, Chesapeake Energy, Chipotle, EA, HP, PepsiCo, Snap, Starbucks, Yum Brands and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: October 4, 2018 9:05 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 4:54 pm

Stocks traded lower early Thursday after having hit all-time highs this week on the heels of a North America trade pact and after comments by Federal Reserve Chair Powell about the strength of the economy. The 10-year Treasury yield is now up to 3.20% and the 30-year Treasury yield is 3.36%, and now the 3% prior resistance may be support.

While the U.S. indexes are effectively at all-time highs, many investors have seen lower upside from buying on market pullbacks than in prior years. Now the investing community has to consider how to position their investments for the rest of 2018 and into 2019.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. 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 Thursday, October 4, 2018.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $35 from $34 (versus a $26.85 prior close) at Oppenheimer.

Atlassian Corp. PLC (NASDAQ: TEAM) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed at $92.90 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $36.09 to $98.21.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) was started as Equal Weight and the price target was set at $5 (versus a $4.73 close) at Morgan Stanley. Chesapeake has a 52-week range of $2.53 to $5.60 and a consensus target price of $4.49.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $500 price target (versus a $436.44 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. The stock indicated marginally higher on Thursday, and it has a consensus target price of $466.63 and a 52-week trading range of $247.52 to $530.68.

Cloudera Inc. (NYSE: CLDR) was up 1% at $17.08 on Wednesday but was indicated up 22.5% at $20.90 on Thursday after announcing a $5.2 billion merger with HortonWorks. Stifel reiterated it as Buy and raised the price target to $25 from $22.

Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $188 from $143 (versus a $150.59 close) at Piper Jaffray.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) was started with a Buy rating at Buckingham Research, which assigned a $143 price target (versus a $116.39 close). EA has a consensus target price of $140.92 and a 52-week range of $99.63 to $151.26.

HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) was reiterated as Buy and the target price was raised to $32 from $29 (versus a $26.06 close) at Maxim Group.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IAC) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $260 from $240 (versus a $212.31 close) at Jefferies.

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Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $265 from $250 at Argus.

Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $70 from $55 (versus a $57.29 close) at Jefferies.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $185 price target (versus a $164.66 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. McDonald’s has a 52-week range of $146.84 to $178.80, and it had a consensus target price of $184.19.

National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE: NSA) was raised to Buy from Hold and the target price was raised to $31 from $30 (versus a $24.67 close) at Jefferies.

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) was down 1.1% at $107.52 on Wednesday and was indicated down another 0.85% at $106.60 on Thursday. Morgan Stanley maintained the shares as Overweight but lowered the target price to $125 from $127.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was reiterated as Sell and the price target was lowered to $7 from $9 at Evercore ISI, which cited lower user engagement as its app customers move to other platforms and based on the competitive threat from Facebook’s Instagram. Snap shares closed up 0.6% at $8.23 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $8.01 to $21.22. Its shares were indicated down another 4.6% at $7.85 on Thursday.

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $132 from $120 at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

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Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $65 price target at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Starbucks shares closed down 0.2% at $55.47 on Wednesday and were indicated down another 0.1% on Thursday despite the positive rating. The 52-week range is $47.37 to $61.94, and the consensus analyst target is $57.96.

Wendy’s Co. (NYSE: WEN) was started with a Sector Weight rating at KeyBanc Capital Markets. The stock closed up 1.5% at $17.22 on Wednesday and has a consensus target price of $20.10.

Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) was started with a Sector Weight rating at KeyBanc Capital Markets. The stock closed down 0.2% at $89.76 on Wednesday, and it has a 52-week range of $74.00 to $91.27.

Also, Jefferies has four top franchise picks that could be big winners in the fourth quarter.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Analog Devices, Halliburton, Neovasc, Nike, NXP Semiconductors, PepsiCo, Skyworks, Whiting Petroleum and many more.