Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: CenturyLink, Chimera, Comerica, Dish, Exxon, NetApp, Pulte, Petrobras, Teva, Yelp and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: February 14, 2019 8:58 am

Last Updated: January 31, 2020 12:37 am

Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher again on Thursday, but the Dow Jones industrial average is now up over 2,700 points from its lows seen at the start of January. Investors need to be considering how to position their assets 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 Thursday, February 14, 2019.

Aircastle Ltd. (NYSE: AYR) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Align Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Aquantia Corp. (NYSE: AQ) shares were down 19% at $8.01 on Wednesday after weak earnings and other analyst downgrades. Barclays downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight and cut the target to $8 from $12.

CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) was last seen down 11.3% at $13.05 after cutting its dividend with earnings. JPMorgan downgraded the stock to Neutral from Overweight and the target price was slashed to $14 from $27.

Chimera Investment Corp. (NYSE: CIM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with an $83 price target (versus an $84.47 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $31 price target (versus a $28.86 close) at Barclays.

Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DNKN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was raised to Outperform from Underperform with an $83 price target at Macquarie.

Elevate Credit Inc. (NYSE: ELVT) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $6 price target (versus a $4.47 close) at BTIG Research.

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) was started as Buy with a $7 target price (versus a $5.32 close) at Needham.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) was last seen down 8.5% at $61.60, based on its guidance after earnings. William Blair downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform. JPMorgan also downgraded NetApp, to Neutral from Overweight.

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $33 price target at UBS.

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

Sabre Corp. (NASDAQ: SABR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein.

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Sierra Wireless Inc. (NASDAQ: SWIR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at First Analysis. Shares were down 22% at $11.99 on Thursday morning’s post-earnings reaction.

Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Syros Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SYRS) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $13 price target (versus a $6.51 close) at Oppenheimer.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $22 target price (versus a $17.63 close) at Raymond James.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) was last seen trading up 2.7% at $39.50 a share after earnings, but the shares initially were up 6% in Wednesday’s after-hours earnings reaction. Citigroup downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy with a $40 price target.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Activision Blizzard, Biogen, Deere, DocuSign, Ford, Freeport-McMoRan, GM, Lattice Semi, Qualys, Shopify, Under Armour and many more.