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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AEP, Apple, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Eli Lilly, RingCentral, Tellurian, Tesla, Vonage and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: March 12, 2019 8:45 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 11:36 pm

Stocks were mixed and looking for direction on Tuesday after Monday’s rally. Despite last week’s selling pressure, it is important to keep in mind that the Dow Jones industrials had rallied some 3,500 points from its lows at the start of the year. Investors have to be considering how they want their investments and assets positioned for the rest of 2019.

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 investors and traders alike. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while some of them cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional commentary and trading data have been added on some of the daily analyst reports. The consensus analyst price targets mentioned and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters (Refinitiv) sell-side research service.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, March 12, 2019.

American Electric Power Co. (NYSE: AEP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. AEP closed up 0.8% at $82.60 on Monday and has a consensus target price of $82.31. Its shares were indicated up another 0.7% at $83.20 on Tuesday.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has announced a March 25 press event to announce the launch of its streaming video service to compete with Netflix, Disney, Hulu and others. Wedbush Securities reiterated its Outperform rating and $200 price target. Apple closed at $172.91 a share on Monday.

ASGN Inc. (NYSE: ASGN) was started as Buy and assigned a $70 price target (versus a $61.55 prior close) at Jefferies.

Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $22 price target (versus a $14.80 close) at Guggenheim.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was down handily on Monday, but not as bad as the open, on the heels of the Ethiopian Air crash. Edward Jones lowered its rating to Hold from Buy on the heels of the call, but other firms made comments throughout the day on Monday defending Boeing’s long-term value. Boeing closed down 5.3% at $400.01 on Monday, but it had opened down at $371.27.

BMC Stock Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BMCH) was reiterated as Outperform with a $23 target price (versus an $18.40 close) at Wedbush, with the firm noting the chief operating officer departure and that the company will dissolve that role.

Buckeye Partners L.P. (NYSE: BPL) was started with a Neutral rating at Mizuho.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (NYSE: CNQ) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $45 target price (versus a $27.18 close) at Mizuho.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was lowered to $50 from $60 at HSBC. Coca-Cola shares closed up almost 3% at $46.18 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $41.45 to $50.84. The consensus target price is $50.67.

Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) was started as Neutral at Mizuho.

Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE: D) was started as Neutral at Mizuho.

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Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) was raised to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $93 price target (versus an $80.31 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) was moved to Overweight from “Not Rated (due to restriction)” and the price target was lifted to $140 from a prior pre-restriction target of $128 at JPMorgan, and the firm added the stock to its Focus List. Shares closed down 2.5% at $123.50 on Monday and were indicated up 0.7% at $124.35 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $74.51 to $130.51.

F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $13 price target (versus a $15.89 close) at UBS.

Janus Henderson Group PLC (NYSE: JHG) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Liquidia Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: LQDA) was reiterated as Outperform with a $48 price target (versus a $17.07 close) at Wedbush. The call follows the report of positive topline results from its pivotal Phase 3 INSPIRE trial for LIQ861, a potentially best-in-class dry powder formulation of inhaled treprostinil to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX) rose almost 8% to $117.89 on news it was being acquired by Nvidia. Barclays downgraded Mellanox to Equal Weight from Overweight but raised the price target to $125 from $108.

Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was started as Outperform and assigned a $17 target price at BMO Capital Markets.

RingCentral Inc. (NYSE: RNG) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $125 target price (versus a $104.56 close) at Guggenheim.

Stealth BioTherapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ: MITO) closed down 10.5% at $15.02 on Monday, but Nomura/Instinet started it as Buy with a $23 target and BMO Capital Markets started it as Outperform with a $29 target. The post-IPO trading range has been $11.11 to $20.99.

Tellurian Inc. (NASDAQ: TELL) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $20 price target (versus a $9.47 close) at BTIG.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) saw its target price lowered to $260 from $283 with the same Equal Weight rating at Morgan Stanley. The firm also handily lowered earnings estimates to $1.30 from $4.17 per share for 2019. Morgan Stanley further noted that Tesla is overvalued fundamentally but may be undervalued from its future strategic opportunity. Shares closed up 2.4% at $290.92 on Monday but were indicated down about 1.5% at $286.70 on Tuesday.

Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO) was started as Buy and assigned a $140 price target (versus a $122.09 close) at Guggenheim. The stock was indicated up almost 1% on Tuesday, and it had a consensus target price of $121.73.

Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) was started as Neutral with a $10 price target (versus a $10.18 close) at Guggenheim. The consensus target price is $15.83, and the 52-week trading range is $7.92 to $14.73.

Monday’s top analyst calls included Apple, China Mobile, Duke Energy, Facebook, JetBlue, Oracle, Spirit Airlines, TCR2 Therapeutics, Vivint Solar and many more.