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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Activision Blizzard, Cleveland-Cliffs, Delphi, Lululemon, McDonald's, Disney, Wells Fargo and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: October 15, 2018 8:55 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 4:26 pm

Stocks were indicated flat to marginally higher on Monday after last week’s sell-off was slightly tempered by Friday’s rally. While the all-time highs are still within striking distance, investors have seen lower upside from buying immediately after the big market pullbacks in 2018 than in prior years. Now those investors also have to consider how to position their investments for the rest of the year 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 other reports cover stocks to sell or stocks 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 Monday, October 15, 2018.

AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACRX) was raised to Buy from Hold and given an $8 price target (versus a $3.98 prior close, after a 10.7% gain) at Jefferies.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays, which also raised the target price to $86 from $79 (versus a $77.92 close, after a 5.5% gain).

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was set at $29 (versus a $21.27 close) at Wedbush Securities.

Arbutus Biopharma Corp. (NASDAQ: ABUS) was raised to Neutral with a $5 target price (versus a $4.31 close) at Wedbush, which noted its valuation after the sell-off took shares from $9 to under $5 last week.

ARRIS International PLC (NASDAQ: ARRS) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy and the target price was cut to $29 from $36 (versus a $23.13 close) at Raymond James.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE: CLF) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse. The stock closed up 2.7% at $12.01 on Friday and was indicated down 1.6% at $11.80 on Monday. Its consensus target price is $13.00.

Delphi Technologies PLC (NYSE: NYSE: DLPH) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed down 0.8% at $23.34 on Friday, and the consensus target price is $39.21.

Elanco Animal Health Inc. (NYSE: ELAN) was started as Neutral and assigned a $30 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $176 price target (versus a $143.71 close, after a 2.3% gain) at Wedbush. Lululemon was indicated up 1.3% at $145.55 on Monday, and it had a consensus target price of $163.83 ahead of the call.

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Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets. The shares closed up 2.8% at $20.52 on Friday and were indicated up 1.5% at $20.83 on Monday. Marathon Oil has a consensus target price of $24.59.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) was raised to Outperform from In-Line at Evercore ISI. McDonald’s closed up 0.5% at $163.82 on Friday and was indicated up almost 1% at $165.25 on Monday, compared with a consensus target price of $184.85.

Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI Group. It closed up almost 0.9% at $53.29 on Friday and was indicated down 1.6% at $52.42 on Monday. The consensus target price is $65.75.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was maintained as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but the firm lowered its price target to $430 from $470 ahead of this week’s earnings report. Netflix closed up 5.75% at $339.56 on Friday and was indicated down less than 0.2% on Monday. It had a consensus target price of $380.83.

Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse. Shares closed up just 0.6% at $60.81 on Friday and were indicated down 1.3% at $60.03 on Monday. The consensus target price is $77.12.

Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and that price target was raised to $150 at JPMorgan.

Rockwell Automation Inc. (NYSE: ROK) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform and the target price was lowered to $150 from $175 (versus a $172.79 close) at Cowen.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie. The stock closed up 2.6% at $245.85 a share on Friday and was indicated up almost 1% at $248.00 on Monday.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $135 from $130 (versus a $112.61 close) at Morgan Stanley. Disney was indicated down 0.7% at $111.80 on Monday, while consensus analyst target is $119.13.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie. Wells Fargo closed up 1.3% at $52.11 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $50.26 to $66.31 and with a consensus target price of $62.20.

Zoetis Inc. (NYSE: ZTS) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $100 price target (versus an $88.90 close, after a 2.2% gain) at JPMorgan. It was indicated up 1.6% at $90.30 on Monday and has a consensus target price of $95.55.

Friday’s top analyst calls were included Alibaba, Amazon.com, Facebook, General Electric, 3M, Microsoft, Netflix, Snap, Square, Twitter and many more.