Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Activision Blizzard, AK Steel, Applied Materials, Cree, Dell, Etsy, Lam Research, Nvidia, Square, 3D Systems, Visa, Wayfair and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: January 29, 2019 8:55 am

Last Updated: January 31, 2020 1:25 am

Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher on Tuesday after Monday’s sell-off took all three major U.S. equity indexes lower. Earnings season has been off to a rocky move at the start of 2019, but the Dow Jones industrial average had popped some 2,000 points above its lows from the start of this year. Investors have noticed that the prevailing trend of buying all the dips generally has been followed by less upside or additional losses, and the volatility late in 2018 shook the confidence of many investors over how they want their assets positioned for 2019 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week, Our goal is to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others 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 were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, January 29, 2019.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

ADTRAN Inc. (NASDAQ: ADTN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham.

Affiliated Managers Group Inc. (NYSE: AMG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Alteryx Inc. (NYSE: AYX) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Atlantic Equities.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform and the price target was raised to $45 from $38 (versus a $38.70 prior close) at RBC Capital Markets. It has a 52-week trading range of $28.79 to $62.40, and its consensus target price was $47.73.

AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Macquarie. Its shares closed down 3.5% at $2.70 on Monday and were indicated up almost 2% at $2.75 on Tuesday morning.

BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

Carbon Black Inc. (NASDAQ: CBLK) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.

Chemical Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: CHFC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $59 target price (versus a $44.75 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Constellation Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNST) was started as Outperform and assigned a $17 target price (versus a $6.40 close) at Robert. W. Baird.

CoreLogic Inc. (NYSE: CLGX) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Stephens.

Crane Co. (NYSE: CR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.

Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) was downgraded to Market Perform from Market Outperform at JMP Securities.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) was started as Outperform and assigned a $57 target price at Raymond James.

Dynagas LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE: DLNG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: EIGR) was started as Outperform and assigned a $47 target price (versus a $13.68 close) at Robert W. Baird. It had a $32.80 consensus target price.

Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $64 target price (versus a $54.92 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Evolus Inc. (NASDAQ: EOLS) was started as Buy with a $27 price target (versus a $14.99 close) at Stifel.

First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

FleetCor Technologies Inc. (NYSE: FLT) was started with a Hold rating at Jefferies.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $190 target price (versus a $166.06 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The 52-week range is $122.64 to $234.88.

Limelight Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: LLNW) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Raymond James.

Mastercard Co. (NYSE: MA) was started with a Buy rating at Jefferies.

MercadoLibre Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) was started with a Hold rating at Deutsche Bank.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) fell 13.8% to $138.01 after its second revenue warning on Monday, and multiple analysts slashed their price targets on Monday as well. Now we have seen two formal analyst downgrades on Tuesday. Needham dropped it to Underperform from Buy at in a two-notch downgrade, and Morgan Stanley downgraded it to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $148 price target. UBS actually raised the stock to Buy from Neutral after the drop, but its price target was cut to $180 from $190 in the call.

Rapid7 Inc. (NASDAQ: RPD) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform and the price target was raised to $45 from $39 at Raymond James. The consensus target price is $40.29.

Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $31 from $19 (versus a $22.28 close) at Piper Jaffray. It had a $21.17 consensus target ahead of this call, and its shares were indicated up over 7% on Tuesday.

3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $17 price target (versus an $11.54 close) at Piper Jaffray. It had a $12.00 consensus target ahead of this call, and its shares were indicated up over 6% at $12.30 on Tuesday.

TCF Financial Corp. (NYSE: TCF) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform with a $28 target price (versus a $22.72 close) at Raymond James.

UroGen Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ: URGN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned an $82 target price (versus a $40.16 close) at H.C. Wainwright. It has a 52-week range of $36.95 to $69.57 and close to an $800 million market cap.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) was started with a Buy rating at Jefferies.

Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $124 price target (versus a $104.47 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Credit Suisse made big changes on its internet leaders on Monday, noting that investors should use any weakness around earnings as a buying opportunity.

Monday’s top analyst calls were in shares of AK Steel, CRISPR, Dell Technologies, DocuSign, Grubhub, NRG Energy, U.S. Steel, Vale, Wayfair, Zynga and many more.